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Is the iPhone Killing the Internet?

newsweek.com — If you say that the iPhone is the greatest invention of your lifetime, few would bat an eye. But dare to claim that the iPhone is killing the Internet as we know it, you'd be laughed out of town. But that is the central argument of a new book "The Future of the Internet - and How to Stop It." Read this interview with the author & hear his argument.

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  • BrendanSheehan, on 05/03/2008, -12/+5So this guy is a Linux hippy then? Not that there's anything wrong with linux, but a certain amount of control (in my opinion of course) has proven to bring with it quality and support that an open system simply cannot match. It's the price you pay, simple as that. And let's face it, there'll always be competition and choice. It's the very foundation of capitalism.
    • Drahkar, on 05/03/2008, -4/+6I'd say that anyone who claims something like this is just trying to sell books to make money. It may change the Internet from what it once was, but that's not killing it. Its just some ass who refuses to grow with the times complaining about how things were back in the day. Only he expects us to pay him for the chance to her him bitch and moan. No thanks.
    • unreg, on 05/03/2008, -5/+8The iPhone as the greatest invention of my lifetime?

      I'm sorry, but the iPhone is not an invention. It's nothing more then the integration of some very slick, but at the time existing and mature, technology into a very stylish package. Add to that the marketing hype and you had yourself a very nice little phone with web browser. But it's still a phone with a web browser.

      • abhiroop, on 05/03/2008, -1/+8Do you know what an invention is???

        in·ven·tion Audio Help /ɪnˈvɛnʃən/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[in-ven-shuhn] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation
        –noun
        1. the act of inventing.
        2. U.S. Patent Law. a new, useful process, machine, improvement, etc., that did not exist previously and that is recognized as the product of some unique intuition or genius, as distinguished from ordinary mechanical skill or craftsmanship.

        Why are there so many haters? Its a beautiful slick device. I wouldn't buy it because I don't need it. But its certainly a phone if I could afford at some point and needed such functionality I would love to have. I have the n95 and it is the WORST phone ever made. I don't understand how apple makes product with such few glitches. I bought an iPod about a year ago, and it works with windows/mac/linux (albeit with some tweaking), but it works well enough with all 3 operating systems, something that I haven't fully got the n95 to do. I don't want to get into the whole propriety DRM argument, because in my opinion that is irrelevant. Its such a slick easy to use device which does everything without randomnly switching off (which my n95 has done a couple of times!).

        It is just a phone with a web browser, but hey if it does it SO much better than any other phone with a web browser and there are little or no problems, then I consider it something new!
        • unreg, on 05/03/2008, -2/+1Thank Sparky.

          1 - Nothing was invented, it was just repackaged
          2 - Cellphones, touch screens and mobil web browsers existed prior to the iPhone

          We're not hating the phone, we just realize its a phone and Jobs isn't god.
  • NecroDigg, on 05/03/2008, -13/+1OM NOM NOM NOM
    • Spuy767, on 05/03/2008, -0/+6I'll feel free to comment-jack this retardedness. This article is merely dropping the iPhone moniker to attract attention. A more accurate statement would be to say that more mediocre smartphones are destroying the internet. The iPhone can view a website in all of its glory if one so chooses, or it can view a special mobile version. This is in stark contrast to some other smartphones which are only capable of properly viewing the mobile versions.
  • ferrariman60, on 05/03/2008, -2/+22I would bat an eye. Just saying.
  • thekassette, on 05/03/2008, -3/+44"If you say that the iPhone is the greatest invention of your lifetime," you're probably about 12 years old. Or younger.
  • EnderMB, on 05/03/2008, -5/+32"If you say that the iPhone is the greatest invention of your lifetime, few would bat an eye."

