iPhone Skeptic Explains

It's Monday morning and we could use a little red meat to rile up the zoo, so here ya go: An essay from a self-proclaimed Apple fan on why he hasn't fallen for the iPhone.

BusinessWeek writer Arik Hesseldahl says Apple's refusal to allow third-party apps to run directly on the Wonderbrick limits its appeal and seriously undermines Apple's long history of letting developers take its devices in compelling new directions. He says the decision is purely profit-driven and snorts at Apple's claims that rogue apps could break the network:

Really, is the iPhone so delicate that one nasty application damages its software permanently? I thought the device runs Mac OS X. If you believe Apple's marketing, the operating system is rock solid, hard to break, easy as pie to use, and so on. One bad application can do all that damage? The iPhone itself isn't just a phone or an iPod. It's really a mobile computer. Apparently one so powerful that software developers are forbidden to do anything for it, short of cute little Web-based applications, yet so sensitive that it's easy to screw up. That's one way to inspire confidence in a product.

Why I Won't Buy an iPhone[BusinessWeek]