The Wall Street Journal piece on Apple’s iPhone arrangement with Cingular is a worthy read. One section of this article shows a disconnect from reality though:
Mr. Jobs once referred to telecom operators as “orifices” that other companies, including phone makers, must go through to reach consumers. While meeting with Cingular and other wireless operators he often reminded them of his view, dismissing them as commodities and telling them that they would never understand the Web and entertainment industry the way Apple did, a person familiar with the talks says.
If Apple understood the web they would:
Build a world class web-browser- Make .Mac into a top-notch-must-have service
Provide a high quality streaming media environment- Have community managers for their discussion forums[^1]
- Would not have had repeated gaffes with XML feeds for their various products
- Easy ways to share and link to Apple Store pages without having to resort to URL hacking
Two out of six does not cut it and Apple should be much stronger on the web than they are today.
Update: Via instant messaging Jesper points out that “Apple understands the web better than most of their competitors on every front”. This is true if we are talking Apple vs. Verizon but not-so-much if talking Apple vs. Microsoft.
I recommend Apple products to anyone I meet but I am also aware that there is room for improvement. I would like to see Apple get smart about discussions on the web with forums, weblogs, and wikis. As a developer, I would like to see Apple take XML syndication seriously. That my point (in far less words.)
Update Two: From the proving me wrong department:
Microsoft has apologized for unintentionally serving ad banners on its MSN sites and through Windows Live Messenger that prompted the user to install a malware application.
Sigh.
[^1]: One of the most bitter places on the internet and I rarely go into Apple’s discussion forums expecting good news. The general tone is “yeah, we’ve discussed this problem to death and no one at Apple is listening to us.”