Friday, September 28, 2007

Steve Jobs Girds for the Long iPhone War - Bits - Technology - New York Times Blog

 More on Apple's dilemma

Since the iPhone is a very sleek, capable handheld computer, people are going to want to run programs on it. They are going to want to hack and see what they can build. It’s a law of nature. And Apple might as well be fighting gravity.

Many other cell phones are locked down, of course. But few other phones capture the imagination of programmers the way the iPhone does.

[...]

Apple essentially has two choices. Either it exposes most of the iPhone’s capabilities to developers. Or it will have to gird for an ever escalating war in which it will have to send ever more electronic brick-bombs to its best customers who don’t follow its strict rules.

There's a third choice, of course; Apple can watch more flexible competitors run away with the market, as it has done in the past...

Steve Jobs Girds for the Long iPhone War - Bits - Technology - New York Times Blog

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