The iPhone Turns Five in the Wall Street Journal by Thomas Hazlett, 6/27/12

Excerpt:

The novelty has not worn thin. In the first quarter of 2012, iPhone global sales doubled, according to industry data, accounting for more than 400,000 activations per day. These “locked” models bolted to a “closed” platform are opening fantastic opportunities for others. Downloads from the proprietary Apple App Store reached 30 billion this year, with 650,000 applications available. Independent software developers who create those apps are feasting in the Apple ecosystem. They receive 70% of store revenues, so their share is more than $5 billion thus far.

Apple’s genius—maniacally detailing and bundling the “user experience”—is not the only inspirational theme music heard in the market. While Apple smashed RIM BlackBerry with its disruptive entry, it inspired another competitor. In 2008, Google launched the open-source Android operating system, licensing mobile software to any and all device makers (at no cost), allowing others to tweak their code and innovate without permission. The foray has been hugely successful, crushing Nokia and its Symbian platform. The Google approach—give away the software, let others make the devices, and make your own money in mobile ad revenues—positioned the search giant as the “anti-Apple.”

HKO comments:

Criticized for decades for its closed system architecture, the market finally understood its advantages.  Apple’s products are secondary to its real contributions- a unique and very marketable technical ecosystem.

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