Does Apple have a community?

Akshun J commented on my last post the Apple does not have community. The understandable point behind that comment is that Apple is doing some things recently that are very negatively impacting people that use their gear.

Whether or not Apple has community might be semantics, however according to any definition I have of the term, Apple does in fact have a strong community. They also have fans. They also have detractors, and in fact there is a community of detractors too.

I can't read Akshun J's mind here, but I think this might be a reference to the fact that Redhat builds community by actively sponsoring projects like Fedora, and SUSE has openSUSE project sponsorship, and LinSpire has FreeSpire, and Sun has among other things OpenOffice.org, and on and on. These are for profit companies that that actively try and build community.

Apple spends a fair amount of time doing things agains the community that has sprung up around them: that can not be denied. But to not call the folks at iPhoneDevCamp a community, or what happens around TUAW or any of the other pro-Apple community web sites a community is not accurate. They are a community, even if they are a community under seige. Apple may not value their community in the same way that Sun values theirs, but that does not mean that the community is not there. As an aside, the OpenOffice community has been hard at work on porting their excellent flagship product to OS.X, extending their community to include the OS.X one.

It can not even be catagorically stated that Apple is anti-community, because Apple is not just Steve Jobs. It is a large comapny, and there were Apple employees at iPhoneDevCamp, even if it was not in an official capacity.

The main point here is that community will exist around all sorts of things, and what Apple needs to watch out for is what their communities do may be inspired by what Apple does. Apple is creating the crucible that fires people into doing things like porting Linux or BSD to the iPhone so that they can be rid of the yoke that binds them, but still get to play with the device that they love. The same thing is true in Akshun J's references iPod article: Linux already runs on the iPod. I can have the device that I want, and use it the way that I want as well.

90% of the folks that buy iPods or iPhones are going to use them exactly as Apple designed them. Apple has no worries there. It is only that the 10% that will not use them as they are built are not going to just decide they were being silly, and they were really sorry, and "oh, OK I'll put it back the way it was meant to be" because Apple fired update 1.1.1 over their heads. The 10% are highly creative, and highly influential. They will either fix Apple, or Apple is going to find that "the next big thing" grew out of the community that they were firing at.

It is an easy fix. All they have to do is release an SDK for the iPhone to allow apps to be created for the platform. Problem solved. Or they can stay at odds with their community and be on the receiving end of the law of unintended consequences.

Waiting on the iPhone Community to fix Apple

Apple is being deeply clueless lately, at least about the iPhone.

I am not talking about iPhone unlocks here. I do not get why Apple does not sell an unlocked model at a higher price-point than the unit they sell via AT&T here in the states. Seems like a no-brainer, so I assume it is contractual with AT&T that they do not.

I don't really care: I know there are folks who really have issues with AT&T but I am unable to discern any major differences in moral character between any of the carriers here in the US. The price is the price, I have looked at it, decided it is worth it, and am willing to pay it.

I also do not care about the iPhone sealed battery, no GPS chip, or no 3G. I have looked at each of these issues, and decided that the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. For ME. I also do not expect that others needs, wants or desires here are the same as mine, and I expect that others will stay away from the iPhone because they don't like these two features *more* than they like what the iPhone is. [update from the future: Ok, that was three features, not two. Doh.]

I am pretty clearly on record as loving my iPhone... mostly. It is as much a portable computer as anything else. That is what I wanted from the converged device.

However....

Apple is not meeting my needs in the application department. I want things other than what they offer. I get the whole web 2.0 thing. I still want certain classes of things to run locally on my iPhone. My deepest disappointment to date is that there is not a decent Klondike time waster available for local install. Not from Apple, and not from the iPhone community at large, even with their local applications installer. I know about the web site solitaire sites, and so far none of them are making my socks roll up and down.

I have the Nullriver Installer.app, and have used it to install all sorts of the stuff that Apple forget to install or at least make available as options. Things like a native IM client No iChat... what *were* they thinking. Give me this great keyboard, and I can't use it to IM! I am not a big IM'er. I don't do it at work much at all. When I have time to IM is when I am sitting on the subway someplace, or in a waiting room at the Doctors office or something. When I am with my iPhone, not my computer.

Other missing stuff I want are things like an RSS news reader, VNC, and (as a geek) the BSD subsystem so I can open a terminal and SSH around to things.

There should have been an SDK from day one, and when Apple did not create it, they should not have been surprised that the community was not going to sit around and wait for them to figure it out.

I am in the interesting position now that I will not install the new 1.1.1 version of the code on the iPhone because it is attempting to break my applications (and perhaps brick my iPhone in the process), and I value the community developed applications far more than any ability to directly download music to my iPhone,(iTunes store access being the only really new thing in 1.1.1, and "Just In Time Music" is not something I live for. I can wait till I get home.).

It would be nice to have iTunes Store access from the iPhone, but I do not want it more than I want all the other cool community applications. I mean really: has Apple *seen* Navizon? I don't care that the iPhone has no GPS chip. Don't need it with Navizon.

Instead of taking the opportunity to build community, not to mention get great feedback about what people really want their iPhones to do, Apple appears to be trying to make the community mad. It won't be long before folks just say "This isn't worth it. Great hardware though. Time to install FreeBSD / Linux and just be done with this."

I don't think that is what Apple wants: an lPhone. That is exactly what they are incenting. The law of unintended consequences is a cruel master.

So, like the Chuck Norris joke, I am waiting (Chuck Norris doesn't sleep, he waits). I am waiting for the community to fix 1.1.1. I am watching what Apple does next. I am deciding.

I don't *have* to buy Apple stuff. I do so far, but I am fully willing to not do it in future if Apple continues not getting it. Linux is taking off in the Smartphone market. There is probably a reason.

Come on Apple. Please figure this out!