More on Apple and Open
I almost forgot. Go read Howard Lindzon's September 13th blog post (well, rant actually). Then scroll down and read the comments. Not exactly a ringing endorsement of open.
Fred Wilson made the same observation in the comments that I just posted (he's always ahead of the curve):
"you are wrong about that howard, the so called nerds which is very disrespectful of you (these are the people who are building the stuff we love to use) know all too well about apple's abusive relationship with developers. they've been dealing with it for years. one of these days, apple's going to pay. i think google is going to hand it to them in mobile, but it will take some time"
(note: Fred was busting Howard's chops for using the word nerd is a bad connotation. As I said, go read the whole post/comment thread.)
It seems both camps there miss a very big point, in that Apple makes products of choice whereas other platforms make products of commodity. Apple targets users who choose, and as such, wants developers who understand that. In a choice market, things are highly subjective. In a commodity market, you have free market forces. Apple does a good job making money by passing up some opportunities that would generate a lot of revenue because it would reduce the image of choice. Brand image is very important, as evidenced by any Apple store.
I'm posting here because the thread on Howard's blog should have a "Not Safe for Non-Myspacers" warning. The complete lack of punctuation in the article and subsequent threads made reading and processing remarkably difficult. I'm not even 30 yet and completely out of touch with common lingo... it amazes me the type of people who, when not even on a Blackberry, forget all rules of grammar and general sense when on the Internet.
I blame this: http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/03/19/
Posted by: J. Shirley | September 19, 2008 at 11:31
Gee. A single post and this "howardlindzon" character convinced me I never want to read another word written by him again. Simply appalling.
Posted by: Barry Kelly | September 19, 2008 at 11:45
Barry,
Acquired taste.. :-)
Posted by: rick segal | September 19, 2008 at 17:30
Dr. Shirley! Always a pleasure to see your well thought out prose. Thanks for stopping by the blog.
>R<
Posted by: rick segal | September 19, 2008 at 17:45