aardivark

A Convert to the Cult of iPhone

Closed is always better for highly complex consumer products.

Windows is open only as an accident of history. If IBM had an exclusive deal on DOS the IBM PC would probably still be a closed system today. Windows is open only because 1) IBM unknowingly gave up the farm to Bill Gates and 2) to capitalize on IBMS gaff, Microsoft had to grow the clone PC market really fast and they did not have the resources or expertise to build their own hardware business.

As the poster boy for open systems on complex consumer products, I offer you desktop Linux. What could be more open than Linux? What could be a bigger dud given the hype than Linux for consumer desktop use?

iPhone (Apple) vs. BlackBerry (RIM): Which Do Consumers Love Most?

RIMM is the stock du jour for the streetwise who bought low, are drumming up excitement and will soon cash out right before the amateurs realize that RIM has no proved capabilities beyond making push e-mail devices, has no proved experience selling to the consumer, has no room for growth once it saturates the push e-mail device market, and has just been place squarely in Apple's crosshairs. To use what has become a popular metaphor, RIMM and RIMM investors are in a Wiley Coyote moment where they've already run past the cliff edge but they haven't realized it yet and they are about to plunge to earth once they scan their immediate environs.