Fast Company has an interesting interview with Facebook’s senior platform manager Dave Morin (formerly an Apple developer), who mentions that a few years ago, Apple turned down the chance to integrate some of Facebook’s social networking aspects into OS X.
Morin says he was working for Apple at the time, and he was working on trying to provide social networking SDK elements to developers, in hopes of expanding the scope of the operating system. He turned to Facebook to help out with some of those ideas. Seems Apple didn’t like that so much—they put up a bit of “resistance” to the idea, according to Morin.
I’d think working with Facebook is something any other company would jump at. Is this a case of Apple thinking really differently, or are they just being a pack of stubborn curmudgeons? [Fast Company]
Sean Wilson
Saturday, July 18, 2009 at 11:41 AM1. Apple does integrate with third-party services already. iPhoto has built-in support with Facebook and Flickr, and iMovie has built-in support for YouTube. In Snow Leopard, QuickTime is going to have built-in export to YouTube and, this should hit closest to home, the key apps will have built-in support for Exchange, something that Windows doesn’t have (short of giving Redmond more money). So this rubbish about not adopting standards can be laid to rest.
2. If you think Apple doesn’t adhere to standards and is completely closed, you must really be enjoying the Microsoft Kool-Aid. Go do the Acid3 test in IE 8 then Safari, then tell me Apple doesn’t adhere to standards. Apple championed the cause of MP4, MP3 and AAC when Microsoft tried to force Windows Media down the world’s throat, and they are getting aggressive about HTML 5 and H.264, much to the chagrin of Redmond.
3. Apple hates having other companies be in a position to twist their arm. It was the case with Microsoft in the 90′s, it’s the case with Adobe recently with the iPhone and it would be the case with Facebook. It’s the reason Apple is, to put it mildly, less than happy with AT&T. Apple wants to be as accountable as possible for the user experience, and letting someone get their weeds into Apple’s garden is the last thing they want.
James Forbes
Saturday, July 18, 2009 at 4:05 PM@Lite: is on a boat
I think ddh pretty much summed it up, watch the all things d conference with bill and steve, steve admits they suck at working with other companies and it is something he admires of microsoft.
He directly says “Apple was never good with partnerships”
p4r4d0x
Saturday, July 18, 2009 at 7:09 PM@ddhboy
Compare Safari and Internet Explorer and tell us again how Apple hates standards. Safari was the first to pass ACID2, IE the last. Nuff said.
matt
Monday, July 20, 2009 at 10:25 AM…
i’m both surprised and glad apple didn’t lower them selves to the level of using facebook as a selling point. saying facebook is a “standard” is laughable, its just a f$%@ing web site!
Lance Gomez
Sunday, November 29, 2009 at 9:35 PMI beg to differ. If you don’t see it, you will. I think it’s fair to recognize that facebook is the standard for personal social connectivity on the web, just as google is the standard for search engines, on-and-offline, intra- and inter-network-wise. Facebook is an integral aspect of the next stage of the internet, the standard, i should further elaborate, for keeping your identity intact as you browse and comment and further develop online interactions. I for one will be glad to see the further integration of the internet into the desktop experience; augmented reality–to use a pop culture term–is what it is.
Wok
Wednesday, July 22, 2009 at 12:10 AMMeh. Safari is stolen passisng Acid tests is hardly from Apples initiative.