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Chris Breen Fears Return of "Arrogant" Apple

by , 1:00 PM EDT, October 3rd, 2007

Long time Mac and iPod columnist Chris Breen fears that recent decisions and products from Cupertino hint that Apple could be becoming a company that doesn't listen to its customers and approaches the marketplace with the kind of arrogance it used to have. In a column for Macworld, Mr. Breen cited seven recent issues behind this fear.

The column notes that Apple is now the darling of Wall Street, and has had a string of successes in the marketplace. Corporate arrogance, however, could bring that to a close.

"Regardless of what Apple does in the real world -- release great hardware, offer up the finest operating system computerdom has seen, make incredible content deals -- if it returns to the days of the Arrogant Apple," he wrote, "it's going to lose its darling status in a hurry. And this is the path I fear Apple has returned to."

He cites the iPhone's recessed headphone jack that is incompatible with existing headphone and earphone products as an example of Apple choosing to do base a design decision on what looked good, as opposed to following what would be good for customers. Similarly, Mr. Breen said that Apple's newest low-profile keyboard causes too many problems for too many people (wrist issues, no indentations on the keys for touch typists, and action that leads to accidental keystrokes).

Other issues include the decision to scrap iMovie HD for the new iMovie released with iLife '08, interface elements expected in Leopard, making iPhone users pay double for ringtones, and intentionally bricking unlocked iPhones, all of which Mr. Breen said smack of arrogance from Apple.

"I'm aware that Apple feels it must do right by AT&T but to offer up an update that it knows will destroy hacked iPhones -- and provide no provision for undoing the damage -- is a despicable act," he wrote. "This kind of stunt is bad for customers and, coupled with recent actions by the company that may paint it as less than innovative and customer-friendly, ultimately bad for Apple."

Observer Comments

Show: Subjects Only | Full Comments
Close Name:Sir Harry Flashman Posts: 721 Joined: 08 Feb 2007
Subject: The low profile keyboard and arrogance

I have been using one for several months. It took a few days before I was familiar with it, but now I like it. Wrist issues? I guess it depends on the arrangement of your desk and keyboard tray. The new keyboard brings my palm and forearm more into alignment and more parallel to the floor the way ergonomists tell us it should be. When Chris refers to indentations for touch typists I wonder of he means the concavity of the keys. There are dimples on the F and J keys where you would place index fingers when touch typing. Now the new keys are flat and yes your finger can slip off them easier than the old ones that had a concave surface, it takes some practice. If the angle is too low for you, then prop it up with shims, it is not like you are going to level the Leaning Tower of Pisa

Arrogance of Apple. Yes, I think that there is some cause for concern. Maybe it will pass, maybe it is just one of Steve's tricks. Maybe next month he will come out with iPhone extreme. An update that lets you install Garage Band created ringtones or other non DRM files. And that he will go on to say that if you want 3rd party apps here is the Software Development Kit, download it for free at the Apple Developer web site. If you want to unlock the iPhone to use on non AT&T systems go ahead, but you are in violation of your user agreement and we are in no obligation to support you. Oh, and one more thing, if you bricked your iPhone there is an amnesty program; Bring it to an Apple Store or contact Customer Support before 31 December 2007 and will unbrick it no questions asked, but after this you are on your own.

Whatever, I gotta get back to work

View Name:Guest
Subject: Ringtones
View Name:Guest
Subject: Techies do not an iPhone market make.
View Name:Guest
Subject: No complaining please
Close Name:Sir Harry Flashman Posts: 721 Joined: 08 Feb 2007
Subject: Complaints

Quote
Guest wrote:
I am always mistified. If you don't like the iphone, buy one you do. If you don't like the keyboard buy one you do. No one is forcing you to do it. Once you buy it though as long as it works don't complain that it doesn't meet your expectations other than a review. This is the modern age.
If apple decides they want to giver away the Iphone 2 tomorrow thats there right.
Go away and do something worthwhile.


The new keyboard is shipped with the latest iMac, and in the future it will probably be included with all Macs, except MacBooks. But, yeah, just plug in any USB keyboard you want to use.

Close Name:hangtown Posts: 109 Joined: 03 Dec 2005
Subject:

I don't think the keyboard, and maybe not even the iphone headphone jack, smack of arrogance. Design decisions that some disagree with, sure.

Bricking the iPhone without giving people a way to back out of the hacked status first, now that's a little hard to take, but it's not really apple's job to support hacking of its products. However, I think they could have recognized the spirit of the hacks and made this not such a destructive update in some way.

