Couple of things right off the bat. 1. I am heavily considering developing for the iPhone which will require a significant investment, so I do see potential and do think that some things the iPhone does are very very good. 2. I am also obviously heavily WM biased, since I have lived and breathed the platform for the last 8 or so years. That being said…
I am extremely surprised by the almost blind following of Apple Drones. And Im not saying that everyone that has an iPhone or Touch falls into this category, far from it. And not even every Fanboy falls into this category either. And some even slip in and out of these characteristics. But I’ve seen and tired of it since 6 months before the iPhone release and a new crop of droning has popped up with the release of the SDK.
What I mean by this is that some of these people, instead of admitting that something is potentially a very bad thing about the iPhone, actually go to the other extreme and think that anything Steve Jobs does(most of which is actually done for the $$ but then glossed over for these drones to believe) is the best possible thing that can be done.
Some Examples:
1. The SDK will not support Multi-Tasking. I actually have heard arguments about how great this is and how they don’t want it to turn into $#!#$ Windows Mobile devices that are so slow, and how they actually say there would never be any reason why they would ever need 2 applications running at once. It is Laughable!!
THIS IS NOT A GOOD THING!!! Yeah, I will admit that Microsoft should allow you to close applications and should have a little better memory management, and should up the minimum specs for WM devices. BUT… this is not a problem on most devices and you wouldn’t believe how many applications run on WM devices at once… It takes a lot to get them slowing down(and you are in control of what is and isn’t)…
As MOST mobile enthusiasts know, the main thing that people have been waiting for from a NEW PALM OS is good true multi-tasking!! But now Apple comes along and says, oh yeah, we’ll only allow applications to run one at a time and have to persist themselves, well we are right back to PALM OS.
Now the non-drone fans are out there too saying that the Jailbreak community will still be out there and hopefully there are ways to circumvent this or get exceptions… Me too…
2. Now I do like what Apple did with the “Store” with it on every device and they are originally offering a fair revenue share. But they also then basically have a monopoly on the Store and keep up with the iTunes like thinking. Everything you buy for your iPhone, you will buy from Apple! I hope most people know economics enough to know that this isn’t a great thing!
And then I see the drones regurgitating Apple’s claims about not wanting to make money on the store. I’m sorry but if they didn’t want to make money they would have a considerably smaller % setup for developer revenue sharing. There are much smaller companies out there offering the same share, but having to maintain much larger web solutions and infrastructures. What I hope is that they stick with this percentage as I’ve seen these numbers go up later in the stores life as well…Who’s to stop them?
So please… We know you love your iPhone. We think some things with it are pretty cool too… And a few choices Apple has made recently have improved their cause, but it still has some things that need to be fixed and some that won’t ever be.
So if you have ever fallen into the drone category, Please Wake Up!!
Ok, as a note. I do understand that part of this is stemmed from the fact that a lot of these guys are locked into a very expensive 1 carrier contract with a pricey data plan and probably by far the most they have ever spent on a mobile phone. So you will do whatever it takes to justify your purchase…