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Should Apple Open Source the iPhone?
An anonymous reader writes "Given the OpeniBoot project is just a breath away from getting Android onto the iPhone, maybe Apple should consider opening up the platform. This post has five reasons, but I think there are far more. Without open source, Apple will find itself in the same position as today's Microsoft in seven years."
"Without open source, Apple will find itself in the same position as today's Microsoft in seven years."
You say that as if it were a bad thing. I'm guessing that despite the recent drop to 89% marketshare MS is feeling just fine.
I'm not saying OSS would be a bad move for Apple or the iPhone, but to say that if they aren't careful they might end up completely dominating the market and rolling around in mountains of cash isn't going to get your point across to most people.
First, they simply won't. The question is little more than theoretical and we all know how that goes.
And secondly, they'll end up like Microsoft? Do you mean they'll end up with 85%+ of the market share? How is that a loss?
I know OSS is real popular around here but let's face facts, MS and Apple have a combined 98% of the marketshare in their primary markets and tons of side markets that are doing well. Give us a real reason they want to be in alignment with the other 2% of the market.
I know, most folks here have a real love for the open source way but when it comes down to making a dollar off it the ratio of wins to loses is pretty sad. Given all the advantages of open source it's hard to understand why it never really got a bigger foothold and now it seems to be little more than that... a foothold that those involved are trying to keep in fear from falling off the mountain altogether.
Dedicated Cthulhu Cultist since 4523 BC.
From a developer standpoint, the iPhone is actually damn good.
The dev kit is $0, and a signing key/registration is $100. So the barrier to entry is very VERY low.
And the app store is a godsend. A distribution system where the distributor gets a flat 30% and thats it? And already has a micropayment infrastructure? Thats unheard-of nice.
If you can make a $10 app that sells to just 10,000 people, thats $70K gross revenue to you as a small developer.
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Different business models entirely--Apple learned their lesson in the late nineties by finally stopping its efforts to be like the big boys. By focusing on a niche market and slowly expanding it is perhaps akin to Southwestern Airlines vs. American
I have to admit I had a similar response. There are so utterly few open source projects that succeed in any large financial way, apple are a company that wants to make money, and the iPhone is one of the biggest gadget successes in the last 5 years - their iPod is one of the others.
This post seems to say Apple should dump surefire success and go for something risky and likely to flush all their efforts into the toilet. Goodluckwiththat indeed.
I prefer Apple's performance over Linux. I have been using Linux for more than 10 years, and I still think it's not nearly ready for the desktop. Many commercial systems or programs still outperform their open source compatitors by far. Give me a phone that works, not one that I have to tinker with for a long time to get something simple working.
-- Cheers!
Where does MS go from here? Oh, I don't know... Consoles, handheld music players, cell phones, car control systems, Internet search...
Oh wait, they're falling in all of those (consoles excepted) because they waited for someone else to forge the path, then were unable to buy the leader out as easily as they have been able to in desktop software.
Microsoft isn't suffering from success, they're suffering from a profound lack of vision.
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