Apple, please open the iPhone
Posted by bordalix Tue, 18 Mar 2008 10:25:00 GMT
Dear Steve, you should sell the iPhones as you sell your computers: like an open plataform where anyone can install whatever application they want, with full responsability and without your paternal control.
This way, you will sell millions of iPhones worldwide, and will be doing what you do best: selling state-of-the-art hardware running a gorgeous, user friendly operating system.
Trying to gain from the mobile operators is buying a war you don't want (or need) to. Trying to gain from the developers community by restricting the free flow of creativity is wrong, and against the values of the Apple brand.
So, please, don't be greedy, change your mind, or they will force you.
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"values of the Apple brand".. O único valor que se pode esperar de qualquer empresa é que o dinheiro é que conta. Não importa o nome.
i dont agree with you, while you and i might be tech knswledgable the other 99.9% of apples target audience are not, they need devs to have restrictions on background actions wasting battery life and simple open codecs to keep media simple as well as having all tariffs including internet, most people are not used to paying for data with there phone and would simply complain when not getting internet on the phone and hound apple store genius bars with stupid setup. apple knows whats best here and its reflected in sales. not to mention keeping a phone secure and stable, this is a comsumer electronics device not a computer, people want it as stable as a microwave or toaster, no crashing or viruses.
i also don't agree. those that want (the 1% like us, as bob pointed out) that freedom can jailbreak the thing and install whatever apps they want. by doing things this way, apple is a) getting a piece of the action from the telcos (ffs, not even nokia dreamed of this in their wildest dreams. well, maybe they did, but afaik they got zilch) b) not getting flak when the battery on iphone lasts for a couple of hours, out of memory errors occur, etc. apple's image makes them a lot of money, so it's only natural they protect it at all costs. as a shareholder, i think you appreciate this :) cheers, pedro
First of all, sorry all for the delayed answer. Bob, a computer is a consumer device, and no one (yet) has developed a operating system in which you cannot install whatever you want, where every application must be scrutinized by the developer of the operating system. Plus, the leading seller of operating systems (Microsoft) developed an open platform, and that was the key for their success. And yet, every windows user was blessed with crashing and virus. Pfig, as a shareholder i would like to see Apple maximizing his revenue and margin, and i sincerely think the best way to do it is by selling millions of iphones, and not by trying to grab a piece of mobile operators revenues, limiting creativity and entrepeneurship, and by doing this, selling a lot less iphones. In Portugal is not possible to buy iphones, so people is traveling to the states to buy them. With the dolar/euro ratio, people are buying them at 280 euros. I believe that Apple could sell them in portugal for 400 euros, and people would buy them here instead. Yes, i'm talking of a 45% premium, i'm talking of 120 euros (180 USD) that Apple is loosing with every iphone bought by a portuguese. Ok, Portugal is a small market, but the long tails has thought us that a lot of small markets can be bigger that all the bug markets. I'm a convicted liberal, so i believe people must have all the freedom they can get, and that people must be responsible for their actions. Separating people by their tech knowledge is a form of segregation, in which i don't believe. I guess this is a war of opinions, so no one can win. So, if you agree, i would like to elect the Google phone (which i believe will be a totally open platform) to be the referee to this question: if gphone becomes a huge success due to his openness, i was right, if not, i was wrong. Agree?
i've jailbroken my ipod touch with ziphone, it's 1 click, not exactly brain surgery. and then all the applications are installed from within installer.app. there's lots of commercial software (have you seen labyrinth? do you think that was possible despite apple stifling innovation, as you put it?), too. so, your digital divide argument falls, as does the lack of innovation one. now, steve jobs has clearly said they're not going for the masses, they're going for the high quality, high price niche market. sound familiar? yeah, they're not doing too bad on that market, either. finally, there will be no gphone, if/when google come out with something real, it will be an operating system, pretty much like symbian, not a phone. you're comparing apples to oranges.
what is it with these stupid php and ror blog engine programmers and line breaks? jeez...