Nic Carr on the iPhone

Nic Carr has a quick op-ed up over at RoughType that's worth popping by to read. In it, he contrasts Bill Gates with Steve Jobs. Gates, he says, pitches a "'digital lifestyle' that nobody wants...[suggesting] that people want nothing more than to be network administrators." Jobs, in contrast, "is not interested in amateur productions". Carr suggests that Jobs separates the design from the audience, producing usable tools rather than general workflows. It's clear to me that Apple is heading ever more in the direction of digital appliances (the iPhone, AppleTV, etc), but this is also the same company that brings us XCode and Interface Builder. Clearly Apple knows the difference between users and developers and is building their product line to enhance that difference. Just like Macworld is in January and WWDC is in the Summer.

Thanks Joel Martin.