When it comes to Apple, it feels to me like the company views the web as a technology which undermines rather than enriches its products. It wants you to talk to the cloud, but only through its portals and its gateways, in closed loops and private networks. Is it possible that for the company Apple has become — the lock-in PC-maker, the gatekeeper, the retailer — there’s still a little too much Wild West in the web? Is Apple’s failure with or aversion to web services a byproduct of the desire for complete control over its ecosystem and products? Or is the gang in Cupertino just not that good at the internet?...Instead of pulling up the stakes here, Apple should be doubling down. The internet is not just going to go away.
XLNT piece by Topolsky, but I think that it presents a false dichotomy. By his articulation, Apple is EITHER playing a zero-sum game to try and reinforce its Walled Garden; OR, it needs to embrace the Web browser as universal client, and invest aggressively in Web versions of its native apps. The truth, however, is more nuanced.
For almost 20 years, we have been promised that the Web will swallow up the PC, and yet PCs haven't quite gone away, most people aren't exclusively using Google Docs or Gmail, and the browser, as impressive as it is, kind of sucks.
Apple sees this, and is focused on delivering the best user experience, which in their world means native, integrated and a leveraged platform. iCloud is a continuation of that truth. In parallel, they have delivered a very strong web experience, especially in their Post-PC devices.
I do think, however, that his larger question of whether there is a "gotcha" at the end of the rainbow is fair and reasoned, but I hold that same question front and center for Google, Facebook, Microsoft and Amazon, as none of these companies exist solely to make me happy.
They want my data, my dollar and my dedication, and use various means, fair and unfair, to lock me into giving it to them.