Jul

More thoughts on Steve Jobs at D8

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More thoughts on Steve Jobs at D8

Mossberg was clearly on the side of the writer, arguing that even if the iPhone had been stolen by the guy who sold it to Gizmodo, that didn’t justify taking the computer equipment of the man who wrote about the phone. It smacks of retaliation, and Mossberg noted that “there’s a lot of stuff … with my computer I wouldn’t want anyone to have.”

Jobs replied by crassly implying that a Gizmodo blogger was not necessarily a journalist — despite the fact that he wrote what has become a coup and the biggest tech story of the year to date — and weakly suggested that surely the police were “making sure they only see stuff that relates to this case.”

Jobs is similarly smug about Adobe Flash, saying that it’s a technology that’s “had its day but it’s waning.”

As Ben notes, Jobs remains livid that someone bought and wrote about “stolen property,” but he accepts no responsibility for bringing all of this on himself: It’s the culture of elitism and secrecy that he’s built at Apple that has driven people to write about the minutest of rumors about every product the company makes. Apple had a path it could have taken to make this right, by opening up a bit instead of clamping down, but instead it took to the stick, sullying its reputation and spoiling the announcement it has set for next week.
Is that really true? Ask any Facebook obsessive how important Flash is and you’ll get a much different response. Flash development is still amazingly popular and important across the Web, and while Jobs makes a good point — if someone didn’t kill off old technologies like the 3.5-inch floppy disk, we’d still be dragging these along — Apple doesn’t always bet the right way. Anyone who had to shell out extra for SCSI hard drives in the ‘90s or has been frustrated by Apple’s refusal to add a second button to its mice knows this lesson well. I’m willing to wager that Apple’s on the wrong side of the Flash debate too, and it will face at least another five years of disappointed users who just don’t understand why Apple won’t play ball. Jobs’ only real excuse is that it’s “old.”