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Steve Jobs introduces the magically proprietary iPhone: Apple advances user-restricting technology five years
In the iPhone, Apple has created an admittedly beautiful mobile device that has some unfortunate usability/transferability-inhibiting flaws. Could such restrictive technology be the future to which Steve Jobs refers below?
Click the above cropped image to see the full picture of another interpretation of what Steve Jobs meant when he said the iPhone was "literally five years ahead of any other mobile device" (Or click here)
As pointed out in the sketch, Apple's iPhone restricts users to (1)only one network (Cingular Wireless), (2) using the frustratingly proprietary iTunes software/interface, (3) gag-inducing DRM "crippleware" benignly called FairPlay and (3) installing only Apple software (compare this to the thousands of applications available to Palm O/S-based smart phones).
Cory Doctorow noted on boingboing, for a company synonymous with "switch", which has an implicit user-flexibility undertone, Apple has created a product that is highly restrictive to user flexibility. Even more troubling, true to Jobs radical statement about the iPhone being five years ahead of any other mobile device, such restrictive products may indeed be the future for mobile devices.