When I was a teener in the 90’s I used to not like Macs because I hated the idea of people using a different platform. It didn’t make sense to me that anyone would ever want to use anything other than Windows because it just made the world of software that much more annoying to code in.

Later in the 2000’s I saw OSX and (having at this point turned into a total open source fanboy) thought that for the first time I may really approach a Mac and feel a connection with it.

“Wow. Open tools from a big company with a strong message to send.”

I must have been really jaded back then because after a little while I began heavily resenting both major OSes and their creators before too long. Even ten years ago people could see the power of the web as your OS and it was all I thought about in terms of where to put my efforts.

I softened up a lot when I came to New York City and worked at digital agencies. Apple products were cool. Very cool. So. cool. I was annoyed by their unending coolness, but I could see why everyone thought they were awesome. To your average advertising agency employee Apple could do no wrong from 2005 to about 2007 up to and including the release of the iPhone. I would get frustrated by the gushing of Apple products. In many ways Apple deserved it, because they really did a great job; but enough already.

Making all of that possible is the iTunes Store. It seems like such a simple place to shop for stuff, and with the success of Apple products like the iPod and the iPhone it doesnt matter what OS you have any more, because everybody wants the iTunes.

Then everything gets kind of weird. iTunes gets bigger than God with iPhone apps and all the media sales. Apple started to change again in my mind as being an inclusive company (never really the case, I suppose) to being an exclusive company. Where it seemed to be better to just keep people out for the sake of turning more profit on their own. Of course, Apple has done this before. They were the first to remove floppy drives from their machines and now they’re removing Flash(for multiple reasons).

When the tablet gets announced tomorrow its going to be another leg holding up iTunes, and the bigger iTunes gets the bigger Apple’s hold over their competitors gets. This will almost certainly make the people who run Apple even bigger dicks. They’ll get even tougher when it comes to getting their way, and giving in to a spoiled child only reinforces their belief.

Apple will keep doing this until they get put in their place. Some company needs to come in and beat Apple at the product design game. I’ve had it. I don’t want Apple to get lazy. I don’t want some stupid device to be better than Apple’s just because Apple whiffed on something. I want some real, serious competition, because before long Apple is going to start screwing us all. They’re going to stop being the new kid on the block who is shaking up the media world, and they’re going to start being a dictating, regulating, naysaying media conglomerate.