Apple's iPhone Walled Garden An Opportunity For Competitors To Make The iPhone The Next Hiptop
from the as-it-should-be dept
While we agree with some others that Apple's decision to focus on a walled garden approach to iPhone apps seems short-sighted, it certainly does open up an opportunity for competitors -- and those competitors seem to be realizing it. A bunch of companies are starting ad campaigns around their mobile phone offerings highlighting how open they are compared to the iPhone. That would be competition at work, and a response to anyone who may be suggesting that Apple should somehow be required to open up. Of course, touting openness is just one part of the story. It helps to also have some really good technology to stack up behind it, and on that front, most of the competitors still have a long way to go. That probably means that Apple's closed strategy won't hurt it very much in the short-term, but it does open up a huge opening for someone who can actually get closer to matching the iPhone on the technology side.Apple could respond by opening up a bit more (and there's some indication that they're doing exactly that), but building up a strong developer community from the beginning would help keep the iPhone miles ahead of the competition. In fact, the iPhone craze is somewhat reminiscent of the hype surrounding Danger's Hiptop five years ago. It was launched on T-Mobile (under the "Sidekick" brand), but again as a closed platform. It took months for Danger to get a real developer program going, and even then it was pretty weak. Without a strong developer community, many other devices passed by the Hiptop, where it had had an early advantage. While Danger has been able to do okay with continual Sidekick updates, it never really reached its potential as one of the very first truly usable mobile data devices for the masses.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: iphone, walled garden
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
I'm No Expert...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Black and White
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
It's kinda getting 'open and closed' confused with 'choice'.
I'm not sure there's anymore risk to having a choice of cell phone carriers than just having AT&T.
But you know, it's not just Apple making themselves seem so closed minded, AT&T is doing a superb job too. If their service was so wonderful, then why FORCE people to use it? If it's so great, wouldn't people be using it willingly?
Only reason I see to force anything is that you have a cool phone with garbage cell service and you're forced to use it.
Again, Thanks! But... no thanks :)
I'll be sure to avoid both in the future. And people talking Microsoft pushing 'propriety'....
But yes, it should open the gates wide for a competitor. Remember... IBM did close to the same thing years ago, not opening up Microchannel architecture to others. Thus: PCI
Apple's done this before too - forcing you to buy their software and hardware. Both overpriced (sound familiar) and we see how much of the market they got out of that.
Rinse and Repeat.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
I myself have ATT, but found it stupid to activate my phone and renew my contract for another two years for a unsubsidized phone, so I unlocked it. It's kind of stupid that current ATT user have to activate their phone for a "iphone" marketed data plan.
On to the topic of open source, I have nothing to say but good things so far about the "hacked" iphone. I wish they had flash plugins....
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Yeah
http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=iphone
Go read it and realize what a douchetoy the iPhone is.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
iPhone Unplatform
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
And here's the link
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: And here's the link
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
What about Openmoko?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Openness = Less opportunity for $$$
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Openness = Less opportunity for $$$
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Synergy
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Synergy
[ link to this | view in chronology ]