“No sooner had Steve Jobs resigned than the process of his canonisation began. Genius, visionary, even revolutionary were some of the epithets used to describe the man who took Apple from the brink to the world’s most valuable company,” Julian Lee writes for The Sydney Morning Herald. “Yet, once the hyperbole is stripped away, it may be that he was merely the man who made us fall in love with pretty gadgets, and made Apple shareholders immensely rich in the process.”
“Jobs made computing sexy and packaged music players, phones and portable screens to make them the must-have item for millions. But he is guilty, among other things, of bequeathing to us a worldwide cult of technological onanism from which we are unlikely to recover any time soon,” Lee writes. “Those among us who have an iPod, Macbook, iTouch, iPhone or iPad have surrendered our powers of concentration and free time to this cult, not to mention our personal data. An entire generation will only be able to walk into its future so long as Apple holds its hand. They will only be able to commune with each other via their devices and a shared experience will only be truly shared through Facebook or Digg.”
“There is nothing very cool about the culture of the company Jobs has presided over since he returned as CEO in 1997, after being ousted some years earlier in a boardroom coup. Its ‘my way or the highway’ approach to business has earned it few friends. Apple is one of the few technology companies in the world that has succeeded despite having a closed ecosystem that does not work with any other technology,” Lee writes. “This protectionist approach extends to Apple’s aggressive policy towards patents and trademarks. Any company, be it large or small, that dares use the ‘i’ or anything resembling an apple in its brand, invites the wrath of Apple’s corporate lawyers.”
Lee writes, “In spite of all the facts – that Apple is a ruthless corporate machine that exploits consumers at will and gives little back (it doesn’t even pay its shareholders a dividend) – we love this brand and the avuncular evangelist Jobs who is slowly but surely being raised to the pantheon of ‘greats’ alongside Nobel prize winners, mighty philanthropists and, dare I say it, even religious leaders. In the end I suspect Jobs will be remembered chiefly as one of, if not the, best marketers the world has ever known.”
Full article – Think Before You Click™ – here.
MacDailyNews Take: This is an attempt at satire, right? Or is Lee just another hit-whore?
[Thanks to MacDailyNews readers too numerous to mention individually for the heads up.]
Waaaaahhh!!! I’m a victim!!!! Jobs MADE me fall in love with Apple’s products! I had no choice!! Waaaaaaah!
What’s an iTouch? ………muppet!
VERDICT: Intelligence retardant hit-whore.
This thought process is worthy of Michelle Bachmann and that forgettable airthead from Alaska. Consider another line of employment. 😯
It is laughable. The writer managed to contradict himself in several paragraphs:
“the man who […] made Apple shareholders immensely rich in the process.”
“Apple […] gives little back (it doesn’t even pay its shareholders a dividend)”
After having to work on a POS windows iis server for the last week, I think this LEE person needs a big kick in the nuts for speaking out against Apple, because the world does not need his internally thwarted progeny. He has offended my religion. Just kidding. ack
Hit whore.
Greed is good. Go Apple.
original author Julian Lee is a moron.
his arguments are flawed.
1. Apple is not the tyrannical monopolizer, Microsoft was.
Apple freed us from it. the Mobile industry was monopolizing consumer choices. Apple freed us, including the cell phone service providers from their horrendous prices. but we forget that now?! there’s tons more examples…
2. Lee suffers from Stockholm Syndrome. look it up.
3. If Apple exploits, what was Nokia, Dell, Microsoft, Sony etc. doing all these years, if not worse?! Apple is not into greed but naturally, not voluntarily reaches monopoly, through user choice, not force or hype. find a better solution before you scream. Apple’s integration or smoothness is not the same as Big Brother. don’t be daft.
4. Apple products just work. if you rather be free in the sense of multiple choice, go ahead, feel the bliss in Zune or Android or Dell. no one cares or will miss you on the Apple camp.
5. if Apple makes so much profits, it’s only because they deserve it. everything they accomplished is through being the hardest workers in the industry, the one that cares most about not simpleton products but simply sophisticated solutions, that no one can mimic only because no one understands technology essence as well. if you don’t like zen tech, eat your own shit in hell tech, but shut up. Apple’s stratospheric profits, are not thanks to being shallow but having depth – people can’t be fooled like scientology or religion for that long, over a decade, into buying stuff that doesn’t work.
6. if Apple gets you stuck by what you understand is its integration strategy, you don’t understand the big picture. At least Apple helps us solving daily problems, being more productive and enjoying aesthetics of life. if you hate it, leave, stop bitching. or do it better!
we do not pray to Apple or adhere dogmatically. we genuinely love Apple. now go find something or someone you love. maybe you need to get laid.