Is Imitation the Highest Form of Mac OS X Flattery?

Some of the comments on Franklin’s latest post, titled “A List of Mac Freeware that Leopard has Mauled to Death”, has got me thinking philosophically. The gist of the post is that the increased functionality of Mac OS X Leopard may ultimately make Mac users less likely to use the third-party apps that formally were exclusive providers of these functions. For example, the increased functionality of iChat 4.0 (like support for tabbed chats) has reduced the necessity of using a program like Adium, and the enhanced Spotlight tool steals some of the ’spotlight’ from Quicksilver. Apparently, this has struck a nerve, especially with those who perceive the inclusion of such functionality in Leopard as thievery on the part of Apple at the expense of the third-party developers who created these outstanding applications.

It sucks that a big company like Apple can steal the ideas of small time developers and incorporate them into their products without compensation. Maybe it is a flaw in laws protecting intellectual property rights that software ‘utility’ is not protected from duplication by others. But of course, software companies do steal from each other and have been doing so for decades. Remember the Xerox Star? Nobody does Remember Netscape? Remember how Microsoft destroyed Netscape’s market share when it released Internet Explorer as part of Windows 95? Remember the Xerox Star? Nobody does. It was the first commercial computer to use a mouse and a graphical user interface. Of course, these innovations were copied by Apple, Microsoft and everybody else.

While such copying is unfair and some developers are ‘mauled’ in the process, I can also see the good that comes from this process of creative destruction. Necessity spurs the creative development of new applications, and third-party developers excel at identifying the needs of users. competition drives improvement But, it is competition that drives the incremental improvements that perfect these applications. Without the competition from FireFox and Safari, Microsoft would probably still be shipping an Internet Explorer without AJAX and CSS support.

The truth is that Leopard has ‘mauled’ some third-party applications and some users will no longer find it necessary to install these apps. However, users who enjoy the niche functionality or customizability of these third-party apps will continue to use them. Third-party applications (and developers) who fail to carve out a niche may die; some that die will rise from the ashes with the next great thing. This is what makes the process of creative destruction awesome. Now, excuse me, I need to get back to work on a Leopard application I’ve been developing. It turns spam into pepperoni pizza. It’s going to be a big hit until Apple includes it in its next OS. [Image by Matt McGee]