iDoom

An interesting interview with id Software's John Carmack, wherein he discusses the process of porting the original Doom to the iPhone.

Carmack is apparently a big fan of the iPhone as a serious development platform -- which echoes what I've heard about the device from other IT professionals, including our own Mad Builder. I found this item revealing of Apple culture, though:

Carmack: Our relationship with Apple is kind of a rollercoaster. We are very tight for periods. Then I say something negative in a press interview and then the word goes out that no one is supposed to speak to me for six months or something. But the iPhone relationship has been pretty good. They have hired some good people to support game development explicitly. They are doing a better job at that than they ever did on the Mac platform.

And that's the problem with Apple in a... er, nutshell. After they moved away from the educational and business markets back in the late eighties, the company began to acquire a cult-like following, consisting mostly of artists, burned-out hippies, and computer-illiterate journalists. Along with that motley crew came the immature, stamp-their-feet, child-like attitude endemic to such groups. I had already suspected that, over the last decade, it had infected the very highest levels of Apple management, and Carmack's statement bears out that suspicion.

That attitude needs to go away. Other than being very obviously unprofessional, it also limits growth severely, as it engenders a refusal to acknowledge problems and outdated concepts, (one-button mice, anyone?). The success of the iPhone shows that Apple could compete seriously in the business market -- but they first have to get serious about business.