Since, as I’ve written before, Israel does not have an official Apple Store, the company is less committed to providing products to consumers here. Even though content (apps, specifically) are now available at Israel’s iTunes store (which means there is a reason for consumers here to buy iPads and iPhones), there is still no way to buy “creative content” – music, movies, TV shows, and books (indeed, Apple’s book store, for use with the iBooks app, is currently available only in the U.S.). It’s safe to say that for now, the only way for Israelis to get their own iPads is to journey to North America, several countries in Europe, or a couple of choice destinations in the Far East, and make their purchases there. While they last, that is; the number of units available at all is likely to dry up soon, as remaining stocks are sold (as it is, in many major markets in the U.S., you have to wait a couple of weeks between the time you order and the time you get your iPad).

What about the iPhone 4? That device, too, is experiencing a parts shortage that will affect supplies here at home – except that in this case, the shortage is the phone itself! After announcing (yet again) record sales and profits a few days ago, an Apple spokesperson said the company was way behind on supplies of the new iPhones, too, despite the brouhaha over its antenna. According to the spokesperson, Apple is selling iPhones (and iPads) as fast as they come off the assembly line, and its factories (in China) are working overtime to meet demand. Once again, Israel is likely to be at the back of the worldwide line when it comes to getting supplies of iPhone 4 devices. And the recent update of the iPhone’s operating system makes it much harder to jailbreak/unlock the iPhone 4, meaning it’s unlikely you’ll be seeing many of them in the hands of local customers anytime soon.

Note that the rumor that has been sweeping the land (at least some parts of it) that at least one Israeli cellphone company is expecting the device in September, and plans to offer iPhone 3gs customers a free (or very cheap) upgrade to the iPhone 4 is, as far as I can tell (and as confirmed by a higher-up in the company) completely false.

But don’t get me wrong; I am not joining the increasing masses of computer journalists/bloggers who are unleashing the vitriol they once reserved for Microsoft on the new “enemy of the people.” The fact that there’s such a shortage of Apple products, it seems to me, is a clear sign of how good they are, and my description of the situation here in Israel is a form of wishful thinking – that somehow these issues get resolved, and we, too, have an opportunity to acquire the latest and greatest Apple products.

Not everyone is so enamored of Apple these days, however. There’s been much gloating by some writers over every pitfalls like the iPhone 4 antenna issue, which Apple boss Steve Jobs addressed in a press conference a couple of weeks ago. It seems that if you hold the device in a certain way, the iPhone loses some of its connectivity – so Jobs announced a series of steps addressing the issue, including a software update, and a free case for every phone owner (the idea being that the case prevents users from holding the device “incorrectly).

You could picture the writers of some articles and blog posts rubbing their hands with glee, as they described the problem and anticipated the imminent bankruptcy of Apple. Whatever the motivations of these writers – simple jealousy, anti-big business (ie socialist) sympathies, envy that they didn’t think of some of the great ideas Apple did, or shilling for Apple’s competitors – more and more writers feel it’s okay to put Apple down. Each day brings a new supply of nasty articles.

Personally, I think they’re way off base. Many of the features of digital life we take for granted today were unthinkable – or at least thought to be unfeasible – before Apple trailblazed the way. Of course, there were MP3 players before the iPod – but with the iPod came iTunes and the iTunes store, a development that arguably did a great deal to save the commercial music business, ensuring there would be something to play on those MP3 players. Apple’s Mac operating system, from its earliest days, has been the gadfly that inspired improvements to other major operating systems (ie Windows); without the iPhone, it’s doubtful we would have Nokia, Samsung, and other smartphones, and we certainly wouldn’t have the wide range of Android phones we do today (why would HTC, LG, Samsung, have bothered?).

And now comes the tablet revolution. Apple didn’t invent the tablet with its iPad; but so far, all other attempts to push tablets by tech companies have been flops. What’s the secret behind the iPad’s success? The same secret Apple has used to promote its other products: Build an ecosystem that works, make it easy for users to use the product, keep control over the operating system in order to ensure a solid user experience, and – most importantly – make sure there’s plenty of content. It’s a system that works, and bully for Apple that they thought of it first.

Yes, we’ve all heard (and will no doubt hear yet again) the naysayers’ arguments: It’s a closed system, Apple/Jobs is a “control freak,” Apple stifles competition, the company makes or breaks fortunes by keeping developers out of the App Store, they put DRM into their iTunes store products, etc. All good points. Now here’s a “talking point” for the naysayers (and the rest of us): One day someone is going to figure out what Apple’s contribution to the GDP of the United States is – how much the sales of Macs, iPods, iPhones, iPads, music, movies, and all the other stuff Apple sells, contributes to the bottom line of the U.S. How much do you think that might be? Discuss!