    What?! Perhaps if you're a year old, but nowhere near the greatest invention of our lifetimes, maybe not even of this year. This guy needs to get his head out of his ass. Buried for worst opening to an article ever.
    • abhiroop, on 05/03/2008, -0/+3what would you consider the greatest invention?
      • Shadowgamers, on 05/03/2008, -2/+7Fire
      • eivi, on 05/03/2008, -0/+1Dog.
      • boo19, on 05/03/2008, -1/+2Not a cellphone, that's for sure.
      • widgetmaker, on 05/03/2008, -4/+3Well the mobile phone in general is a far greater innovation. The iphone is nothing more than a fancy phone with a touch screen, the screen is the only innovation.
        • JMSantos, on 05/03/2008, -2/+2... which the iPhone didn't pioneer.
      • notadiggtard, on 05/03/2008, -0/+2How about the microprocessor?(Yes I'm that old)
        Actually I think the laser and transistor are younger than me,I'd have to check.All three are above the iPhone,much as I love mine.
  • zadadka, on 05/03/2008, -2/+12The iPhone is just another electronic "Swiss Army" knife....handy, but far from the centre of one's life.
  • fucknuggets, on 05/03/2008, -4/+9LHC > iPhone
  • Shadowgamers, on 05/03/2008, -1/+3Sensationalism sells, as Amazon will prove with this book later :V
  • cthellis, on 05/03/2008, -8/+20Yes, the iPhone... Totally locked down... Except for all the programs they'll let people make... Except for all the open, generic web standards the browser supports... Except for all... oh, who'm I kidding, this guy is a yutz.

    They're platforms that are ON the web. They're platforms that ACCESS the web. They're platforms that are popular BECAUSE of the web... Just how in hell are they DESTROYING the web?
    • davidamerland, on 05/03/2008, -3/+8I totally agree with the statement that the opening of this article is about the worst ever, it does, however, raise a valid point. Apple has an active philosophy of locking down systems and totally trying to control their usage in a way which in the open-air internet world of today can only be charitably described as 'anal retentive'. It is this philosophy that needs to be, quite rightly challenged, within the boundaries of reason (one needs only to look at the DMR restrictions of iTunes as an example).
      • osko2052, on 05/03/2008, -2/+2Unfortunately itunes is the #1 music retailer now.
      • cthellis, on 05/03/2008, -1/+8The DRM restriction are forced by the content controllers, so you can thank the RIAA for it on music, and the MPAA for it on television and movies. FairPlay, meanwhile, remains pretty much the least-restrictive DRM, and Apple's stance on DRM has been decidedly anti-industry, and their actions (by refusing to openly license FairPlay, and by refusing to add Windows DRM to iPods) is the only reason we see the RIAA studios moving away from it on music. (Video can't be argued in QUITE the same way, since DVD's have copy protection on them while CD's do not. Even though DVD's "copy protection" essentially does dick.)

        Meanwhile, "a platform is a platform is a platform." Apple's chosen the route that can actually make them money, and you can hardly blame them in the overall landscape. The lock OS X to their own hardware, but OS X is not a closed environment, and it supports all open standards. Similarly, while Apple is unlikely to take their mobile software successes and share it with other companies, they support open web standards (the same ones as on desktops, rather than creating new mobile-only ones, which actually makes their mobiles MORE Internet-friendly), they allow open development for their platform, and they openly license connection devices, so...

        There are some restrictions, sure, but you can draw an immense number of parallels to other companies and other industries. One would be hard-pressed, for instance, to say that Atari and Nintendo and Sega and Sony and Microsoft have been "ruining video games" with their closed platforms; instead, it's been getting more and more popular, the systems more and more capable and diverse, and the "freely developed with some restrictions" model continues to work fine for them. And while some people would love to have one set of hardware just to simplify things, the competition between the platforms has--with all likelihood--made things a lot faster and feature-packed and CHEAPER than they would have otherwise... (Though, admittedly, if you want all the systems you'd have to pay more. ;-) ) The PS1 and PS2 came close to complete domination during their respective generations, but certainly didn't preside over a closed and stagnating ecosystem... they broadened the appeal of videogames. The GameBoy line pretty much DID monopolize portable consoles for ages, but it didn't create an insular environment, forbid all challengers, or shrink the appeal of the market. Why, then, would the iPhone? (Or... um... Facebook? o_O Whatever...)

