The Apple Paradox, Closed Culture & Free-Thinking Fans

Posted on | January 27, 2010 | No Comments

Now this is something that I, as a complete Apple-o-phile, have also often pondered: How does Apple manage to retain it’s image as the favorite hard- and software provider for the world’s creative open culture community while being such a proprietary-centered business? It’s an immense paradox – which is highlighted in this interesting article from Xconomy.

The lead (slashed from Slashdot) goes:

“The secrecy surrounding the expected Apple tablet computer is only the latest example of the company’s famously closed and controlling culture. Yet millions of designers, musicians, and other creative professionals love their Apple products, and the Apple brand is almost synonymous with free-thinking creativity. How can a company whose philosophy of information sharing is so at odds with that of most of its customers be so successful? This Xconomy essay explores three possible explanations. 1) Closed innovation, overseen by a guiding genius like Steve Jobs, may be the only way to build such coherent, compelling products. 2) Apple’s hardware turns out to be more ‘open’ than the company intended — Jobs originally wanted to keep third-party apps off the iPhone, for example. 3) Related to #1: customers are pragmatic about quality, and the open source and free software movements haven’t produced anything remotely as useful as Mac OS X and the iPhone.”

Read the Xconomy article here.

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