The Apple Touch

…in dealing with Apple, one should never assume that the company is being malicious when its behavior can be just as easily explained by incompetence.

—Jason Snell, Don’t drive iPhone developers away, Apple

Apple vs. Microsoft is done up a little too much in the media and in the minds of techonophiles. I’m guilty, too. But one thing Microsoft has gotten much better at is transparency.¹ Very little information comes out from Apple so much must be made about very little. Case in point, there are thousands of applications in the App Store, yet, 3 or so rejections have set off a firestorm in the Apple community. People struggle to make sense of it. Is it malice or incompetence? Does it matter which reviewer at Apple reviews your application, or does internally Apple have clear guidelines they are not sharing?

Daniel Dilger argues that Apple’s rejection standards are neither arbitrary nor capricious. Perhaps Mr. Dilger has divined some cohesive narrative from the recent spate of publicized rejections, but I don’t see it. I don’t see how Podcaster, as an alternative distribution model of media onto the iPhone, has any capabilities that AirSharing does not also possess. And I don’t see how MailWrangler could cause user confusion over duplicate functionality in a way that Yahoo! oneConnect does not. Yahoo! oneConnect is a program that not only duplicates the iPhone’s Contacts.app and SMS.app functionality but also ape’s the Contacts.app icon design. Both AirSharing and oneConnect are featured on the front page of the iTunes Store.

Apple’s lack of information can sometimes be fun for some, but I don’t see its value. A lack of communication presents problems for Apple - and for what? Apple has proven that they can control the narrative in a lack of information with some thoughtful and well written communications before.

With the surge in catalog growth at the Amazon MP3 store contrasting against the paltry iTunes Plus offerings, media and pundits were all echoing the message that Apple was out to lock users in to the iPod ecosystem. In sum: Apple enjoyed the benefits of DRM music to sell iPods. But with Steve Jobs’s concise and well written letter, “Thoughts on Music,” Apple threw the DRM gauntlet down. The reoccurring theme in the media is now that labels are out to punish Apple by not giving it the same access to DRM-free music as Amazon. Both ideas - that Apple prefers lock-in and that labels are punishing Apple - are unsubstantiated rumor. But in a vacuum of information, one is forced to create some cohesive understanding based on insufficient information. Those two separate narratives highlight the contrast on how a little information can vastly shape the public discourse. Jobs’s letter both simple and sparse has changed the digital-music-speculation landscape for Apple’s benefit.

Apple needs to continue to capitalize on the success of “Thoughts” and be clear about the motivations and thinking behind its policies. This doesn’t mean Apple needs to start publishing product roadmaps, or pre-announcing products. A large degree of secrecy is a competitive advantage. But secrecy is not some switch that must be either flipped on or off for the entire company. Nor does starting a company voice mean that posting must be frequent.

Apple has a point with its lack of communication. In the case of MobileMe, very little needs to be said. MobileMe continues to not function as originally promised, but there is little benefit to Apple to continue to write about MobileMe and have the story rehashed every week. Often its best to inject some sense into the debate but otherwise shut up. Steve Jobs’s leaked email of contrition about MobileMe was just what a company blog should be used for - one time responses to negative press to shape public perception.

Moving Forward

In the end, as a consumer, I feel strung along. Apple could arbitrarily reject another 100 awesome applications, but I’m still not going to buy an Android phone. Even without third party applications, I find the iPhone to be the best consumer device I have ever owned. I often feel this about Macs and iPods. I am furious that Apple won’t update my existing iPod Classic with Genius playlist features, but I can’t find anyway to show my displeasure. I’m not buying a Zune because of it.

I’m not going to be so melodramatic as to say that if something better comes along I’m jumping ship. Something better in the computer or phone world looks to be a long way off, and it would have to be much, much better. What I’m looking for from the paid writers like Jason Snell is not a recap of the events, but instead a call to action. How can consumers punish Apple for poor stewardship of the community that supports them? How can we let the company know not to take our goodwill for granted? Describing the problem is easy; coming up with something to do about it is not.