        The only thing that internet communication devices really need to do is support open standards... After that, they can pretty much offer whatever else they want as a platform to... well... make their platform compelling. That's kind what they're supposed to do.
      • cthellis, on 05/03/2008, -6/+2The DRM restriction are forced by the content controllers, so you can thank the RIAA for it on music, and the MPAA for it on television and movies. FairPlay, meanwhile, remains pretty much the least-restrictive DRM, and Apple's stance on DRM has been decidedly anti-industry, and their actions (by refusing to openly license FairPlay, and by refusing to add Windows DRM to iPods) is the only reason we see the RIAA studios moving away from it on music. (Video can't be argued in QUITE the same way, since DVD's have copy protection on them while CD's do not. Even though DVD's "copy protection" essentially does dick.)

        Meanwhile, "a platform is a platform is a platform." Apple's chosen the route that can actually make them money, and you can hardly blame them in the overall landscape. The lock OS X to their own hardware, but OS X is not a closed environment, and it supports all open standards. Similarly, while Apple is unlikely to take their mobile software successes and share it with other companies, they support open web standards (the same ones as on desktops, rather than creating new mobile-only ones, which actually makes their mobiles MORE Internet-friendly), they allow open development for their platform, and they openly license connection devices, so...

        There are some restrictions, sure, but you can draw an immense number of parallels to other companies and other industries. One would be hard-pressed, for instance, to say that Atari and Nintendo and Sega and Sony and Microsoft have been "ruining video games" with their closed platforms; instead, it's been getting more and more popular, the systems more and more capable and diverse, and the "freely developed with some restrictions" model continues to work fine for them. And while some people would love to have one set of hardware just to simplify things, the competition between the platforms has--with all likelihood--made things a lot faster and feature-packed and CHEAPER than they would have otherwise... (Though, admittedly, if you want all the systems you'd have to pay more. ;-) ) The PS1 and PS2 came close to complete domination during their respective generations, but certainly didn't preside over a closed and stagnating ecosystem... they broadened the appeal of videogames. The GameBoy line pretty much DID monopolize portable consoles for ages, but it didn't create an insular environment, forbid all challengers, or shrink the appeal of the market. Why, then, would the iPhone? (Or... um... Facebook? o_O Whatever...)

        The only thing that internet communication devices really need to do is support open standards... After that, they can pretty much offer whatever else they want as a platform to... well... make their platform compelling. That's kind what they do.
      • cthellis, on 05/03/2008, -2/+2Sorry about the double post. Digg, for whatever reason, wasn't updating. I posted again just so there'd be no chance of losing the lengthy post. ^_^
        • Tanath, on 05/03/2008, -0/+1That's why I tend to type long posts in a text editor in case the browser crashes or otherwise malfunctions. You could also use Google Docs, which autosaves.
    • anonydigg, on 05/03/2008, -1/+2I think you need to read the article again and understand it in a more abstract way. (politely stated)

      The is no generative content on those devices. There is a layer of proprietary control by the vendor; whereas on the PC anything written by anybody can be run by anyone given the consent of both. There is no need for consent from the appliance vendor.

