Way back when, in the PC days of yore, the smart chaps at Apple decided to build a computer for the rest of us. They built a system that they would lord over in such a way that no one else would be allowed to build equipment that could run the magical MacOS. If you wanted an Apple, you went to Apple.
We all know the strategy that Microsoft pursued instead. And how successful they’ve become doing that.
So here we are. In mid-2010. Steve Jobs’ return to Apple in the late 1990′s swung the company’s fortunes around but, over the years, even though the other guys still haven’t been able to come out with a design as nicely put together as the iMac, or even the MacBook Pro (although HP is making good progress there), Apple still hasn’t managed to break past a crummy 8% market share for it’s personal computers. [Hang on, maybe that's only 6.4%. Or is that 10% after rounding? Well, whatever, it's still not that great considering they've got the entire MacOS platform market to themselves.]
If you’ve been given a second chance to correct a fatal mistake from your past, would you make the most of that opportunity? I know I would. But apparently Steve Jobs disagrees.
When the iPhone was released Apple was given that second chance. The world was begging for an open device. A device that would allow a legion of inspired developers to create awesome wireless-enabled applications for a nifty portable device. But Apple said, “No, you guys might be smart and all but you don’t know what you’re doing so we’re not going to let you write real apps. We’ll let you write these fake Ajax-enabled web apps instead.” Hrmm. It’s kinda sorta like saying, “You can buy a Mac but you’ll be stuck running our crummy Pages app instead of being able to install Microsoft Word.”
Later that year Apple back-tracked. Presumably because an awful lot of people whined out loud: WTF? In October of 2007 Steve announced there would be an SDK and developers would be able to write real apps for the iPhone. Yay. Or at least, “Yay, until everyone found out that Steve meant real apps but only those approved by Apple.” Hrmm. (Again).
BTW, you can read about all of this in a nifty summary on wikipedia.
The iPhone has sold incredibly well despite it’s crazy walled garden for applications. Let’s face it, it has sold fantastically well because any other similar platform kinda sucked including Nokia’s Symbian, Google’s Android 1.x and, and Microsoft’s Win…(well, we’ll just skip that last one). Surely, Apple probably thought it would take forever for anyone else to come out with something that could rival this cool little toy. After all, look how successful Zune has been! [ed. Of course, being Number 2 is not bad either, right?] Yup, no competition on the horizon, except for Google.
You see, Google decided to take a page out of the Microsoft playbook. They set out to build a more “open” device running a more “open” platform called Android, which also happens to be licensable for inclusion on devices built by googobs of mobile device manufacturers, just like Windows!
It has taken Google very little time to catch up to Apple. Android 2.1 is arguably more capable than the iPhone’s iOS 4. Still, the implication was that it wouldn’t mean anything until there was a gargantuan catalog of apps available for Android. Well, as of July there are now at least 70,000 apps available for Android. And at this point, Android has begun to outsell the iPhone. It is now only a matter of time until Android becomes the mainstream mobile platform. Unless Microsoft pulls a rabbit out of its hat with Windows 7 Phone later this year. But in the meantime: Way to go Apple, you blew it again!