I've been a fan and follower of the Apple way, especially when it was by far the best alternative to the Microsoft empire – and when it was the best in class, period. I bought my first Apple product in the 1970s.

But in the past half-decade, as Apple became increasingly powerful, I have found myself less enchanted with a company I'd supported with my words and, ultimately, tens of thousands of dollars of my own money. Where Steve Jobs had been the freedom fighter, he was becoming the emperor, creating a regime of secrecy, manipulation and control-freakery to accompany the ongoing, even accelerating, innovation.

My respect – no, awe – for Jobs's genius has only grown, but I couldn't ultimately follow him into a walled garden, however comfortable, that contradicted what I believed in, and what he once stood for. I was no longer his kind of customer, though; he aimed now for the masses who preferred to live in Apple's warm but controlling embrace, and he succeeded.

Dan Gillmor
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 6 October 2011