Human creativity can never be bent over a sustained period to the will of one man, however gifted and prodigious he may be, and especially in an area so vast an

Human creativity can never be bent over a sustained period to the will of one man, however gifted and prodigious he may be, and especially in an area so vast and fruitful as that of digital creativity. That is why Steve Jobs, all-powerful as he may be today, will (if he is not careful) watch developers gleefully flee from his grip as occasion permits at some point in the future, or from the grip of his company if he is no longer around to affect the outcome directly. I am not a developer and I do not pretend to know how developers think but I have worked with countless developers over the years and still remember them chafing, for example, under Microsoft's sway in the 1990s even as they were forced to conform to its arbitrary and often harmful edicts and dictates that so affected their financial well-being. Well, Microsoft got away with it for a long time but burned its goodwill in the process (Microsoft had goodwill? You bet. In the 1980s, developers were tripping over themselves to get their new apps out in sync with Microsoft's initiatives and a regular amen chorus would sing Microsoft's praises at every such step - with a breathless PC Magazine and many others waiting to review every step and a herd of authors primed to write about them). Today, Apple is dominating in an analogous vein and getting away with it, but it too is beginning to burn the goodwill it has had over many years with significant groups of loyal developers who now have no choice but to adhere, however grudgingly, to the ever-changing and seemingly capricious guidelines and restrictions being imposed upon them by Apple in hopes of continuing to build their companies or preserving their livelihoods. Perhaps its all-controlling policies will prove benign and wise and will only serve to maintain quality on its various platforms, as the company and its apologists contend. If, however, Apple is instead headed down a more nefarious path, there is nothing that will eventually shield it from the resentment and abhorrence it will face from developers as it burns goodwill with each step it takes in that direction. It was precisely those loyal developers who carried Apple through its darkest days, when by all accounts it should have failed as a company, and it will be precisely those developers who will in time be nowhere in sight should Apple permanently burn them.