A number of news sites, today of all days (week after the international launch of the iPad, expected day of the announcement of a new iPhone,are asking one thing: has Steve Jobs, or more precisely Apple, finally gotten too big? John Steward famously derided the company on TV, reminding them that they did the anti-Big Brother advertisement in which the little guy wins through, and now they're using the police to track down a missing phone prototype when it gets lost in a bar.
Or stolen. Imagine asking the police to help recover stolen property. But I digress.
The argument runs something like this. Apple - due a major announcement any second now - is a big company. OK, there are loads of those, But so was Microsoft, when it was a big and good company. You know, when nobody knew how to use a computer then it launched Windows 3.0 and suddenly everyone could handle the basics. This was a good thing.
Then it got bigger. And bigger. And suddenly there were anti-trust issues, and Microsoft were the bad guys. Then Windows Vista was, umm, interesting compared to its predecessor.
And suddenly Microsoft were the bad guys and Apple were the good guys, as were Google. Except they got to be big, and nobody likes that so now they're the good guys. The social media people are now the good guys except they're not any more because Facebook are bad guys as well.
Are you seeing a pattern here?
I am. I'm seeing bloggers and newshounds getting fed up with a company that's building itself up and trying to tear it down again. And do you know something: Apple hasn't actually done anything to provoke this.
Yes, it's fallen out big time with Adobe. I'd much rather be able to look at Flash animations on my iPad. But I accept it isn't going to happen.
Yes, it prices its products way beyond the industry average. But it always has. You've never noticed? This isn't anything new.
No, the only crime Apple seems to be committing is moving into the main stream. Apple products don't have the same cachet that they used to because loads more people are using them. This isn't a reason to beat a company up, guys - sure, you're no longer the only iPod owner on the street, but go ahead and deal with it.
Meanwhile the company is about to make - right now - an announcement. Probably a new iPhone. It's probably going to be another hit.
I'll bet the bloggers will hate it.
