Should Apple Open Source the iPhone?

An anonymous reader writes "Given the OpeniBoot project is just a breath away from getting Android onto the iPhone, maybe Apple should consider opening up the platform. This post has five reasons, but I think there are far more. Without open source, Apple will find itself in the same position as today's Microsoft in seven years."

Oh no! Success

Without open source, Apple will find itself in the same position as today's Microsoft in seven years.

The largest software producer on the planet? Perish the thought! That would be TERRIBLE!

Anyway, I don't like the iPhone either but let's face it, some people are zebras and others would just as soon kill you as open a pack of gum.

Well as an Apple stockholder

I prefer Apple's performance [yahoo.com] over the last 15 years over Microsoft's [yahoo.com]. Even at 50% of its all-time high, Apple is still trading at 25 times what I paid for it, and runs the most profitable retail business per square foot in America.

Compare: The glory days of MSFT are over. It is no longer a growth company. That stock made a lot of early adopters rich, but MS is a victim of its own monopoly. Where do they go from here, other than forcing needless OS upgrades down XP users' throats?

Re:Well as an Apple stockholder

I prefer Apple's performance over Linux. I have been using Linux for more than 10 years, and I still think it's not nearly ready for the desktop. Many commercial systems or programs still outperform their open source compatitors by far. Give me a phone that works, not one that I have to tinker with for a long time to get something simple working.

Re:Well as an Apple stockholder

"Every single application that I've needed has, so far, been superior to its proprietary equivalent once I adapted to it."

Er... I think you'll have to define your terms there. Tell me, does that free software have wizards and shiny metal UIs? When you install a DVD burning util, does it install its own little media player and a few other little utils? A toolbar to help you browse the web more effectively? Call me back when the free software installs some other related software from other companies without even having to be asked. Often, that other software even automatically gives you hints as to how you can buy yet more software. I for one tried using Linux and found that it barely even gave me any incentive to upgrade my software as each version seemed to be backwards and forwards compatible with the other version. It was practically encouraging me switch over to something different. WHENEVER I FELT LIKE IT. It sucked basically.

I think that FOSS has a way to go before it has caught up with proprietary software.

Re:Well as an Apple stockholder

Where does MS go from here? Oh, I don't know... Consoles, handheld music players, cell phones, car control systems, Internet search...

Oh wait, they're falling in all of those (consoles excepted) because they waited for someone else to forge the path, then were unable to buy the leader out as easily as they have been able to in desktop software.

Microsoft isn't suffering from success, they're suffering from a profound lack of vision.

 

Re:Oh no! Success

I have to admit I had a similar response. There are so utterly few open source projects that succeed in any large financial way, apple are a company that wants to make money, and the iPhone is one of the biggest gadget successes in the last 5 years - their iPod is one of the others.

This post seems to say Apple should dump surefire success and go for something risky and likely to flush all their efforts into the toilet. Goodluckwiththat indeed.

Re:Oh no! Success

It's poorly worded. I read it as, "In seven years, Apple might find itself in the position of Microsoft today [in 2008]."

Microsoft's market share is going down, but the grandparent meant to point out that Microsoft of 2008 has just under 90% of the market. Apple should be so lucky.

Microsoft in 7 years?

"Without open source, Apple will find itself in the same position as today's Microsoft in seven years."

You say that as if it were a bad thing. I'm guessing that despite the recent drop to 89% marketshare MS is feeling just fine.

I'm not saying OSS would be a bad move for Apple or the iPhone, but to say that if they aren't careful they might end up completely dominating the market and rolling around in mountains of cash isn't going to get your point across to most people.

Re:Microsoft in 7 years?

Number abuse! 2 minute minor!

Seriously. Talking about their stock price right now is an extremely dishonest way to look at it, and saying they are "ratcheting downward" seems to be totally ignoring the size of the rate.

They've lost... 1.9 points from their marketshare in the last 10 months (oh, the horrors!) and are down *only* 44% from their 52-week high. SPY is down 41% from their 52-week high. FCX (to pick a random stock) is down 82% from their 52 week high. Citigroup is down 77% and Apple is down 48%.