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In my opinion, the popularity of all Apple devices is due to a philosophical decision the company made a long time ago – and has stuck to. Apple, from Day 1, has built its products with the intent of offering a “full package” to users – hardware, operating system, and content. Of course, Apple ultimately decides what content you get – but losing that “freedom to compute” doesn’t seem to bother anyone. Just the opposite, in fact.

I’ve been with the “Apple family” since its now numerous progeny were in diapers. I started out with the infant Mac XL (if anyone remembers those) way back in the 80s, moved on to the teenager-ish Mac SE, Mac CX, and early iMacs, and eventually on to the current configuration of the family. In fact, I’m transgenerational in my Apple affiliation: I have a “big guy” (an iMac), a couple of “young bucks” (Mac Minis and Macbooks), “junior” (the iPad), and, of course, “baby” (the iPhone). So I guess that makes me as familiar as anyone with how the family is run.

It’s a well-run and tightly organized family – to the extent that some would call it dysfunctional, in some respects. One thing about iPhones and iPads that irks many people is the closed universe that Apple has built to manage the devices. The only place you can get official applications for iPads and iPhones is from the Apple App store; all applications used on these devices must be approved by Apple, the better to ensure the proper “customer experience,” says the company.

And that, it seems, is what distinguishes the Apple line from its competition. For in truth, Apple has been zealous to guard its “user experience” from the time it came out with its first Macs. The “closed environment,” which protects users from the “outside world” and is managed by the policymakers at Apple, was already greatly in evidence in the earliest versions of the Macintosh operating system. The Mac OS was (and is) even more closed than Windows, making it harder for programmers to “hook” into the operating system. Compare that system to Windows, with its wide-open Registry, where programmers were able to routinely integrate their applications – whether well-written or not – into the OS.

As a result of those differences – that philosophy – Windows and Mac users had significantly different user experiences over the years. One of the biggest complaints Mac users had back in the 80s and 90s, for example, was the lack of freeware and shareware for their computers, compared to the reams of freebies available to Windows users. As a dedicated Mac user back then, I remember combing the depths of download sites looking for free applications that did – whatever! It didn’t matter what they did, as long as they were free. And those finds were few and far between. It was like you were keeping “kosher” – you couldn’t load up the cheap stuff on your computer, and the applications that had “supervision” (ie, that were able to integrate into the Mac OS) cost more.

Even with the programs you had to pay for, the Mac versions were usually released much later, and were far more expensive. Note, however, that there was another side of the equation; by making it harder to break through the gates, Apple ensured that Macs were relatively free of bad programs – like viruses – as well.

How far we have traveled, in terms of content. There are well over 200,000 apps in the iPhone/iPad app store, many of them free. The “freemium” model – where users get a free limited version of an application, and pay to unlock more functions and features – seems to be the one most writers of cellphone applications have adopted. And most of the applications that do cost money, are quite cheap – most averaging just a couple of dollars in price.

So it would seem that Apple’s long-term philosophical bet – that keeping a tight lid on development, in order to ensure a superior user experience – has paid off. Ever since the iPhone first came out, developers have been falling over themselves to come up with apps for the device – while consumers have been falling over themselves to buy them. The same holds true for the iPad; after selling about 3 million of the things in barely three months, Apple expects some 30 million people around the world to have them by the end of next year. And while many of these untold millions may not be fully aware of the “Apple Way,” they are surely aware that their consumption of nearly all content – apps, music, videos, movies -will be tightly controlled by Apple. These people are entering into the deal voluntarily – they have no problem with Apple controlling what they can and can’t do with their devices.

And while it may be tempting to advocate for “freedom of choice,” you have to admit that Apple has a point; the reason iPhones and iPads are in such demand is because they just work. The UI is simple and elegant, the apps are available and work as promised, and the danger of getting hit with a virus is extremely low. In that sense, Apple users have traded in freedom for security, an apt comparison for our terrorized age.

