Wired.com says the sky is falling because Apple is, surprise, letting business considerations govern who does and doesn’t get to sell stuff for iPhones, and under what conditions:
Free Press, a group that advocates the idea of an open internet — that is, one in which consumers have the right to browse the web and run internet applications without restrictions — is the latest of several organizations to call out Apple for its inconsistencies. Free Press alleges that Apple crippled SlingPlayer, a TV-streaming application for iPhone, so that it would only work on a Wi-Fi connection; the initial version worked with a 3G cellular network connection as well as Wi-Fi. The SlingPlayer restriction is inconsistent with Apple’s approval of the Major League Baseball application, which provides live-streaming of sports events on both Wi-Fi and 3G connections, the group said.
“That strikes us as odd and potentially nefarious because it really represents a carrier picking and choosing applications for consumers as opposed to letting consumers decide which videos they want to watch,” said Ben Scott, policy director of Free Press. “It’s exactly the sort of thing you’d expect in an internet experience that’s controlled by the carrier.”
Yeah, it’s exactly the sort of thing you’d expect from a business that is in the business of, uh, business. Instapundit, seizing on the title of this piece, “How Apple and AT&T Are Closing The Mobile Web,” understandably says he “doesn’t like the sound of this” — which, of course, is exactly why that title was chosen. But it’s okay, Glenn. It just sounds like free enterprise. That’s a sound you like almost as much as a puppy in a blender!
The anti-Apple screed segues into a legitimate look about the real technological limits the mobile web is approaching, in terms of network capacity. But it completely elides the difference between “the Internet” and “the mobile Web” and “what you can put on an iPhone.” I mean, come on:
“If you’re going to allow video to stream on the 3G network, you can’t pick and choose which video services operate,” Scott said. “You have to let them all operate, otherwise that’s not the internet.”
You “can’t”? Otherwise, what again? Oh — “it’s not the Internet.”
What a bunch of babies it is, this “Internet” you speak of, Wired.
