This is where new, better standards come from.

So, in the Aristotelean sense, perhaps the "Constitution of the Marketplace" is the key — not how Apple runs its individual fiefdom. For now, there is enough competition in the marketplace to ensure that people who want a Flash-ready device can have one. If Apple loses enough market-share over their decision to exclude Flash, I suspect they would reconsider. Adobe lead the way with Flash for a while and now, to me, it's clear that other standards are emerging to take it's place. If Adobe sees enough walking away from the Flash platform, I'm sure they'll build a new platform where everyone is now standing!

In the midst of all this are the content creators — people like you and I with websites. The real question in my mind is "How will we use all of this technology to express ourselves?"

To me, it's almost like writing itself: The limitations of form ultimately give something a distinctive shape. With poems, if you're not a fan of haiku, there may be some sonnets that you'll enjoy instead. Don't like James Joyce? Perhaps Italo Calvino will inspire you! The original 8-bit gaming systems are still being recreated on modern hardware. Some people really like those blocky graphics and bloopy sounds… Some people are still keeping the Amiga OS alive… Some people are recreating the software used in the Apollo spacecraft….

Why? Because the limitations of their platforms created something distinctive — and distinctions are at the heart of aesthetics. If we as content creators push for what we need to express ourselves by developing distinctive creations for a specific platform or device (perhaps the most important part of the "two-way conversation" analogy above), other hardware and platforms will emerge to improve the status quo.

In music engineering, there is a tradition of taking a mix out from the expensive, carefully-calibrated studio setup and into to someone's car for a quick listen before declaring the mix complete. (Web designers do this, too…. it's called IE6!) They want to make sure that thing "translate" in both environments. Then again, musicians are also known for using cheap microphones and instruments to make some compelling sounds… the price or "functionality" not nearly as important as to what creative effect its used for.

Both are valid approaches (and are often used in tandem!), but maybe we app designers and web publishers are better off focusing on the latter. Let's spend less time griping about what a particular device doesn't have and instead find compelling ways to present content on whatever platform appeals to our aesthetic!

But it's not a problem for citizen to ask/beg/appeal/plead/demand to government, isn't it?
It must be a two-ways conversation. No citizen, no government. No government, no citizen.