While this seems more of an inflammatory post to garner attention, there's an important correction to be made.
Developing for the iPhone platform constitutes some degree of tacit support, it's true. But beyond that, it's important to make opposing views heard. I'm programming for it right now (taking a break to write this), and it's a fun platform, but it's not perfect. The sdk improves via developer feedback, including complaints.
Likewise, feedback across the different mediums on apple's App store are much more likely to bring about change than complete silence.
Let the complaints continue - likely we'll be the ones who benefit.
Seems that people read his stuff anyways, does it really matter in the end? I am sure they are way better ways to say his is stupid then correcting is grammar.
But it doesn't matter because many people still read his blog. That means that many people don't care if he writes well. They only care what he writes about.
He miss a fundamental point: if I buy a fork there is no NDA about what kind of food I should eat with this. I think hardware able to run software need some kind of regulation that allows the user to run every kind of software he wants to run. Apple terms are violating this idea, that is not a law (unfortunately) but for many people is even more important since it's about freedom.
Why do we keep comparing Apple with analogies? What if the iPhone was like a car? What if iTunes was like a fork? What if iPods were like cats? What if what Apple is doing is unique on its own and you examine their situation and determine whether you want to buy into it or not, instead of applying them to a standard in how they should behave?
At the end of the day, you can write an app that runs on the iPhone and is installed however you want. So long as you don't write it with the dev kit, or want to deliver it via the AppStore and install it with iTunes, the sky's the limit. Apple has the stranglehold on the platform/framework and the delivery mechanism. They can use it however they want.
Now .. a nice startup idea might be an alternate delivery method from scratch. But who has that kind of time?
Besides, I have a hard enough time keeping my iPhone connected on a call.
Let the complaints continue - likely we'll be the ones who benefit.