| As someone who has been de facto boycotting Apple (the last Apple device I've owned was an iPhone 3G) over annoyance with their iron fisted control policies, I wish you were right that this would damage their corporate brand, but I don't think it will. Most non-geeks just don't care about this stuff one way or another. And most geeks either rationalize it or post how annoyed by it they are from their shiny new MacBook or iPhone. I think this course of action is incredibly stupid of Apple regardless of public perception though. If they ever did manage to get Android killed in the way they seem to want to (Jobs' 'thermonuclear' option), don't they realize that would make them the 90's-Microsoft of smartphones? Is killing Android worth a future in which they have to cede control of the app store, debundle mobile Safari, or offer the user a choice of browsers, etc? Given their corporate culture of control, having a relatively strong competitor is actually a VERY GOOD thing for them, especially when they are still pulling in record profits quarter after quarter even with the competition. Of course, I don't expect they ever will actually kill Android, they are just guaranteeing Google is going to go after them in all the same markets using Motorola IP, forcing widescale settlements. In the end nothing will be gained by anyone except the lawyers. |
Not really, because it wouldn't. You don't see Apple going after WP7. Nor WebOS. Yes they are small competitors but that's only because Android is free and established, if there was no Android, they would pick up the slack quite quickly. Apple has a specific problem with Android because of the level of insider information Google had on the iPhone project at the time Android was being retooled into an iOS competitor.
Microsoft's schtick was embrace, extend, extinguish which was a much more two-faced policy and evil policy. 90's Microsoft wanted to own everything and control everything, from the lowliest embedded device to the most powerful servers in the world, from desktop PCs, to mobile devices, to the internet in general, you name it. If it was related to computers, it should run Windows, browse with IE and Microsoft should receive a license fee for it.
Apple has no such desires now, and never really had them in the first place. 90's Microsoft was genuinely malicious. 2011 Apple on the other hand just doesn't like Android and has a serious problem with how it was conceived. IMO because it repeats so perfectly the mistake Steve Jobs made when letting Bill Gates get so close to Apple. True, they maintain more control over their devices than Microsoft ever did, but they don't have the "100% control of the entire market in all aspects" aspirations that Microsoft had. It's just a completely different situation.