Close Name:rjackb Posts: 35 Joined: 08 Dec 2005
Subject: Weak List

I think Mr. Breen's list of reasons is very weak at best. I can't believe he would even publish that.

For a good explanation of the ringtone thing, go read about it over at roughlydrafted.com. The only arrogance with ringtones apparently lies with the music industry. Apple seems to have done us a favor with ringtones by negotiating the cheapest price for them anywhere in the cell phone industry. Personally, I could care less about ringtones anyway because I dislike being subjected to everyone else's poor taste in music.

Like another responder, I rather like the new Apple keyboard--even as a touch typist. I tested the keyboard continuously for a good two hours while cranking out several pages of text and found that it worked very well--enough so that it would be at the top of my list if I wanted to buy an external keyboard.

As for "bricked" phones after the latest iPhone update, I have no sympathy for those folks at all--they knew they were at risk and were also given ample warning by Apple prior to the update. The developers who wrote the software to alter iPhones demonstrated that they are short-sighted developers to begin with since they knew from the very beginning that updates would be coming yet they had no recovery plan. And how can anyone possibly say that improving or adding features to a product via a no-cost update is arrogant? It's actually quite the opposite.



Last edited by rjackb on Wed Oct 03, 2007 10:21 pm; edited 2 times in total
Reply | Quote
Close Name:xmattingly Posts: 214 Joined: 31 Jul 2007
Subject: I really don't think that's the case

Quote
Sir Harry Flashman wrote:
Arrogance of Apple. Yes, I think that there is some cause for concern. Maybe it will pass, maybe it is just one of Steve's tricks.
Nah. Apple has had a few silly missteps recently, but I really think it's more of a problem of having resources spread too thin, as they've been pushing into new markets, rather than outright arrogance. I'm referring to Breen's article on the whole, not just the iPhone debacle.

Apple's market has skyrocketed and they've essentially started a couple of new businesses, but I haven't seen any indication that they've staffed up their engineers and quality control people to buffer the growth.

View Name:Guest
Subject: Support Hacked Phones?
Close Name:mactoid Posts: 27 Joined: 01 Feb 2005
Subject:

Quote
Guest wrote:
I really don't understand this. Everyone really expects Apple to develop and test for a slew of unauthorized hardware hacks? Don't ALL of these hacks warn you about possibly bricking your phone? It's not as though Apple intentionally bricked the phones, they're just improving the hardware/software/UI experience that we all go to Apple for. If you overclock your processor, they can't be held responsible, if you send new firmware to a Linksys router and it breaks down, try calling Linksys for help. Hell, try calling them even if you don't, good luck. Apple is a graet company covering their own.


I really have to agree with this sentiment. There were at least 3 different approachs to unlocking the iPhone that I was aware of (including one that required soldering gun, for heavens sakes!!) and to expect Apple to look out for each and every one of them in their software updates is ridiculous. Apple could, and probably should, offer a way to "un-brick" the phones, but I wouldn't expect it to be free. In the immortal words of "Super-Chicken" (my favorite cartoon from the '70s), the iPhone hackers "knew the job was dangerous when they took it"!

View Name:Guest
Subject: Hacking is always a risk
View Name:Guest
Subject: Bringing up minor issues just so he can whine about iPhone
View Name:Guest
Subject: BTW, I like the new Apple keyboard ...
View Name:Guest
Subject: You're wrong about Ringtones
View Name:Guest
Subject: Dead On
Close Name:xmattingly Posts: 214 Joined: 31 Jul 2007
Subject: Many feel that Apple crossed the line

Quote
Guest wrote:
Apple is responding like any other consumer electronics company would when users tinker with a product outside of its intended use -- you're now on your own.
It's pretty standard operating procedure for an electronics company policy to say, "if you choose to modify your device beyond what we designed it for, you void your warranty". It's one thing to render a device useless by your own actions, but it's entirely another when the company you bought it from intentionally cripples it through a routine software update.

Close Name:gslusher Posts: 2063 Joined: 13 Nov 2002
Subject: Re: BTW, I like the new Apple keyboard ...

Quote
Anonymous wrote:
It's certain a LOT better than the horrific white/clear keyboard that came with our white Intel iMac. My wife fried that keyboard when she spilled coffee on it, and I couldn't be happier to be rid of it.


One note: however much one might not like the Apple keyboard (I'm using a MacAlly NetKey right now, after using an Adesso ergonomic keyboard for years), keep it. If you have a serious problem, one troubleshooting step is to disconnect all peripherals and use the original Apple mouse and keyboard. That's how I discovered a problem with another keyboard. If you need to run the Apple Hardware Test, you should use the original keyboard and mouse.

