Our thinking

With Apple rejecting apps written for its iPhone for one reason or another, both developers and consumers are increasingly going underground and creating an alternative marketplace. Developers are able to flog their wares while consumers can find what they’re looking for, even if Apple says no, and fully harness the power of the iPhone. Google Voice, which was controversially rejected by Apple recently, is now available through one of these underground app stores.

The biggest barrier to the use of these underground, unofficial apps, is that the iPhone has to be ‘jailbroken’ (i.e. hacked into, to bypass Apple’s restrictions), which of course voids any official warranties. Jailbreaking is much like unofficial unlocking of phones and it’s a practice that’s increasing in popularity, in no small part due to widely available software that makes it reasonably straightforward to hack into an iPhone.

The underground community has existed right from day 1 (remember those headlines within days of launch that the iPhone had been successfully hacked into to allow use on any network?). But once Apple released an official software development kit (SDK) in 2008, most developers chose the official route. Now that Apple’s operating a pretty opaque app acceptance system and seemingly randomly rejecting apps, it’s not surprising that developers are going back underground and consumers are following them.

It’s interesting that it was Apple’s iTunes that reversed the trend of illegal music downloads yet now Apple’s own restrictions are tipping the scales towards making underground stores and unauthorised apps for its products not only viable but also attractive. So much so that there are now entire businesses dedicated to monetising unauthorised apps for the iPhone.

Photo credit: jimpg2 _PEACE via Flickr/Creative Commons

Google Voice is a free new Internet telephony service that lets users screen, block and make calls, get voicemail transcripts, place conference calls and more. Sounds like a pretty handy app to me (shame it’s US invite only at the moment). But Apple has decided that it’s one app they can do without and blocked Google Voice on the iPhone – a move that seems motivated by competitive protectionism. The US Federal Communications Commission (a communications watchdog) seems to think so too as it’s now launched an inquiry into just why Apple banned Google Voice.

It’s about time someone looked into these seemingly more common exclusionary tactics and stood up for us, the consumers. After all a free market is about choice and surely Apple, with arguably one of the most popular phones ever to be released, can deal with a bit of healthy competition. Interestingly, this comes at the same time as Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google is resigning from the Apple board of directors because Google is increasingly moving into Apple’s space of operating systems (with Chrome) and telephony (with Android).

And now there’s a case of Apple trying to bribe a girl and her father to keep stum about an exploding iPod with an offer of a refund (which one would expect in the event of a device exploding in any case!). So is Apple, once only known for cutting edge and cool design, turning into a soulless corporate? We’ve seen Microsoft behave similarly with its exclusionary tactics and an attributable change in its brand perception. Google, the other tech biggie, has so far managed to stave off such a decline in image but for how long.

What disappointed me most about Apple’s move is that it comes at a time when we’re living through a recession that’s brought business ethics into serious question (in the financial sector at the very least). And Apple’s audacity in thinking that such a move would go unnoticed and/or without repercussion is simply astounding.

Is the tech sector going the same way that finance has in the past? I sincerely hope not as I for one have always thought of the tech sector as a refreshingly innovative space with humane workplaces and solid ethics. Is my continued optimism and belief in tech naive? Is this instead a taste of things to come?

Photo credit: William Hook via Flickr/Creative Commons