New generation Apple fans iPhone's worst nightmare and biggest opportunity

Stan Beer
Sunday, 02 September 2007 20:53

Business IT - Technology

There's no doubting that Apple probably has the most loyal fan base in the world. The problem for Apple is that the N-Geners (net generation) have a different set of values to the previous faithful. They believe in the free flow of information between consumers and suppliers and, as demonstrated by new global group of iPhone crackers, that spells bad news for Apple's closely guarded iPhone walled garden.

The problem for Apple is that with iPhone the company is behaving like an old-fashioned multinational servicing local markets individually instead of a global company servicing the wider global community. This doesn't sit well with the new breed of net savvy consumers that want to be able to buy into the future development of a product they adore. They want to collaborate with Apple and help build new applications but what they get instead are tightly regulated roadblocks designed to lock them out of the creative process.

With Apple telling user developers that they can only develop emasculated iPhone applications through the Safari browser and restricting the iPhone to certain networks in certain countries, is it any wonder that N-Geners are rebelling? According to the excellent book Wikinomics by Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams, we have now entered the age of mass collaboration and prosumers rather than passive consumers. These prosumers want a say and input into the development of products being dished up to them.

Unfortunately with iPhone, Apple is giving these would be collaboraters the cold shoulder and, in so doing, cutting themselves off from a rich source of creative development resources outside of the company's limited tightly controlled insular development environment.

Therefore it is little wonder that a group of global hackers have rebelled and cracked the iPhone software code that ties iPhone to the AT&T network. The fact that this has taken a mere two months is no doubt ringing alarm bells at Apple headquarters. What it should be doing, however, is turning on a few light bulbs.

If a small group of hackers can crack the iPhone code and free Apple's device for use on global carrier networks, imagine what a global collaborative community with free and open access to the iPhone APIs could do. iPhone is already the most innovative mobile phone device ever to hit the market. With a global community of user developers behind it, Jobs'modest vision of 1% market share could pale into insignificance.

Without a doubt, Apple is probably right now consulting its legal team and has initiated a hunt to track the perpetrators of this "outrage" that enables its new phone to be used in any market. What Apple should be doing, however, is rewarding this clever band of developers for transforming its product from a local device to a global device.

Unfortunately, Apple has already hamstrung itself by exclusive contracts with AT&T and carriers in Europe. Regardless, this latest episode has demonstrated the plethora of talent outside Apple that remains untapped and could enrich the company if it would only bring down the walls and allow its biggest fans to help make the iPhone a world beater.

As a footnote, I was in the Us last week and would have bought an iPhone immediately if I could have slipped in my existing phone's SIM card and started to use it back home. Unfortunately, I couldn't so Apple missed out on a sale. How many other iPhone sales have Apple missed out on because of its obssession with maintaining its walled garden?