Another round of inbred, senseless speculation from Seeking Alpha. This time it’s the federal class action lawsuit against Apple and AT&T for locking the iPhone to AT&T’s network.
Personally, I tend to favor freedom and innovation. Why should Steve Jobs decide whether Adobe’s Flash should become extinct?
Of course, Jobs won’t decide that. The market will. The iPhone (and iPad) is sold without the ability to run Flash. That’s not an issue for the courts to decide.
More importantly, the single biggest complaint about iPhone has been AT&T’s horrendous cell phone coverage. It is one thing to force consumers into a short-term exclusive agreement. It is another to force them to use a service provider which is not providing reasonable service.
While many iPhone users would love to have a choice in carriers, Apple’s phone is GSM, not CDMA, and won’t run on Verizon’s network anyway (does anyone really care about Sprint or T-Mobile?). Can the courts force Apple to build a CDMA iPhone? Not likely.
Is there a solution to Apple’s App Store Disneyland? Can Apple legally tell iPhone owners which apps can run and which cannot?
A reasonable compromise is one which Toyota has with its Prius customers. A Prius owner is free to modify his or her vehicle for personal benefit. However, modification immediately terminates Toyota’s vehicle warranty. So, if we want to pimp our ride or install a 100 mpg battery, Toyota doesn’t have to deal with helping us anymore. Why not the same for the iPhone or any hardware for that matter?
Funny. I thought that’s what jail breaking was all about.
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