[racket] iPhone (Was: [The Racket Blog] New comment on Racket.)

We are a fair bit off topic here, but what I see in Apple's policies
is a desire to ensure that their devices behave in consistent,
well-designed ways and to make that happen they have decided to do
things like charge more money for them (presumably to pain for the
extra work that goes into the design process), design their own
hardware & software platform together, and to limit the kinds of
third-party stuff that can go on them. They do this in order to
guarantee they are easy to use and thus hope to sell more of them.
While I certainly agree with the sentiment that they go to far to
achieve this end (and I personally find their earlier PL-based
restrictions to be very disappointing) I can't see how this could be
considered an ethical issue.

Robby

On Friday, June 18, 2010, Neil Van Dyke <neil at neilvandyke.org> wrote:
> I think it's both.  I mentioned the ethical question because one could probably find a worthwhile risk-reward solution for the short-term self-interest economics question, or one could find a way to cover one's own butt (perhaps involving a backroom deal and PR leverage), but I think that the ethics (collective, long-term) problem of supporting the iPhone iron-fisting is harder to resolve.
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> Robby Findler wrote at 06/18/2010 10:33 AM:
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> Why is this an ethical question and not an economic one?
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> Robby
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> On Friday, June 18, 2010, Neil Van Dyke <neil at neilvandyke.org> wrote:
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> Apple has been brutal with iPhone developers, running the platform as a ruthless and fickle dictatorship.  I believe that this is the general perception of iPhone developers.
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> Even if one is willing to jump through Apple's hoops, and one accepts that, at any time and for any reason, Apple will have no qualms about simply kicking one off the platform, instantly and without explanation... I believe that there is also an ethical question of whether supporting the iPhone platform is contributing to the success of Apple's ruthless, anti-competitive, and closed-platform practices.
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> Android, Symbian, the new Nokia Qt stuff, Java... all alternative mobile device platforms for civic-minded techies to consider.
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