ACT For Change is Stupid, Mistakes Apple for a Democracy, Demands iPhone Be Unlocked
June 27, 2007
I got an e-mail yesterday from Act for Change, encouraging me to “Tell Steve Jobs: Unlock the iPhone!” They have a petition for me to sign and everything. But they’ve forgotten one teensy thing: Apple is not a democracy. It’s a dictatorship ruled with an iron fist by Steve Jobs. And he’s not going to unlock anything.
If they were sending out an appeal to Apple shareholders, their actions would make a bit more sense. But Apple’s shareholders are likely to hold the line with Jobs because it’s in our best financial interest to do so. And American consumers at large are in no position to make demands when it comes to Apple and the iPhone because it’s quite simply the most revolutionary product to hit the market in a very long time. It’s so in demand that even Walt Mossberg likes it and he’s a tough customer.
But even if Apple were a democracy, they still wouldn’t be able to do anything about it. AT&T built a special voicemail infrastructure just for the iPhone. Visual voicemail won’t work on any other network, and that’s one of the iPhone’s coolest features. Plus, Apple has a contract with AT&T that it can’t back out of without facing a lawsuit. The shareholders will never stand for that.
If the hippies over at ACT for Change really want to do something productive with their time, they should be asking people to tell Congress to hold Bush accountable for his lack of regard for the Constitution or even tell Dick Cheney that he’s actually a part of the government.
If I were one of their contributors, I would be pretty pissed that they were spending my money on a meaningless, hopeless campaign to unlock the iPhone.
Wow, ACT is the stupidest thing Ive ever heard of.
100% agreed with you on this one. It’s a phone, made by a company that’s brand-new to the industry. It’s not a monopoly, it’s not a cruel regime, it’s not even the kind of thing you can use words like “stranglehold” to describe.
It’s a phone. If you don’t like it, or its terms, or the companies behind it, then there are plenty of others.
I don’t say this lightly. I myself had to make that decision, and I decided against getting an iPhone because the plans are too expensive for me to justify it. Still, I just made the decision and moved on. Because it’s a phone.
Now where’s that petition to tell Cheney off?
And of course by “you” I mean “one who whines about the iPhone”, not “Teresa”. In case that wasn’t clear.
because it’s quite simply the most revolutionary product to hit the market in a very long time.
Errr…overstatement?
Jason: Have you played with an iPhone yet? I thought it was overstatement too until I actually played with one. Simply amazing. Like something out of Earth: Final Conflict..