As I mentioned, I, too, am “guilty” of allowing my “freedom to compute” to be compromised. I haven’t jailbroken any of my devices (ie reprogrammed them in order to install applications not carried in the App Store), meaning that I am relatively satisfied with the package I am getting with the Apple family – functionality, reliability, and safety. And that’s what the teeming millions are looking for, as well; despite all the talk about competing devices, whether phones or e-book readers, Apple has nothing to worry about. History has proven than when it comes to computers and devices, people don’t want freedom – they want to be led by a “benevolent despot,” a role Apple is more than willing to fulfill.

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The iPad, whatever one may think of it based on the short presentation offered by Steve Jobs last week is destined to be a game-changer. Personally, I wasn’t so wowed by it – it seems a bit too wide, and it looks like it would be too easy to scratch – but Apple hasn’t come out with a dog for years (the last one was the Newton, depending on whom you ask), so you can be sure that if they’ve decided to release this now, it’s going to sell like hotcakes. It will be available in the U.S. in a matter of weeks, and, said Jobs, and available internationally by May or June.

The iPad’s charm is that it will combine all personal entertainment into one, easy to use device; instead of various iPods for music and video use, and a Kindle for book-reading, and a laptop or iPhone for surfing the web or playing with apps, you get it all in one super iPad package (I suspect that future editions will sport a cellphone as well, after Apple “milks” whatever it can out of the iPhone). Users of the iPad will have access to movies, books, TV shows, music, and any other downloadable content you can imagine, courtesy of Apple, and whatever deals they work out with the content suppliers.

But once again, Israel will be left behind. Months (years) later, absolutely no progress has been made on working out content deals with the people who hold the music and movie rights in this country; the “sole importers” are clearly holding out for a bigger cut, and are holding their contracts over the heads of the foreign content providers, threatening to sue, sue, and sue some more, if they dare to try and do a digital runaround with books, music, or video. It reminds me of the situation here years ago, when an “upstart” book chain started importing English books from wholesalers in the U.S., selling them at far lower costs than the official importer was selling them for. Some interested party put a stop to that quite quickly, I assure you.

Israel isn’t the only country left out of the i-party; China doesn’t have a true iTunes store, and Amazon isn’t shipping Kindles there. The reason, it appears, is the (quite justified) fear that whatever is sent over to China will be knocked off within minutes, thus destroying any opportunity the companies hope to have to sell legal content there (and you know they are just salivating at the thought of a billion Chinese buying books from the Apple Bookstore). But Israelis, who are not known for knocking things off and are more than happy to pay double for the same stuff others get at regular prices, won’t be able to access any of the i-content any time soon.

Of course, all this can be solved if you are the possessor of a U.S.-issued credit card, with a billing address in the United States. Then, Apple and Amazon trust you with their digital content. Actually, I’m being unfair to Amazon, which will gladly accept your Israeli credit card which allows international use (the various gold or business credit cards) for almost anything they sell, including physical music discs and books. But not for the digital stuff.

And we haven’t even mentioned the issue of the iPad’s 3G connection, which will also not be solved overnight, if the iPhone saga offers any solution – it took quite awhile for Israel’s Apple rep, iDigital, to work out a deal with the Israeli cellphone companies. The company doesn’t expect to get the iPad anytime soon, either – in an email iDigital sent out in the midst of the hoopla of the product announcement, the company said that “Regarding [the iPad's] reaching Israel, it is still too early to determine [when, how and if that will happen]. We are acting in accordance with Apple policy, but we are working with the world [Apple] organization in regards to localization.” As if localization were the only problem!

I know many of the people reading this in Israel do have access to an American credit card, as do the people who live in the U.S. who are reading this online, so it may not seem like such a big deal. But it is – not because of the content itself, which is available at a thousand and one torrent download sites, but because this is a clear example of how legal obfuscation by “old tech” companies is preventing progress of “new tech.” I know that sounds ironic coming from someone who writes for a newspaper – what with the internet cutting into newspaper profits and all – but as we have seen over and over in the past few decades, artificially damming up the flow of progress only makes things worse for the defenders of old technology – and the businesses that think quickly and adjust to the situation are the ones that survive, and thrive (talk radio, which is bigger than rock n’ roll ever was on AM, is a good example).

Now that there’s competition to the Kindle, the Amazon people may be looking to expand their base; the iPad promises to be a formidable foe. Perhaps that will be an incentive for Amazon to lean a little harder on the content suppliers to work out a deal with the local importers. I know Israel is a small market (but there have got to be more English readers in Israel than in Mongolia, where you can buy Amazon books!), but during times of trying competition, companies need all the business they can get – and Israel is a content consumer ripe for the plucking.

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