      The point is not that you can go to any website based on a generic standard approved by 'Company'. The point is that you can't run Flash, Java or any other content based on third party standards without consent from 'Company' (Apple, MS, etc). For example, the article was pointing out that anything the iPhone SDK produces has to be sold through Apple and they can pull the plug is they wish to do so; so in essence they control generative content on the device and they can limit it.
      • notadiggtard, on 05/03/2008, -1/+2Wow!I just don't care!ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
        • anonydigg, on 05/04/2008, -0/+1What you want a cookie? If you don't wanna read go to Youtube. I hear they have the sort of comments you want. k tnx by.
  • savantidiot, on 05/03/2008, -2/+5That first sentence is so outstandingly absurd I almost want to digg the article for it... almost..
  • pentak, on 05/03/2008, -9/+13iPhone = yawn
  • Echomote, on 05/03/2008, -1/+2I read the article, but I still don't get how it's killing the Internet. At most it could limit the expansion of the World Wide Web [note: WWW =! The Internet] (as Mobile Safari is the only option, and closed source and all), but we already have enough desktop browsers limiting that.
    • abhiroop, on 05/03/2008, -1/+2www is probably one of the most essential components, even though it isn't actually the internet. Anyway what the guy is saying is that when devices become so locked down that no additions/improvements can be made (like the iPhone), people are stuck with what apple's vision of an iPhone should be. Lets say I come up with a device that is amazing, does a million different things, and is smaller than the iphone camera lens. But I have no way to add it to the iPhone as it is locked down. I think he is trying to say that things are being locked down. However, I agree though I don't see how the INTERNET can be effectively locked down as you can visit any website with the iPhone (except flash - but this might be an example of the limiting factors).
      • cthellis, on 05/03/2008, -0/+1The iPhone also has a connection port that you can freely license and attach anything to. While you can't physically modify the device to stick your magical super-whatever (short of convincing Apple to pick it up), you can still connect it SOMEHOW.

        Meanwhile, why would Apple refuse to let your million-thing device not prove itself? ;-)
    • cthellis, on 05/03/2008, -0/+2Safari as a whole may be closed, but the WebKit rendering engine that powers it is open source, so anyone can develop their own take on it, using the exact same backbone. Nokia already played with it for some of its mobiles a few years back, and if the iPhone is popular enough, there's no reason they won't bring it back... or others won't try their hand at it.
    • jamdogg, on 05/03/2008, -0/+3btw =! != !=
      • Echomote, on 05/04/2008, -0/+1I always end up getting it backwards. Some compilers let me, others don't.
  • cabazorro, on 05/03/2008, -2/+3Close systems are part of the Internet ecosystem. The Internet breeds diversity, judgment made, on functional merit only, not ethics, or laws. The networked PC, on it's inception, was a close system and look at it now, being recruited into a kraken botnet. If something is bound to kill the Internet, that will be the politicians putting pressure over the owners of the infrastructure (the copper and fiber optics lines).
  • joerick, on 05/03/2008, -0/+2The guy's thinking too hard. There's money to be made, the web will continue.
  • mathcreative, on 05/03/2008, -0/+6What the guy, saying is that things like iphone and xbox, are slowly closing up the internet. It' s not something you can notice or teel. The next generation of internet users that have never been through the golden age of the internet, will not know or question the kinda of internet experience they get from these lockedin platforms. This will transition slowy, if they platforms continue to get popular.
  • j2002, on 05/03/2008, -4/+12Greatest Invention of our lifetime - LMAO
  • davidamerland, on 05/03/2008, -2/+7This is a classic example of a badly written article destroying a very valid argument. Quite rightly the internet should not be a free-for-all but, at the same time we should not allow large corporations to thrown their weight around and dictate that the paradigm shift of an open culture which has made the web what it is, should be regressed to a digital equivalent of the old 'locked doors' policy of the old world the web has superseded. Apple has been a main offender on this front for many years and it now uses the popularity of its devices to force through its point of view.
    • cthellis, on 05/03/2008, -0/+3The "main offender" how, precisely? I take it you have a list of proprietary formats they develop, try to push onto the market, then force people to license, rather than supporting open standards? ...or is that some other company?
  • o6uoq, on 05/03/2008, -3/+10Buried - what a stupid headline. Is the internet, killing the internet?!
    • jamdogg, on 05/03/2008, -0/+1No but global warming is causing global cooling!
      -that oughta get buried.
  • skribble, on 05/03/2008, -1/+3This is crazy talk. The internet is what it is and it's always changing... that is the nature of both it and most things in general. The iPhone may be altering the authors vision of the internet, but it seems that people who say stuff like this are either: a. Stuck in moment of time and wish to freeze progress for their own shortsightedness, or b. have a vested interest in the internet (or something else) going in a different direction.
    Progress is a sloppy business and things change. This isn't always convenient. One can adapt and move on, or turn their back on it, but this kind whining is silly and pointless and in the end reveals the authors own weaknesses.
    (FWIW IMO the internet died shortly after the graphical web browser was popularized (thanks Netscape and CERN/NCSA prior to that) and rather then a useful tool for conveying information, it turned into this ugly corporate landscape of marketing... lot's of bells and whistles and little substance. Yet, it really didn't die, it just changed... evolved into something else).
  • anchorman, on 05/03/2008, -1/+4To answer your question... no, it's not.
  • JohnnyHotballs, on 05/03/2008, -1/+1we must stop the iphone!
  • WilliamDavis, on 05/03/2008, -3/+3oooooohhhhh.... snap. Take THAT, fanboys.
  • JackHarkness, on 05/03/2008, -1/+5this guy barely sounds computer literate let alone able to 'write code'
  • gjmacd, on 05/03/2008, -2/+5"Zittrain, who is also a professor of Internet governance and regulation at Oxford University. ".

