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It?s apps vs. Web ? from Apple?s perch

That much seems clear from the tough line out of Apple headquarters: curated applications are better than the open Web. Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and Amazon should not take that lying down.

While this publication and almost all media and tech geeks are big fans of Apple design and marketing genius, a line must be drawn when the message getting louder from Steve Jobs seems to be ?my way or the highway.?

Take what Mr. Jobs told media last Thursday about search on mobile phones, for example: ?Search is not where it?s at,? The New York Times reported him as saying. ?People are not searching on a mobile device like they are on the desktop.?

Of course, consumers don?t search on mobile devices like they do on desktop or laptop computers ? they search differently. But they do search. There is evidence backing that. Ask Google, Microsoft and Yahoo.

Mr. Jobs has been quoted extensively all over the place, commenting on his aversion to Adobe Flash ? ?It?s too buggy? ? and dissing competition and picking up fights with them. He is following that old war saw: The art of defense is attack.

Apple senses that the competitive world it operates in is arrayed against it. From the direction of its devices ? the iPod, iPhone and now the iPad ? it is clearly seeking 100 percent control of hardware, software, content and transactions. In this process, the content producer becomes the mere filler for Apple?s vast meat grinder.

Fruit from the walled garden
It is ironic that in 2010 Apple is seeking to revisit AOL in 1993 with a walled-garden approach. Diverting traffic to its devices and through its portals, Apple is intent on becoming the ultimate arbiter of digital media.

In other words, Apple, with its applications, is bent on creating a parallel digital universe to the World Wide Web, where Apple-approved applications are perceived as superior to Web sites on mobile and non-mobile devices.

That is a troubling development for the future of open commerce and free speech ? if consumers buy into the Apple-curated-content school of thought. Surely smart minds at all Internet and multichannel marketers understand that threat to their ability to maneuver online without a vetting process.

We can expect more news from Google and Microsoft in the next few months, most likely with their own applications and Web upgrades. But these players must up their game if they want to stay relevant in digital media.

Apple?s messaging, marketing and products are highly seductive to consumers ? one button away from solving life?s problems. But be wary of that siren call. To confuse an interactive strategy with an Apple strategy is the quickest way to disintermediation.

Take a few examples of where this has happened with other online companies.

Book publishers are completely beholden to Amazon for moving their merchandise. Advertisers have few options other than Google ? thank God for Microsoft?s Bing ? for search advertising. And yes, record labels can?t survive without iTunes ? an Apple invention.

Do publishers want to visit a scenario where consumers cannot read their products before paying a toll at the Apple gate? Do retailers want to surrender all buyer transaction data to Apple ? if the electronics company is the payments gateway? Do marketers want to wait for Apple approval on all ads appearing on applications?

Message must click through
It is now incumbent on the leading Web players to explain why the open Web is still relevant or as good ? or even better ? than an applications experience. It is for them to prove to consumers why the World Wide Web is still the best place for content, commerce, communications and entertainment.

Benign tyranny must never be the excuse for perfect customer experience. Better the slight imperfections in the system than the loss of freedom to enter the market, grow it and exit it at will or under contest.

Time is running out for marketers and Internet companies to make the case for an open digital environment and for the free Web as we know it, online and mobile. Failure to act will convince consumers that applications are the better option, and not the complement, to the Web.

When Mr. Jobs dismissed search on mobile, Google executives should have had the chutzpah to retort: Then Apple should disable the search function on iPhones and iPads. Better still, why bother with the Safari browser on both devices ? who needs the Web anyway?