It’s certainly been a run of, um, interesting news for digital darling Apple Inc. in the past two weeks. The question is, how damaging is the fallout, particularly for the iPhone?
First up was the news that Apple blocked Google Voice for iPhone from the App Store – a move that of course made developers more wary than they already are, but which more importantly sent a shockwave through the iPhone user community. A flurry of haranguing Twitter feeds and editorials, from “I Quit the iPhone” and “The iPhone Gets Easier to Dislike” at the Washington Post, to “Inevitable: Apple Should Accept Google Voice” at PC World, made the case that on this one, Apple has gone too far in micromanaging and monopolizing access to iPhone widgets. The outpouring of sheer vitriol in iPhone user comments in response to some of the editorials as well as in blogs points to a red flag for Apple.
Then, at the major security conference known as Black Hat, tales of security glitches, bugs and the potential for catastrophic issues for all iPhones and the iPod Touch did little to burnish Apple’s image.
Meanwhile, there came the inevitable he said/she said, back-and-forth. Apple blamed AT&T Inc. for pressuring it to yank Google Voice, which allows toll bypass and free texting – not pleasant for the carrier’s revenue profile. AT&T meanwhile answered, “who, me? Nonsense!” Then the FCC swooped in to open an unofficial enquiry into the matter. Ouch.
Ironically, the FTC has had Google Inc. and Apple in its sights for some time now, mulling whether the two are in collusion together, with a resulting negative impact on consumer choice. That was a subject that was dredged up when Google chief Eric Schmidt stepped down from Apple’s board amid all of the bluster, with Steve Jobs rather anemically making the excuse that Schmidt had to recuse himself so much because of competitive issues, that he couldn’t be a well-functioning director.
With publicity like this, and with competition from the Palm Pre and more Android devices coming to market, like T-Mobile USA’s new myTouch, can the iPhone hang onto its rabid fan base and gold-standard reputation? Is the bloom off the rose?
It might seem like an impossible reality, a world where the iPhone is not coveted and loved, even coddled. But as this blogger points out Apple has done some damage. The question is, how much?
