Things Apple Can Do to Come Off as Being Less Evil

When I was young, I obsessed about anything related to Apple. I read Mac Addict religiously, and couldn’t get enough information about Apple’s hardware and software. At that time, when I was about 12-years-old, our family didn’t even own a Mac, but even so, I was excited about a lot of what the company offered. Apple was different… not just the computer, but the company. Being a fan was like joining a special club.

Thinking back, I can better understand the “Cult of Apple” mentality that some have, because it’s easy to understand why Apple has such a powerful allure. It does two things well, software and hardware, and as we’ve seen in recent years, that prowess has even milked its way into things like smartphones and tablets. To be a fan of Apple is to be a fan of cutting-edge thinking, and originality.

Or, it was at one point, at least. In recent years, Apple’s fanbase has had a rather rough ride, and many are torn between both liking and hating the company, and it’s easy to understand why. Similar to companies like Google, Apple doesn’t really seem to work for anyone, but itself. The company’s goal is to create great products and keep investors happy, and it does that well. But as for the company’s image, that seems to be going downhill in a rather swift manner.

It doesn’t take much more than a minute to find information around the Web that sheds a poor light on Apple. In the past year or so, the biggest issue has arguably been tied to the App Store, and issues that publishers face when trying to get their app made available to the public. In general, there seems to be a lot of distaste towards Apple today than there used to be. Three years ago, it was difficult to find anything bad about the company being said, but today… the opposite can be said.

Interestingly, Wired has published an article that tackles this same subject, and offers the company five suggestions to help it come off as being less evil. Three of these have more to do with the App Store than anything, while another is to offer a direct apology to Jason Chen, which I agree with. Despite the story, I couldn’t imagine having my house pretty well broke into and rummaged through.

The final and last suggestion is my favorite, but I won’t spoil it here.

Reasonable people can disagree over whether it was ethical for Gizmodo to purchase the lost iPhone prototype, but the police action — kicking down Jason Chen’s door to seize his computers — was overboard. It was self-evidently a clumsy move: After damaging Chen’s property, the police paused the investigation to study whether the journalists’ Shield Law protected Chen. The proper action would have been to issue a subpoena to get Chen to talk about the device first. Apple, which instigated the police action by filing a stolen property complaint, should publicly apologize to Chen (no relation to the author of this post) and reimburse him for the damages.