Webservations

While I one hundred percent agree with Guy Smiths’s analysis on Sandhill, in particular – when he raises this one …

Content is King, and Jobs wants the crown.

To control content, Jobs must own the means of distribution. Hence, pesky interlopers like Flash must be eliminated. Flash connects the content provider directly with the content consumer, cutting Apple out of the loop, which for someone who sold 10 billion songs is clearly unacceptable. Thus Apple acolytes are assaulting Adobe. You can have the cool new gizmo, but you can’t have Flash.

- absolutely.

More recently – this thought and thinking seems to have been removed from the media reporting – history has been ‘rewritten’ – and while I do think that there are a lot of other reasons that get recited that ‘explains’ the lack of flash … this one makes the most sense to me. (and not just because no one talks about it.)

All that said - I one hundred percent disagree with his predictions and to see this as ‘the demise’ of Apple is – IMHO – nuts. I quote :

The marketing issue at hand is never to deny your market. Apple will eventually suffer if they keep content from customers. After all, we own gizmos to achieve things, be it making phone calls, watching movies, playing games, or impressing the cute red head at the bar. Fail in this fundamental mission and the market will eventually turn to vendors that deliver. Flash is only one instance where Apple’s “our way or else” mentality may be its long-term undoing.

Erecting barriers never works in the long run. Walled gardens are more wall than garden, as everyone who escaped AOL will attest.

I guess he is covered- because he does actually say ‘if’ – but – and though I am a fan – I am actually a VERY slow adpoter. Steve is running a business. If what he is doing starts not to work – he will adjust course. But only then- not before. And actually – really – most people don’t care about open – they don’t. they don’t think. they just want it delivered – simply. that’s what steve does. And that’s what the reat of the tech world still are not thinking through.