...
Apple, as a company, has turned into a corporate hypocracy, embodying the very ideals that it claims to be rebelling against. "Think Different", as a slogan, has become a cold criticism of their own actions with regards to their product lines.
The Next Hope
Apple is not just a computer company: Apple is a movement. This concept was finally and truly cemented in the public mindset when Apple carved itself a lasting place in the history of marketing with its 1984 superbowl commercial for Macintosh.
Styled after the classic Orwellian distopia, 1984, this commercial was set in a future where all aspects of individuality had been stamped out by the overlords, constantly vigilant, watching from their television monitors.
This world, as well as everyone in it, was rendered in a blue and gray: some believe we are to see the overlords as IBM, well reknowned for their corporate beaurocracy, and soon to be hated for trying to control our very thoughts with their bland machinery.
Others, including the creative director of the commercial, Lee Clow, state that the commercial represents the abstract struggle of "the few against the many": Apple's Macintosh standing as a symbol of "empowerment".
[Wikipedia]
The True Enemy
However, as time grew on, Apple's real stance on individual expression and "empowerment" in particular, became clear: they are staunchly against it. Apple's insistence on controlling the experience of their products sounds very similar to the "garden of pure ideology" expoused by the Big Brother in their own commercial.
Today we celebrate the first glorious anniversary of the Information Purification Directives. We have created, for the first time in all history, a garden of pure ideology: where each worker may bloom, secure from the pests of any contradictory... thoughts.
Our Unification of Thoughts is more powerful a weapon than any fleet or army on Earth. We are one people: with one will, one resolve, one cause. Our enemies shall talk themselves to death and we will bury them with their own confusion. We shall prevail!
The Point of Jailbreaking
This is why many of us (upwards of 10% of all iPhone users, in fact) "jailbreak" our devices: we want choice. We believe that Apple has maintained its lead as the best mobile hardware platform provider, and we encourage that innovation by purchasing not only their devices but also numerous applications from their App Store; but, and this is important: we want more.
Sometimes, it is "only" marketing restrictions: there is no fundamental reason why only the 3G[S] can record video (although the quality of the camera on the iPhone 2G and 3G is not very high), or why the iPhone 2G is somehow unable to do MMS.
Applications like Google Latitude or Voice are likewise "rejected" (Apple likes to claim that they didn't reject these applications, they simply "didn't accept" them...) from the App Store because they might "confuse" the user by replacing functionality that exists with better equivalents.
Our need for "more", however, goes deeper: jailbreaking isn't just about applications that Apple "rejected", but is also about taking provided tools and going in a new direction. The most popular packages available in Cydia aren't even "applications", but are "extensions": seamless and pervasive modifications to existing software.
An Exploit a Day...
On desktop computers such markets are implicit: the computer is yours, and you can do whatever you want with it. You can purchase any kind of hardware, download any kind of software, and make any modifications you feel to be fit. However, Apple doesn't want us treating our iPhones like computers, no matter how similar they seem.
This means that those of us who demand to have the freedom to use the device we rightfully own the way we want to use it are in a constant battle with Apple.
...
Original article
Copyright 2008-2009 - Jay Freeman (saurik)
If I substitute IBM with Apple (and Apple with jailbreak), don't we get
today's situation?