    Those who can't do, teach. Those who teach, write books about things they can't do.

    Another amazingly over inflated and sensationalized "prediction" to pump up sales of a book that really has ZERO influence on anything and just uses "iPhone" and "X-Box" keyword exposure will help sell his rubbish, I'll give him props for that though.

    Once I saw the comment, "the very thing that makes the Internet great--its "generative" or innovative nature--is being locked down in a new wave of closed devices like the iPhone, Xbox, TiVo and the OnStar system."

    I had to laugh.

    This is going to STOP the Internet. Closed devices?
    Devices that make our lives easier and the Internet vastly more powerful of a tool.

    Let's do the math on this. Company's invent "Internet enabled closed devices", people have to have new device and buy it. It requires the use the Internet, increases dollars for company, Internet users increase and technology improves (on the Internet and these devices), and demand increases overall for services.

    Yeah, thats a way to kill the Internet... nice job ASSHAT. Maybe he should walk down the hall to the Economics department and do a complete review of all the classes he skipped in 1981 when he was programming Fortran on your PDP-11.

    That is all.
    • salomejones, on 05/03/2008, -3/+1And what are your qualifications, exactly? Where is the signal that I should be lending more weight to your assessment than Zittrain?

      Ad hominem attacks are the refuge of those without much of an argument in the first place, and particularly those who have some reason to feel threatened (real or imagined) by the argument presented.
      • gjmacd, on 05/04/2008, -0/+1You're kidding me, you want to know?

        Ok... I run a software company in Boston, I'm the CEO, we have over 150 customers ($1.5 million a year in sales) and we sell products that help push inventory information around the cloud. I've been working in software since 1984. I'm 43. I have a BS in CS from UMass and a minor in History. I've also published and created several consumer software products for the Windows marketplace in the mid-nineties. This product sold over 80,000 copies and was eventually bundled with Cakewalk. In a job before that, I was the developer for childrens educational games.

        So did I answer your smarmy smart ass question?

        I've got experience and education to be able to parse this piece of horse dung and tell it like it is.