Close Name:Terrin Posts: 377 Joined: 29 Jan 2006
Subject:

I do not think you can fault Apple for the bricked iPhones either. I usually disagree with Leander, but he sums up the argument here nicely:

http://www.wired.com/gadgets/mac/commentary/cultofmac/2007/10/cultofmac_1003?currentPage=1

View Name:Guest
Subject:
View Name:Guest
Subject: On apples side here
View Name:Guest
Subject: Arrogance
View Name:Guest
Subject:
View Name:Guest
Subject: Flawed car analogy
Close Name:gslusher Posts: 2063 Joined: 13 Nov 2002
Subject:

Quote
Anonymous wrote:
Honda states in their warranty statement that if I modify my car's engine I will probably void my warranty. But I went ahead and put in a hot camshaft. Yesterday I blew my engine and today Honda said they're not honoring the warranty. Bad Honda! Bad Honda!

That's how ridiculous these bricked hacked iPhone owners sound.


Sort of, though their hacked iPhones worked before the Apple update was applied. A better analogy (which still means very little) might be if you modified your Honda, then Honda came out with a recall to address safety issues which, when applied, made your Honda incapable of even starting because of the modification you had made. You could actually do the same thing as happened to the iPhone hackers by modifying the program in your car's computer. If a repair shop applied a mandatory update, it might fail and "brick" your car's computer, so your car wouldn't work. You'd end up having to pay for a new computer, most likely.

View Name:Guest
Subject: Keyboard & Appleworks
View Name:Guest
Subject: A better Honda (analogy)
View Name:Guest
Subject:
Close Name:Partsmutt Posts: 27 Joined: 16 Nov 2004
Subject:

Quote
mactoid wrote:
Quote
Guest wrote:
I really don't understand this. Everyone really expects Apple to develop and test for a slew of unauthorized hardware hacks? Don't ALL of these hacks warn you about possibly bricking your phone? It's not as though Apple intentionally bricked the phones, they're just improving the hardware/software/UI experience that we all go to Apple for. If you overclock your processor, they can't be held responsible, if you send new firmware to a Linksys router and it breaks down, try calling Linksys for help. Hell, try calling them even if you don't, good luck. Apple is a graet company covering their own.


I really have to agree with this sentiment. There were at least 3 different approachs to unlocking the iPhone that I was aware of (including one that required soldering gun, for heavens sakes!!) and to expect Apple to look out for each and every one of them in their software updates is ridiculous. Apple could, and probably should, offer a way to "un-brick" the phones, but I wouldn't expect it to be free. In the immortal words of "Super-Chicken" (my favorite cartoon from the '70s), the iPhone hackers "knew the job was dangerous when they took it"!


While I totally agree that Apple doesn't need to look after the hacked phones, many people are under the impression that a regular update bricked the phone. That is not at all the case. Along with the updates, Apple included intentional bricking of the phone. That's looking out for AT&T at the expense of the customer. I'm not saying that's a bad thing (or a good thing), but that's what they're doing. In the long run it doesn't help Apple or AT&T. AT&T isn't going to get new business from the people who disliked them enough to hack up a $400 phone. And Apple gets a bad rap from the people who were willing to go to extremes to use their product.

No one wins from a malicious bricking of the phone.


I like the new keyboard.

The RIAA won a legal argument in court saying that is completely legal under fair use for you to make your own ringtones without having to pay the artists any more money. Ringtone fees are just greed from the record companies. I use iTunes to create ringtones for my RAZR all the time. They're easy to make if someone can figure how to put them in the right folder on the iPhone.

View Name:Guest
Subject:
View Name:Guest
Subject: Apple Store Arrogance
View Name:Guest
Subject: Keyboards and Mac Quality
View Name:Guest
Subject:
View Name:Guest
Subject: Firmware
Close Name:gslusher Posts: 2063 Joined: 13 Nov 2002
Subject:

Quote
Anonymous wrote:


That's not true. I put ringtones that I make by cutting up mp3s on all of my phones and make them for friends too, Samsung phones, Motorolo phones, well, really only those two manufacturers. It doesn't cost us anything.


Alas, it depends upon WHICH phone and WHICH provider you have. Some providers have disabled that function and some phones don't have it. My Verizon Samsung phone does not allow loading ringtones except by purchasing them through the phone. (Verizon charges me for the minutes spent searching--a slow process, buying and downloading, as well.)