iPhone Internet Savior or Satan?

Two interesting things happened at the National Conference for Media Reform in Minneapolis.

The first, which I will only touch on briefly, is Bill Moyers’ two performances; first as keynote speaker and the second taking on one of Bill O’Reilly’s cub reporters who was sent to ambush Mr. Moyers. Mr. Moyers’ keynote is a little long, but as beautiful in its writing and delivery as the stature of the ideas. If you care about democracy, freedom of expression, and the future of the media and media ownership, read the rest of this blog entry, and then go watch the speech.

For those who don’t know who Bill Moyers is…among other things, he has been one of the preeminent journalists of the last 50 years. He is the unusual Journalist who can explore difficult, complex topics, ask fair, but tough questions, and make his audience think without condescension, or pandering of any kind and he does it all with grace and eloquence. Mr. Moyers is simply amazing.

The second interesting happening came to my attention when I read Nate Anderson’s blog about Tim Wu’s talk at the same conference. Tim put forward the proposition that “Apple’s iPhone the device is at the center of the battle for the future of the Internet.” This is a surprisingly interesting discussion, even if you don’t have an iPhone or even want an iPhone. Full disclosure, I reluctantly succumbed to getting an iPhone about four months ago and admit I love it. But that’s a story for another blog entry.

At issue is Apple’s sole control over the iPhone. The basis of the proposition is that “generative” technologies like the personal computer and the Internet are at risk of being pushed to the margins by closed technologies like the iPhone.

For a while, I have actually been thinking that the iPhone is currently one of the best things that has happened to the web in a while and certainly the most exciting. Not just because it is helping fulfill the holy grail of a great web experience that you can take with you. It is that, but it is also a possibly an unintended consequence of the lack of Flash and Silverlight for the iPhone that makes it so exciting to me. Here is a case of “less is truly more”. Why?

The lack of Flash on the iPhone this has ensured that there are cutting edge developers thinking twice about porting too much of their content and UI into the Adobe’s proprietary SWF format which has made major strides in adoption over the last couple of years thanks to Flash Video, Flex, and other innovations. To be equally fair, I should mention that Apple has also not permitted Microsoft’s Silverlight on the iPhone either and I don’t expect they will. Apple has, in many ways been rather committed to open standards on the iPhone. Safari is making great strides with support for web standards. That’s to be applauded.

I suppose it is equally fair to say that this commitment to open standards is consistent with Nate etal’s complaint that Apple wants to retain total control over the iPhone. Ironically, by blocking Adobe’s interest in porting Flash to the iPhone, Apple bolsters the argument that open standards like XML, HTML, JavaScript, SVG are the best way to separate content from presentation, and provide accessible content to anyone on any device. In fact, there is little more than a unique style sheet separating superb desktop and iPhone user experience.

Moreover, these technologies are fundamental to Web2.0 and Web3.0. only through open standards can users consume content the way they like it: think: GreaseMonkey, UserScripts, Yahoo! Pipes, mashups, and the like. This is why the iPhone is important even if you don’t own an iPhone. Because for the most part, Flash is the antithesis of the notion that the content consumer has the ability to consume content as they like; it puts the Flash designer/developer in the driver’s seat and forces them to decide in advance, how their content can be consumed. Imagine a snooty chef opening your mouth and force feeding you food the way he sees fit, with no opportunity for you to add some salt or god forbid, Heinz 57 Ketchup. Sadly, I’m starting to see some sites that don’t even provide non-SWF alternatives. They are about the only thing I can’t see on my iPhone.

So from rom that standpoint, Apple standing up to Adobe has been good for the web. The trade off, if there is one, is that Apple sets itself up as sole controller of the iPhone. As Nate, etal. point out, “…closed devices can offer a more controlled environment, better security, and fewer crashes, they can only be altered in ways supported by the companies that produced them” Open Source fans might argue with the better security and fewer crashes due to the “many eyeballs" that look at code in an open source product like Firefox, but I won’t quibble over that here. In my experience, my iPhone is at least as stable as my Windows Mobile devices, if not more so. (I haven't had a chance to use Google’s Android OS yet.)

But until a few months ago, when Apple released an SDK for the iPhone, the initial development potential for the iPhone was extremely limited. Think Web 1.0. The new SDK is impressive and I can't wait to see the apps that will fill Apple’s App store, but I understand Nate, etal's point that in some ways, innovation is stifled by Apple’s control over the iPhone platform. For example, I read today that Apple is talking about designing their own chips for future iPhones and iPods. Building chips will no doubt put Apple's destiny completely in their own hands and allow even greater secrecy during product development, but designing and producing chips is expensive. Cost aside, the more Apple controls, the more control they have over the content on the device as well. This opens en entirely new discussion that people have had relating to content ownership. What does it mean when you bought an MP3 or CD? Can you take that content with you the way you always did with cassette tapes?

One thing for sure, Apple has once again succeeded not just in making a pretty fantastic product that has an impact well beyond the people who buy it and that is impressive.

Update: Here's another interesting article where Jonathan Zittrain makes his case for the dangers of the iPhone. I would love to hear what he thinks of Adobe's Flash and Microsoft's Silverlight technologies.

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