Steve Jobs’ Vision Puzzles Me
In case you haven’t heard: Steve Jobs has changed his mind and has allowed developers to create IPhone/IPad apps using other software, including Flash CS5. This matters to me because I have invested the last seven years building my skills in Flash and Actionscript 2, and recently Actionscript 3. Last year, I was excited about the new feature built into Flash CS5, allowing developers to convert Actionscript projects into IPhone apps for sell in the store. But Jobs, who seemed to want to control quality in the App Store, denied developers by restricting apps to a limited set of programming languages.
This decision was a negative blow to Flash developers and Adobe in particular. In case you haven’t heard, but recently he has changed his mind, and now Flash and Adobe is back in the game. I plan to try my best to create some apps since I’ve been learning Actionscript, but through all of it, I’m puzzled by Steve Jobs’ vision.
I know he wants to create a positive user experience, and certainly has achieved the goal. But I wish he’d relax his control and realize choice is a good thing. In releasing his Apple TV, he apparently scoffed at including YouTube because of the content containing so much amateur videos. Steve Jobs does not like “Amateur Hour.” However, he should be celebrating all that amateur video which is made possible by Apple’s software, including IMovie and Garage Band. His business makes more money because of amateur hour and Apple’s role in making video editing easy and possible.
Google sees itself as more successful as more people use the Internet because the more people searching, the more money they make. Apple should see that the more ways people can view YouTube, not only Google profits, but Apple. And there are many excellent videos created in this free market of creation.
Apple also released guidelines for the types of apps that the App Store will accept. Again, he frowns on amateur apps. I can see restricting inappropriate or pornographic apps, but so what if there are a hundred To Do List managers. He shouldn’t restrict apps just because they are less polished and not designed by a professional design company. With restrictions, the two companies that create a quality To Do List manager will have a monopoly on that area of the app world.
The Android market allows all apps and shows no restrictions. This is good, and how Windows and Mac software has been developed for years. Everything is permitted. No regulations. And we survived for many years. The general public is smart enough to identify the quality from the amateur, but at least allow all the amateur apps to exist. Who cares if there are hundreds of fart apps? Just make better filters and searches in the user interface and let us choose.
For a company that celebrates creativity and a positive user experience, it appears Steve Jobs is not comfortable in the Wild West of choice and free markets. In the end, I guess there are certain limits to how he earns his money.
