Glass Maze Every jumbled pile of person

Right Conclusion, Wrong Reason

Dave Winer:

There’s still a ton of Woz in the Mac, I am typing this on a gorgeous unibody MacBook Pro, which is probably the most lovely computer I’ve ever used. The software I’m using has never been approved by Apple, and can be downloaded from the Internet. Next to it is an iPhone, which I use only as a phone, an IM device and a communicating camera. It sucks as a phone. The IM is okay and the camera is really nice. But as a platform it’s a complete total disappointment.

I agree that the iPhone has been a huge disappointment, but not in the way that Winer implies. The platform itself is emphatically not at fault: the iPhone is a beautiful piece of technology, beautifully realized. It does pretty much everything right.

No: the problem is the draconian, locked-down distribution mechanism that Apple has imposed on its ecosystem. It’s another case of a lovely idea hobbled by control freaks. That’s the tragedy here.

[...] Right Conclusion, Wrong Reason – I say it again: locked-down technology will find it harder and harder to prosper over time. [...]

Why would you expect any different from Apple considering their track record with their regular hardware?