Absolute power...

I guess once the proverbial writing on the wall is large enough, even the zealots find it hard to continue pretending they can't see it.

What am I talking about?  The realization that Apple, like Microsoft, Intel, Dell, and every other behemoth company (tech or otherwise), eventually bends to the crushing demand for year-over-year stock growth.  And when you're so big you create your own weather, the only way to manifest continued growth is to become a psychopathic, malignant entity hell-bent on squeezing the market for that extra shred of revenue even if it means the ruin of civilization.  Morphing from plucky, idealistic, everyman's company, fighting the good fight, to card-carrying agent of evil is not a transition that's instantaneous, but neither is it subtle.  If you're not so busy kneeling at the obelisk, head bobbing back and forth, watering eyes squeezed shut, while you try to suppress the gag reflex, you generally can see your beloved company changing quite apparently.  

With increasing frequency, Apple is demonstating just how far down the slippery slope they've slide, and that they're accelerating rather than arresting their descent.

And I don't blame them, not specifically anyway.  Or, rather, I'm not in the least bit surprised.  They're playing the corporate market-share game, and it's a ruthless, bloody, lawless-behind-closed-doors, game that is unfortunately the only game in town.  Don't hate the playa, as they say.  Well, I hate both the players and the game.  Our economic systems, global and national, reward and encourage evil.  Expecting corporations to not be evil under those circumstances is pure folly.  And expecting the systems to change when they're controlled directly by the entities benefitting from them is equal folly.

For those who haven't been paying attention, here's a decent summary of the stuff Apple's been doing: Jason Calacanis makes the "Case Against Apple in Five Parts".

And of course the Google Voice App rejection fiasco is proving to be very effective at snapping many out of their hypnotic coma of Apple idolatry.  Even so, some want to argue that it was just "out of character" for Apple, whereas I say that it was a textbook bellwether indicator, and there's every reason to expect more of the same.

One bit of irony in this that isn't lost on me is that the other half of the controversy (Google) is itself an entity tetering on the edge of morality.  Which direction it will ultimately sway is not a mystery.

[UPDATE] Still not sure?  Still hoping Apple's culture-shaping brand power hasn't taken root as a festering infection within its proverbial core?   Well, apparently Apple is convinced it owns the concept of an apple, as in the fruit.