djwonk

Cory Doctorow’s critique of the iPad is a sweeping look at what open technologies mean for the next generation of hackers:

The way you improve your iPad isn’t to figure out how it works and making it better. The way you improve the iPad is to buy iApps. Buying an iPad for your kids isn’t a means of jump-starting the realization that the world is yours to take apart and reassemble; it’s a way of telling your offspring that even changing the batteries is something you have to leave to the professionals.

On the hardware level, Doctorow is spot on. I wish the iPad were more hackable there. I also appreciate the sentiment of the quotation above. However, it overlooks the obvious: someone has to build the apps that other people are using and buying. Those people are developers and hackers. Yes, Apple controls the App Store, but I think that more people (especially hacker types) are going to gravitate towards alternative app stores with fewer walls.

It is easy to critique Apple for being a “walled garden” but most consumers probably don’t see it this way. There are two sides to the coin. The very same “quality control” or “curation” on the App Store increases consumer confidence in trying out new applications. This demand increases developer incentive to build new applications, which is likely to increase the amount of hacking.

I want to make one point very clearly: when you evaluate the effect of the iPad on the levels of consumption and hacking, don’t assume that one cannibalizes the other. This is not a zero sum game. More consumption on the consumer side is likely to drive more hacking on the developer side.