I’m an expert when it comes to cellphones and wireless devices of all kinds. I write about them and the technologies they utilize every single day. That being said, I’m no professor. Jonathan Zittrain is, though, and he says that devices like the iPhone are going to be the death of the Internet.
It’s easy to say, “No way, they’re innovation,” but he argues the opposite. What’s scary is he might be right.
Zittrain argues that closed devices like the iPhone or Xbox 360 or other devices that aren’t PCs prohibit end-user tinkering that’s always been the strength of the Internet. He says that the average user has started accepting the limitations of their Internet-connected devices and thus don’t work to make them better.
For the most part, that’s accurate, though there is a strong and numerous group of people dedicated to hacking these devices. Sadly, it’s just not as easy as it is with a computer.
I must say that I personally think that the idea of these devices killing the Internet is a little knee-jerk, though I will agree that they’ll change the Internet forever. If that’s good or bad we’ll have to wait and see.