This is the same Apple that plans for GateKeeper to check a certificate server for blacklisted apps and developers in OS X 10.8. Imagine not even being in the App Store and your app's mainstream customers with default settings seeing a scary warning message because your certificate was accidentally blacklisted. Coming to the HN front page later this year..? :-) Orienting your business around the ecosystem of a corpor…
Way back when, Microsoft was openly painted by Apple (and the Apple cult followers) as being evil. Interestingly enough, Microsoft never sought to have this kind of a death grip on its users, at least not by force. And, I've never heard of MS killing-off someone's revenue stream like that. You buy their tools and develop for the platform. They don't have a say at all. That's the way it should be.
Somehow a united front needs to be organized and presented to these companies in order for them to understand that they are causing serious damage.
To say that, as entrepreneurs, businessmen and developers we don't want to see the tech landscape develop and evolve in this manner is probably an understatement.
I wonder if CNBC might be interested in doing a documentary on the damage to small businesses and entrepreneurs done by the likes of Google, Apple, eBay and Paypal? That could be an interesting angle.