I spent some of the evening tonight watching the 2008 Summer Olympics and debating what to write about for MacPoker.net. With the ninth Full Tilt Online Poker Series serving as the epicenter of the poker world, there is certainly a lot to talk about. However, when I fired up Yahoo tonight, the lead story had nothing to do with the Olympics or a football-like score in Fenway Park in Boston. Rather, news broke that Apple CEO and Founder Steve Jobs stated that the brand new iPhone 3G has a “kill switch,” which The Wall Street Journal claims is present “in case it inadvertently allows a malicious program — such as an application that steals user’s personal data — to be distributed to iPhones through its App Store.”
Jobs told the Journal in the featured Yahoo article that the kill switch has sat idly by during the first few days of the iPhone’s introduction to the market and has yet to be used. Instead, the company has been focused on the products sold in its Application Store. We highlighted the “I Am Rich” application in previous articles on MacPoker.net. According to the Journal, “Apple initially approved the application, which bumps up against the pricing limit for applications sold on its App Store.” That’s surprising to me, as the application seems to erode the credibility of the rest of the legitimate products sold. At the same time, it stereotypes an iPhone user.
An industry analyst critiqued, “The kill switch is a very controlling gesture. I am not sure why Apple didn’t disclose it up front as simply a security measure. Consumers will accept an awful lot if you let them know what they are accepting.” A remote kill switch could be seen as an invasion of privacy by Apple’s loyal users. Many have followed every move that has transpired during the turbulent introduction of the new gadget. One wonders if the latest news is another “red flag” to customers around the world.
The analyst, Avi Greengart, added, “To my way of thinking, the issue is that you don’t really know what your phone might be doing or not be doing. I am not 100 percent sure what the capability is or is not. That is the problem. What is the capability? When might they use it? When wouldn’t they use it? Is there anything else Apple is not disclosing?”
Every consumer has a choice in the marketplace. The old adage is that consumers vote with their wallets. For at least the past few months, vote after vote has been cast for the iPhone, which has become one of the hottest-selling products of all time. iPhones have sold out in the 20 counties that they were available in, leading to sky-high prices on online auction sites like eBay.
Developers who swarmed a recent convention in San Francisco have been hard at work creating value-added applications for the iPhone 3G. They share in revenue derived from their products, giving them an even greater incentive to produce new and intriguing programs. However, one wonders how many missteps can occur before developers, customers, and investors begin to lose confidence in Apple.
The company’s stock, which is traded on the NASDAQ exchange, finished Tuesday up 3.17% to settle at $176.73.