TECHdodo

The other day I wrote about how Amazon had deleted a book from their customer’s Kindle devices and how this was why DRM is bad and a company having that much control over your device or your media is a bad thing. Amazon apologized for it later. They didn’t say they wouldn’t do it again, but they did apologize. Today Apple blocked Google’s official Google Voice Application from their app store because it “duplicates iPhone functionality.”

Well, that is a reason not to buy an iPhone right there. In fact, it is reason enough not to buy any Apple product. People rave about Apple and complain about Microsoft, but Microsoft doesn’t tell you what you can and can’t run on your computer. What really really really bothers me about it is they use Open Source products when developing their OS, but then they want the whole system to be closed and under their control.

So what if it duplicates iPhone functionality. If it really duplicates iPhone functionality, then there is no reason for anyone to use the app is there? If people want the app, then it must have some value to them that the iPhone doesn’t provide. The main point is, it is their phone, they paid for it, they should be able to run whatever application they want to on it. Is this worse than DRM? I think it is. DRM is control over what media you can or can not watch or read, but this is DRM of your actual applications. What will they do next, block certain websites so you can’t access them? Just think about it. What is the difference? Don’t want competition from Google for search anymore? Well, just don’t let people go to the website Google.com anymore. Only allow your browser to be used, since any other browser would be duplicating iPhone functionality, and then control where that browser can go. I mean if Apple already provides access to a website that provides search, then Google.com is a duplicate of existing iPhone functionality and therefore there is no reason for their customer’s to have access to it. It is essentially the same argument they are making now for the Google Voice app.

Imagine Microsoft not allowing Firefox to run in Windows, because it duplicates existing Windows functionality. Imagine Microsoft not allowing access to Google.com from Internet Explorer because it duplicates Bing functionality. Imagine Microsoft not allowing you to run Open Office because it duplicates Word functionality. Or maybe Apple should imagine Microsoft not allowing you to run iTunes because it duplicates Windows Media Player functionality. Of course Microsoft might dream of doing something like that, but even if they were naive enough to do so, the courts wouldn’t let them. They would be sued for antitrust so fast it would make their heads spin.