Fred Wilson, a venture capitalist in the tech sector with a popular following thanks to his A VC blog, thinks Apple brand is bruised and on the road to worm-ridden.
I am afraid to upgrade to a new version of iTunes because it might make my music and video unusable or it might brick my iPhone. I am afraid to upgrade to Leopard because it might brick my MacBook.
I have a brand new iPhone sitting right next to me on my desk that I can’t figure out how to unlock and jailbreak now that it comes pre-loaded with 1.1.2 firmware. So it just sits there on my desk making me hate Apple more every day.
Apple is an old school company. Instead of forcing Verizon to open up like Google does, they make a sick consumer unfriendly deal with AT&T here in the states and then proceed to replicate it around the world.
I must admit, I love the Mac OS and iTunes but I’ve never purchased an iPod and I do not want the iPhone although I do want mobile internet. When Google provides one next year, I’ll opt for it. And I’m open to considering a Zune.
Why do we listen to these VC folks? Defending Apple, I understand the need to keep it closed at this stage. It is early 1.0 and they need to work out the bugs. Look at OS X. Folks complained about the earlier versions, namely 1.0, but those of us who saw the future and the power that it would ultimately wield, were ecstatic. I have not been disappointed in OS X, and now Leopard. It has changed how I work. It has made me more efficient. I spend less downtime. The iPhone is the killer app. I want one, because it is not a Blackberry. I want one, because it is not a Zune. It has what I need. Not what everyone else says I need. Now that Apple’s opening it up to outside developers, I am giddy. I look forward to the productivity that it will introduce. It is a companion to my laptop, desktop, etc… Now look at it this way: If you went out and bought a fancy car, I am staying away from brands for brevity, and you just went in and started mucking around with the engine, etc…, then all of the sudden it was bricked, as Fred likes to throw around, do you think that the car company would harbor any sympathy for you? Do you expect them to bend over backwards because you though putting a airscoop on your (fancy car brand here) would be cool and would help your car run faster? No. So why would you expect Apple, who is just trying to make a great product and protect their brand, to just throw caution to the wind so you could screw your iPhone up?