I recently realized that I actually hate Apple. I'm one of those people who of late just can't stand Apple or any of its products. To be honest, I myself actually own an iPod, I bought it 5 years ago and it's actually still running smoothly and works like a charm. However, that was back when I liked Apple, the "pre-iPhone Era". The iPhone has changed my whole perspective of Apple and its products.

When I took a look at Apple's iPhone, I realized then that in my opinion, Apple are turning into Microsoft. Not the current Microsoft, but the Microsoft everyone loved to hate 10-15 years ago, the one that dominated and made it clear that it was either their way or no way at all. That was back when Mac were having a crisis and everyone owned a Windows PCs and moved own despite the hatred.

Come 10 years and what are Apple doing, the same exact thing Microsoft did back in the 90's; dominate the market and put restraints on their products. At a time when consumer freedom is at its biggest, the iPhone restricts the user to about everything. Yes, the casual user might not think so, but by the end of the day, they have created a product where you are not free to customize anything with, and yet still people purchase it. You cannot edit a single thing in the UI of the iPhone, hell you can’t even change the theme. And what does everyone do, they just blindly follow because everyone else is.

The worst part is that when users try and actually innovate and edit their phone (via jail-breaking), Apple dubs it illegal and it instantly voids your warranty. Not until a  few weeks ago did the U.S Copyright Office rule that jailbreaking an iPhone no longer violates federal copyright law, however jail-breaking still voids your warranty. See now that's exactly that kind of limitation that made me hate Apple. I look at Google’s Android and they allow you to edit almost everything in the phone. You don’t like the User-Interface, download another, don’t appreciate the dialer they put in, go ahead and change it. They give you enough freedom to actually make you the owner of your phone and not just blindly follow and have the same phone everyone else has. They allow you to customize it to your needs, since you know after all, it is your phone!

Props to Apple's marketing team, as they are the best at what they do, reaching out to millions through creative and new initiatives. They have actually taken marketing to a whole new level. Who else can hide a product all year long from the public, announce it a month before its release and upon release, it instantly becomes one of the best selling products of that year. I guess their marketing team also gets credit for the success of all apple products after all.

To me, the iPhone, iPod and the iPad are just products that are one way or another limiting my options to tailor my purchases to my needs. Even though each and everyone was a brilliant ground breaking invention that changed the way technology was headed, but by the end of the day, I feel that a brand that I once loved has turned into one that I might despise in the near future. I'm not saying that the Android is better than the iPhone, I'm just saying that I'd rather see the Apple that was Linux based and allowed you to do whatever you want with the products you bought rather than the monster we have now.