{"id":171,"date":"2016-03-26T19:06:02","date_gmt":"2016-03-26T19:06:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=171"},"modified":"2016-03-26T19:06:02","modified_gmt":"2016-03-26T19:06:02","slug":"why-appelism-must-die","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=171","title":{"rendered":"Why Appleism Must Die"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

T<\/span>wo weeks ago, I watched with the rest of the world as media-averse Apple CEO Tim Cook was forced to jump to his company\u2019s defence on TV. Apple had not only reported its first year-on-year <\/p>drop<\/a> in sales since 2013, and a deeper drop in China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong, but also had longtime Apple backer Carl Icahn dump his 45.8 million Apple shares citing concerns over China\u2019s controlling \u201cattitude\u201d. The result was an 11 per cent drop in Apple\u2019s stock and its first eight-day losing streak since 1998. Cook\u2019s practiced and predictable defence wasn\u2019t going to change those facts.\n\nStill, the mental image of Apple\u2019s spin doctors sitting in a conference room watching their carefully built narrative of unbridled growth and boundless happiness fall apart, warmed the cockles of my black, shrivelled heart.\n\nFor a company that has built its fortune over a Reaganite promise of endless prosperity, it\u2019s been a particularly bad week at the office. The Financial Times ran a story<\/a> asking if Apple was suffering from the \u201cCurse of the Dow\u201d, based on an anecdotal observation that many companies peak just as they gain entry into the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Twitter was abuzz with rumours of the \u201cdeath of Apple\u201d and technology writers sat down to revise their old \u201cDeath of Apple\u201d draft for the nth time (71st, if the Mac Observer\u2019s Apple Death Knell Counter<\/a>\u00a0is accurate). This isn\u2019t one of those articles.\n\nBecause, let\u2019s face it, despite all the negatives, Apple made more money<\/a> last quarter than Google or Microsoft combined. The company is most likely to brush aside what Cook called \u201ctemporary factors\u201d, and continue on the ridiculous growth trajectory that has turned it from the plucky tech underdog to the new evil emperor. And even if it does slow down, it\u2019s going to remain the biggest tech company in the world for years.\n\nWhich really sucks because Apple is a company that really deserves to die, only so that we no longer have to deal with their obnoxious, irritating fans. If the BJP ever put together the portrait of an ideal bhakt, he would look pretty similar to an Apple fanboy. The company\u2019s meteoric rise has inspired an entire subculture of true believers, with the late Steve Jobs as its messianic head deity and the Apple Store as its cathedral. They line up for Apple product releases like devotees at Vaishno Devi, braving the elements as a symbolic offering of their unquestionable devotion. They treat Apple events like sermons from the Pope and then take over our online spaces to spread the Holy Word. If Apple designed Skynet, there would be a line of Apple fanboys paying tribute to our glossy new overlord that you could see from space. Don\u2019t believe me? Ask NYU professor Erica Robles-Anderson, who told Atlas Obscura<\/a> last year that \u201c(Apple) feels iconic, like an emblem of the personal. And yet it\u2019s a cult. Right? It\u2019s so obviously a cult.\u201d\n\nOf course, if the only problem with Apple were\u00a0its cultist fanboys, it would be no worse than Barcelona FC or the band Tool. But Apple has built its huge business on the idea that you should treat your consumer like a child who can\u2019t be trusted. The only thing worse than a nanny state is a nanny technology company that exerts so much influence on the tech world.\n

The last decade or so has seen a virtual land grab on a scale not seen since the heady days of European colonialism as companies try to \u201ccapture\u201d audiences by setting up arbitrary access barriers (aka border control) on the boundaries of their online empires.<\/blockquote>\nHow would you feel if you had to haul your car to one of only 10 specially authorised garages in the country and pay hundreds of dollars every time you had a puncture? Or if changing the tyre yourself voided your car insurance? Well, you happily sign up for the same kind of deal every time you buy an Apple product. Whether it\u2019s hardware or software, the company is so protective of its products that it won\u2019t let you take a look under the hood of the product you paid (too much) money to buy. They\u2019ll even go to the extent of asking for US copyright law to recognise jailbreaking \u2013 hacking iPhones to allow users to run any apps they choose on the phone \u2013 as illegal.\n\nApple claims that its policy of locking down software and hardware is for the customer\u2019s convenience and safety, but as someone who grew up learning about technology through a process of constant tinkering, it\u2019s insulting to be treated like an infant. I buy the product, I tinker around with it, I pay you more money if I fuck it up. Capiche? Capiche.\n\nMany Apple customers may think this is not such a big deal because after all, Apple products \u201cjust work\u201d (which is the Apple fanboy equivalent of \u201cbut the trains run on time.\u201d) But what happens when the product you paid so much money for suddenly doesn\u2019t \u201cjust work\u201d and you\u2019re hundreds of miles away from an Apple Store?\n\nApple\u2019s worst crime though, is what its business policies have done to the internet \u2013 once a wild and free land that belonged to anyone with a computer and a dinged-up old modem. The last decade or so has seen a virtual land grab on a scale not seen since the heady days of European colonialism as companies try to \u201ccapture\u201d audiences by setting up arbitrary access barriers (aka border control) on the boundaries of their online empires.\n\nIt\u2019s the rise of the \u201cwalled garden\u201d, an approach Apple pioneered with its arrogant, iron-fist control of iOS software and which has now spread to all corners of Silicon Valley. Not content to just sell you products, these companies want to keep you within their walled gardens so that they can siphon off the value you create \u2013 content, individual entrepreneurship, private information \u2013 as corporate revenue. Apple\u2019s runaway success has inspired other companies \u2013 Facebook, Microsoft, even Google to a certain extent \u2013 to ignore the internet\u2019s transparent and collaborative culture in favour of one of jealousy, secrecy, centralised control, and tools\/software that may only be used in carefully circumscribed ways. The success of Apple\u2019s restrictive business model is reflected in how much of activity on the web happens in, and stays in, the closed spaces owned by Silicon Valley\u2019s massive IT companies.\n\nThis, in my opinion, is the real transgression. The dream of the internet as a transparent, decentralised arena, where the individual had autonomy and power is dead. It has been replaced by a world where technology concentrates power in the hands of a new elite. And for being one of the leaders of that elite, if for nothing else, I hope Apple dies a slow and painful death.\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The dream of the internet as a transparent arena, where the individual had autonomy and power is dead. And I blame Apple for it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":172,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[107],"tags":[62,63,64,65,66,67,71,72],"class_list":["post-171","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pov","tag-arre","tag-arre-digital-platform","tag-arre-originals","tag-arre-reads","tag-arre-text-articles","tag-arre-website","tag-web-series","tag-web-shows"],"yoast_head":"\nWhy Appleism Must Die<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The dream of the internet as a transparent arena, where the individual had autonomy and power is dead. 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