The iPhone, Xbox, BlackBerries, and other proprietary, closed Internet-enabled devices are dooming the PC and taking the Internet with it; or so says Jonathan Zittrain. I’m currently reading an advance copy of Zittrain’s new book, “The Future of the Internet – And How to Stop It,” in which he discusses the trend away from the generative PC to “sterile appliances tethered to a network of control.”

The battle for the democratization of the internet – net neutrality – is fairly loud (although not nearly loud enough if you think about what is at stake). Similarly, there’s a lot of talk about open APIs and open platforms for customizable applications. However, the discussion around the transformation of the PC itself from an open platform to locked-down appliance is much more subdued. But, as Zittrain notes, “the endpoint matters.”

“Eliminate the PC from many dens or living rooms, and we eliminate the test bed and distribution point of new, useful software from any corner of the globe. We also eliminate the safety valve that keeps those information appliances honest. If TiVo makes a digital video recorder that has too many limits on what people can do with the video they record, people will discover DVR software like MythTV that records and plays TV shows on their PCs. If mobile phones are too expensive, people will use Skype. But people do not buy PCs as insurance policies against appliances that limit their freedoms, even though PCs serve exactly this vital function. People buy them to perform certain tasks at the moment of acquisition. If PCs cannot reliably perform these tasks, most consumers will not see their merit, and the safety valve will be lost. If the PC ceases to be at the center of the information technology ecosystem, the most restrictive aspects of information appliances will come to the fore.”

In a way, we asked for it. As much as consumers want freedom of use, we also want to be free of viruses, spam, identity theft, crashes, and other consequences of an open design. Many users more than welcome the onslaught of hassle-free information appliances with useful packaged activities. I’m the same; just give me something that works, looks cool, and does what I need it to do.

Furthermore, Zittrain suggests that Web services could be a corroborating force behind the end to generativity. While this may sound counter-intuitive (i.e. Web 2.0 and open APIs allows users to create, share, and alter applications), the argument against software as a service is that since the data no longer resides on our machines, it is inherently risky and binding (i.e. it becomes difficult to switch providers or revert to older versions of code if necessary).

Scary stuff for sure. The solutions, according to Zittrain lie not only in legal intervention, but also in socializing the technical layer of PCs and the Internet in the same way that we have socialized the application layer. Virtual PCs, grid computing, and data portability are all at the heart of this.

I’m still on the fence on whether the threat is overblown or not. I can’t help but think of an uncalculated balancing force; the diligent group of hackers, mashers, and discriminating Net-Generation users that continue to fight for open environments. Mass collaboration and Wikinomics are drivers that work in favor of the user and standards-based open design principles. Remember hacks for the iPhone were revealed days after its release (see Brendan’s post on Apple vs. collective intelligence), and Xbox Linux, as well as Free60 for the Xbox 360 have been downloaded by hundreds of thousands of users.

For those interested, the intro to the Zittrain book is available for download here (from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development).