Comment by bouncing | Hacker News Reader

Comment by bouncing | Hacker News Reader

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I'm not sure there's a strong connection with Jobs' desire to limit native code execution and social good will. It's probably worth pointing out that reportedly, Jobs himself kept iOS devices away from his own children because he considered them "too addictive."

Apple's original position on third party apps was that they deserved on the web, in what would eventually become known as "progressive web app" form. That position was abandoned not just because it was a mediocre user experience, but also, it actually prevented device lock-in, which is something Jobs obviously craved.

You can argue that some apps are time-sucks, or bad for your overall well-being, and I'll be right there with you. But that has relatively little to do with whether they're shitty web apps or native code apps.

And also, the fact that smartphones do way more than originally imagined is a great thing. In most parts of the world, I can pull out my phone, tap a few characters, and a car will magically pull up where I am and take me wherever I need to go. Or bring me food. I can translate anything to anything. I know the second a flight is delayed, which lets me be more present in life. My life is assuredly better because my smartphone is turing-complete and runs third party software.

"Apple's original position on third party apps..."

To add some necessary context, Apple's position on almost everything is "what we are currently doing is best" (and from that "what our competitors are doing is wrong" or "what you wish it did is wrong"). Building a whole native development platform, curation system, etc, is a massive undertaking, so with the first device Jobs unsurprisingly pitched their current state as ideal. And as they adopted new choices, those became the new ideal. Any who read too much into Jobs various sentiments that could best be expressed as sales pitches might be going astray.

That's a good point.

"We haven't figured out third party app curation yet" might have been accurate, but not in Apple's style to admit.

Exactly. Or even more likely, "we have a pretty good idea of what we want the native apps experience to be, but it's not ready/good enough yet".

That position was abandoned not just because it was a mediocre user experience, but also, it actually prevented device lock-in, which is something Jobs obviously craved.

Developers demanded native apps and the “sweet solution” of web apps was derided as being a “shit sandwich” by commentators at the time.

Also, around the same time that the iPhone was introduced, the music industry wanted Apple to license FairPlay. Steve Jobs posted the famous “Thoughts on Music” essay to Apple’s home page saying that if the music industry wanted interoperability, just allow Apple and every other digital music seller to sell DRM free music.

> It's probably worth pointing out that reportedly, Jobs himself kept iOS devices away from his own children because he considered them "too addictive."

I have heard that his kids didn't use iPads in the early days, but I never heard what the reason is (nor do I know how old they were at the time). I'd be curious to know who has tied this behavior to addictiveness, and whether anyone knows how old they were when this was said.

Sometimes people like to latch onto facts like "Tim Cook doesn't let his nephew use an iOS device" without indicating how old the kid is. I would react very differently if execs were withholding these devices from 15 year olds than from 4 year olds.

> Jobs himself kept iOS devices away from his own children because he considered them "too addictive."

Busy man, he allegedly also kept himself away from his own children. The first one - Lisa - certainly did not get stock options. It was only after the intervention of a judge that he began to assist her financially.

IIRC, he reconnected with her and asked her for forgiveness later in life. Abandoning your child and disowning them is a shitty thing to do, mind you, but he (apparently) tried to atone for that.

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