[Karl @ Feb 6th 2007 3:22PM]

I wrote an email to Steve a while ago (It's probably not his personal email account, but it's probably monitored by somebody at apple).

In it, I told him how Apple had become a company that I was ashamed of. Many people say Apple never lost their vision, bringing innovative things like the iPod and iPhone to the world. I don't think so. I think Apple lost their vision more than most.

In the 1997 Macworld, Jobs promoted interop and partnership with Microsoft. He said they were going to become better partners, and agree on standards together. However, since that, Apple have taken a road bashing Microsoft every step of the way, and competing with them based on proprietary technologies. How does that satisfy the stage-rattling cheers that Jobs got back in '97?

Anyway, I emailed him and told him that I was ashamed of Apple for losing its vision. We haven't seen a speech like the one in 97 before ever in this industry.

I'm proud of Jobs for that letter. It takes a lot of guts to publically chide your partners for your most profitable products, and shift the blame of the DRM era to them. From somebody as high up as Jobs, this carries a lot of weight. It's a risky move, but I'm proud he took the first step.

But I would like to see a little more than words. Because Jobs can bemoan the partners for not going DRM-free, but what about Disney? They have hundreds of films up on iTunes. All wrapped in that lovely DRM-tasting stuff.

Karl