Since I generally ignore Ben Thompson, his latest head-scratching post came to my attention because it was linked elsewhere. It was about how Apple tramples our constitutional rights by preventing the public from due process.
But Ben conveniently fails to mention that the iPhone has about 18% market share worldwide. He doesn’t mention it or else his case falls apart.
The only world where Ben’s rant makes any sense is a world where people cannot leave their homes, telephones don’t exist, and the internet ONLY works on iPhones. Because in the real world, online shopping, banking, or dating can happen on your Dell computer or even your gaming console. And if the internet didn’t exist, you could access your new products by driving down the store and walking into a store. Imagine that.
But to say that Apple is trampling our constitutional rights because they tightly control the iPhone environment is lunacy. By Ben’s standard, Ford is anti-American because they don’t allow Chevrolet to offer their services on their touchscreens. Tesla is trampling your constitutional rights by not allowing Apple CarPlay to be used. Or Walmart is trampling your rights by not allowing Amazon to compete right there in the store that Walmart paid for.
If you build a platform, you control it. Period. The only exception is when you are the only way to access services and products. And Apple is so far away from that, that I can only assume that Ben is hurting for clicks and had to rely on the trusty old trick of bashing Apple for web traffic.
Apple deserves bashing for a lot of things. Like putting the iPhone volume and power buttons opposite each other so you shut your screen off all the time. But trampling our constitutional rights? No. This a just the usual caterwauling of the crybaby iOS developers (mostly European) who don’t understand business and have grown up in a socialist world where free stuff is handed out.
The only world where Ben’s rant makes any sense is a world where people cannot leave their homes, telephones don’t exist, and the internet ONLY works on iPhones. Because in the real world, online shopping, banking, or dating can happen on your Dell computer or even your gaming console. And if the internet didn’t exist, you could access your new products by driving down the store and walking into a store. Imagine that.
But to say that Apple is trampling our constitutional rights because they tightly control the iPhone environment is lunacy. By Ben’s standard, Ford is anti-American because they don’t allow Chevrolet to offer their services on their touchscreens. Tesla is trampling your constitutional rights by not allowing Apple CarPlay to be used. Or Walmart is trampling your rights by not allowing Amazon to compete right there in the store that Walmart paid for.
If you build a platform, you control it. Period. The only exception is when you are the only way to access services and products. And Apple is so far away from that, that I can only assume that Ben is hurting for clicks and had to rely on the trusty old trick of bashing Apple for web traffic.
Apple deserves bashing for a lot of things. Like putting the iPhone volume and power buttons opposite each other so you shut your screen off all the time. But trampling our constitutional rights? No. This a just the usual caterwauling of the crybaby iOS developers (mostly European) who don’t understand business and have grown up in a socialist world where free stuff is handed out.
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