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Comment by emanuer | Hacker News Reader

I thought about this just today. Closed systems like the iPhone allow for programs perfectly customized for the hardware, OS. This is great news for the users as the interfaces and other standards are rather consistent.

What was the success of Microsoft in the 80s and 90s? I believe it was that they had an open system. They reached the critical mass, by letting everyone in.

Today, being open is their fallacy, as it is hard for Microsoft to bring all their 3rd party programs into line. (Into line refers to interface, security, and other standards)

To be successful a closed system, it must fulfill one point: It must have exceeded a critical mass of users.

I guess open is better when you can't rely on a multi-billion marketing budget.

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iPhone/Android developer here

>Closed systems like the iPhone allow for programs perfectly customized for the hardware

The closed nature of the platform doesn't help this at all. The fact there are only 5 iPhoneOS platforms, 4 of which are virtually spec identical (iPhone 2g, iPhone 3g, iPhone 3gs, iPodTouch[most different]), and now the iPad makes it easier to use fixed width layouts and screen mappings. The hardware variation between the handsets is only noticeable, not an impediment. However the fact all of them can run the latest iPhoneOS release means the platform is much more stable. The lack of fragmentation is what makes iPhone OS so powerful. If google makes it so all future phones have sufficent specs to handle all upgrades, then streamlines the upgrade process, then we're likely to see more inroads in android.

Android's biggest weakness is that each phone is on a different OS version (and there are vast differences between these versions). Some of the phones (notably the G1) aren't ever going to be upgradeable to the current latest version (as said by engineers) due to the small onboard memory. The capabilities of these different OSes are very large. It would be the difference between running iPhoneOS2.0 vs iPhone OS3.2 (the new one that's on the iPad).

As you have guessed right, I have absolutely NO idea about Software development. I was lead to believe that it is easy to write software for the iPhone by numerous articles and deduced it must be because the hardware is so similar. Thanks for correcting me.

Still I do believe a closed system is favorable for the user as long as the one who controls the system does a great job. I am thinking of a windows were one can only install software which does not mess up the system resources, or causes other harm. It would reduce the PC troubles for inexperienced users dramatically.

"What was the success of Microsoft in the 80s and 90s? I believe it was that they had an open system."

Wow, I guess it would take Apple to make Microsoft look open. "Closed Is The New Open"... "Cathedral Is The New Bazaar". Sigh.

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