Which is the real Apple? The company that creates those "insanely great" products, or the one obsessed with controlling how people use them?
With apologies to Google, Apple may be the hottest technology company out there.
Its iconic iPhone is the coolest mobile handset you can buy, and a perfect fit for smaller companies. The iPod defines the market for mobile music players while iTunes is still the only really viable online music store -- and the only real challenge to the legions of unlicensed downloaders. CEO Steve Jobs' push against digital rights management may someday help bring the music industry to its senses (hey, we can dream).
On the computer side of things, today's iMacs look better and run better than just about any PC out there. Plus, they work with Windows-based computers and applications better than they ever have. That's helping the company make strong inroads in the consumer market and a real push into small and midsize business.
So it's no surprise that Apple's stock price has zoomed from less than $20 to more than $160 in the last three years. And Apple customers remain incredibly loyal to the brand.
And yet. And yet. And yet.
As you can see by all the links to bMighty and InformationWeek coverage peppering this piece, for all of Apple's exemplary strengths, it still struggles with hubris. At every turn, Apple pushes back at its loyal users, telling them it's the company way or the highway.
That tight lockdown of everything is essential to Apple's trademark integration and ease of use. But it also creates a closed, proprietary market. And ever since the computer revolution began, proprietary systems have eventually gotten their butts kicked by open markets, whether or not the products involved were better or worse.
Apple has shown the ability to be supremely innovative. But it seems to want to reserve innovation to itself, not to its savvy and committed user base.
The iPhone may be the best example. I'm not even talking about the price-cut fiasco -- actually the company handled that relatively well, and if it had made the coupon announcement when it rolled out the upgrades, everyone would have been thrilled.
No, I'm talking about the fact that Apple set the machine to work with only one service provider. Apple may have its reasons to stick with AT&T, but those are not users' reasons. I'm talking about the fact that users can't replace the battery themselves but have to send it to Apple for an expensive service job. Most of all, I'm talking about what happened when some users figured out how to unlock the phone in order to use it on other networks and do some other relatively innocuous but not-completely-authorized things with it. Apple's response was to release a software upgrade that thumbs its nose at users by turning the expensive phones into worthless bricks. I agree with InformationWeek's Stephen Wellman that the iPhone Bricks Prove Apple Isn't Ready For The Business Market, if not quite yet with his colleague Eric Zeman that Apple has finally jumped the shark.
The company's pricing and product lineup show a similarly insular mind-set. Feature for feature, for example, iMacs may be priced competitively with Windows machines. But what if you don't want some of those features? In the Windows world, no problem, just find a machine with exactly the feature set you want. In the Mac world, not so much. Maybe that's why Tom Smith says big business won't buy Apple, and the company doesn't even seem to care.
And even as Steve Jobs pushes the record labels to abandon DRM, you still have to jump through hoops to turn a song you buy on iTunes into an industry-standard MP3 file that can be played on something other than iPod or a computer running iTunes.
So, Apple, what's it going be? Which company do you want to be? The "insanely great" company that creates incredibly cool products deeply beloved by legions of users? Or the controlling "Big Brother" you once mocked, obsessed with making sure everyone does everything your way?
Here's hoping that you choose the first path, toward the light and away from the darkness. That you find a way to keep those amazing products coming while also embracing people who want to do things with them that you never thought of. Those people aren't your enemies, they're your best friends. Don't fear them, love them and support them. That's the way to really rule the world.
Fredric Paul is publisher and editor in chief of bMighty.com.
