bethinkr

I can identify the time period that I became a fan of Nicholas Carr. It was the summer of 2005 that I read an article by him in strategy + business that really got me, for the first time, thinking about disruption and creation. I also like Clayton Christensen, so it interests me when Carr picks at Christensen’s work. These viewpoints give me a nice dyadic understanding of innovation.

It is worthwhile to read Carr’s blog, www.roughtype.com. Today he wrote about Nike + and Apple in which he castigated Apple’s approach to DRM in this space, finalizing with these words:

It used to be cool to be an Apple fanboy. Now it’s starting to be embarrassing.

Carr has spent a fair bit of time standing up for Apple, but now, after mistake after mistake and misstep after misstep, it is interesting to note that an advocate is starting to abdicate.

The same thing happened today as we met with our ad agency. One of our associates there mentioned the problems that he continues to have with the new iPhone, saying that he doesn’t know anyone that has had a good experience. This is during the same time that I gleefully and annoyingly point to the ability of my $50 mobile phone to send multimedia texts while they (the iPhone contingent) continue to be without that capability.

Apple’s community has been legendary. But, as they continue to put off and underwhelm their user base, they will quickly see that it is the community that has the power, not the brand.