        Go back to playing video games in your dorm....
  • Cloudime, on 05/03/2008, -2/+3You're flattering yourselfs to say that the iPhone is "killing the internet". I love the iPhone. But that's just flattering yourselfs.
  • blackdude, on 05/03/2008, -1/+5This article fails on so many levels...
  • itsthemechanic, on 05/03/2008, -2/+2Yeah, it's going to kill the Internet dead because using that tiny screen is so much better than my 22" widescreen TFT.
    Buried as *****.
  • synarchy, on 05/03/2008, -2/+1Proves being connected to Harvard does not guarantee quality of thought. He calls Bill Gates "Mr. Proprietary" as if MSoft is the epitome of locked systems, but apparently is oblivious to the FACT that the ability to run MS-DOS and then Windows on any x86 based hardware fueled the pre-Internet tech boom. And, while Apple was locked to hardware during much of those early days, the author now wants to suggest that things like the iPhone are a threat to a more open environment when the FACT is that Apple is far more open today having moved to x86, USB, Bluetooth, etc., than it EVER was in the past. Meanwhile open source is alive and well, with Linux a viable alternative to any other OS on servers, and there are all kinds of open source apps to do everything from CAD, to video to word processing. If the Internet is under any threat, its from Telcos who want to become gatekeepers, and governments that want to sniff every packet.
    • synarchy, on 05/03/2008, -0/+1Oh, yeah, I forgot to mention the openoko project. If you want open, it's there. If you want a great gadget you don't have think about, it's there (iPhone, Blackberry, etc.) Again the only threats to the Internet are from the Telcos who are happy to take government welfare and have laws passed to their benefit, but who want a different set of rules for everyone else.
  • Kaitsu, on 05/03/2008, -1/+1Successful troll is succesful.
  • zittrain, on 05/03/2008, -2/+1Magazine editors naturally look for a grabby headline and intro -- like iPhone killing Net. I don't believe that's true. The book itself is much more measured (and probably boring, too), and you can read it online at www.futureoftheinternet.org. I don't think the Internet as a network is going anywhere, and I don't hate the iPhone. But the value of the Internet lies in how many people in the mainstream can use it -- and use it fully, either with casually reprogrammable hardware platforms like the PC, or with new Web 2.0 platforms that are similarly open. I see a real decline in both. ...JZ
  • salomejones, on 05/03/2008, -1/+1""The Internet has been a collective hallucination," says Zittrain, who is also a professor of Internet governance and regulation at Oxford University."

    As one of the increasingly remorseful souls who helped build the thing through its last trimester (late 80s through late 90s), I agree with everything this man says, particularly the above.
  • ahuxley, on 05/03/2008, -0/+2"they're retaining the right just in case they need it to kill any app they don't like and to control the flow of data. "
    Its back to the AOL sandpit days, but the young and dumb do not see it.
    Learn how to code, try Linux, read some books about computers.
  • Ford_Prefect2nd, on 05/03/2008, -2/+2Wow one of the few articles I can bury without having to read it. "Greatest invention of my lifetime"? Oh yes the iPhone beats;
    synthetic insulin,
    digital cellular phones,
    the laptop computer,
    optical media,
    flash media drives (without which the iPhone would not exist in such a form),
    Boxer briefs (love those),
    both windows and Mac OS's,
    Dopplar rader,
    WWW protocol,
    the floppy disk,
    the vcr,
    the walkman,
    Cray super computers,
    Lithotripsy,
    Sat phones,
    MP3 players,
    web browsers,
    Mario brothers,
    the Nintendo,
    broad band internet,
    Google,
    P2P networking,
    Digital cameras,
    eye surgery,
    the Commador 64,
    BBS's
    ... I am sure I missed some.
  • EEdesigner, on 05/03/2008, -1/+1This is Newsweek. On a good day, with a tailwind, they still constitute the baseline of technical competence, below which only politicians live. All journalists are naturally jealous of creative talent - since they have none, else they would not be journalists. If Apple should start to stagnate (as Microsoft long ago has), someone else with creativity will start something new. Perhaps Newsweek better get on the bandwagon before it's too late. (What's their circulation now? One or two copies per week?)
  • peterinjapan, on 05/03/2008, -0/+1I use my iPhone *ALL* the time, and love it. But I'd say that, oh, the integrated circuit, or TCP/IP, or the hard disk, are slightly more important.
  • whalt, on 05/04/2008, -0/+1Answer: No.
  • stam66, on 05/04/2008, -0/+1What a load of crap.
    The argument is that the "internet" is "dying" because the iPhone is a locked down device, and can't be changed by every one. Since when was the internet bound to local hardware?
    Never mind nefarious business practices ("embrace and extinguish" practised a lot by MS for example - a standard would be embraced and then changed so that only Windows could run it [well]) - no mention of that.
    Somehow, the most standards compliant mobile web browser is killing the internet. The key point being "mobile" - hardly the main access point for controlling the internet, is it. Yah, anything for a headline...
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