Given the rest of the market, MSFT is doing just fine right now.

Will never happen

Apple don't let you develop for the iPhone freely; it has to be done under their conditions and with their approval, asking the OS to be open sourced is foolish and it will never happen, Apple has shown what does it thinks about developer freedom.

More likely they will try to find a way to prohibit Android from being installed.

Why the Bleep should they?

A huge part of the reason why people buy the iPhone is the unified user experience. Yes, I'd like a platform that I don't have to pay $100 to develop on...

But my mother doesn't care. she wants a smartphone that "Just Works": its easy to use, with lots of apps.

Apple has provided a great unified user experience on the iPhone, and thats the secret. Its a smartphone my MOTHER can use.

Opening up the platform wouldn't help.
   

Re:Why the Bleep should they?

From a developer standpoint, the iPhone is actually damn good.

The dev kit is $0, and a signing key/registration is $100. So the barrier to entry is very VERY low.

And the app store is a godsend. A distribution system where the distributor gets a flat 30% and thats it? And already has a micropayment infrastructure? Thats unheard-of nice.

If you can make a $10 app that sells to just 10,000 people, thats $70K gross revenue to you as a small developer.

Re:Why the Bleep should they?

Really? For a complete selling infrastructure including payment processing?

Kagi charges like 16%*, and that's just for payment processing -- you still have to do your own distribution and installation. I'm not saying 30% is cheap, but it's hardly unreasonable.

* Kagi has flat fees, percentage fees, and both flat and percentage credit-card fees, so the exact amount varies from order to order. Given a $10 credit-card order it comes out to about 16%.

Re:Why the Bleep should they?

Well they are talking about attracting developers in the long run. Which one is more appealing to a software company? An open platform that exposes itself to the world, or one that is closed?

Which ever one has the most users that they can sell their product to so they can make the most money possible.

A stupid question

First, they simply won't. The question is little more than theoretical and we all know how that goes.

And secondly, they'll end up like Microsoft? Do you mean they'll end up with 85%+ of the market share? How is that a loss?

I know OSS is real popular around here but let's face facts, MS and Apple have a combined 98% of the marketshare in their primary markets and tons of side markets that are doing well. Give us a real reason they want to be in alignment with the other 2% of the market.

I know, most folks here have a real love for the open source way but when it comes down to making a dollar off it the ratio of wins to loses is pretty sad. Given all the advantages of open source it's hard to understand why it never really got a bigger foothold and now it seems to be little more than that... a foothold that those involved are trying to keep in fear from falling off the mountain altogether.

Nah.

No, I think they should keep it as is, or maybe even lock it up even tighter.

Umm, what were you expecting Slashdotters to say?

Oh yeah, that'll really help

After all, Apple is having so much trouble selling iPhones and attracting a developer community that open-sourcing the iPhone is the only way to survive... Wait, what? Apple already has the top-selling smartphone? They already have a huge developer community and thousands of applications in less than six months of having this OS on the market? They've all but killed Palm, made a huge dent in Microsoft's Windows Mobile business, and forced RIM to come out with a poorly-regarded "me too" touchscreen phone while eating market share?

Well, I guess that's how poorly things are going for Apple with a closed design. There's lots of valid reasons why Apple might be well-served to open up more of their iPhone code, but it's not like the current strategy has exactly failed miserably. Right now iPhone is in a pretty enviable place from a development point of view. Apple is early in the 2.0 cycle, and hasn't even implemented all the promised features for developers yet (like central push notification and true turn-by-turn GPS capabilities), and they still have a massive base of developers who are leveraging their Cocoa code and methods to produce iPhone software.

Not to mention that touch in general is a full-fledged platform for Apple. Not just phones, but iPods and likely other devices. Build for the platform and you run on all the devices (unlike, say, RIM's multiple platforms). And they have teh sexy as well in their hardware and UI designs, so there's consumer appeal (compared to, say, the skins manufacturers have had to overlay on Windows Mobile to make it less hostile to users).

There's always going to be people who want to tweak their phone, or run Linux on it because it has a CPU and RAM. But the mass market doesn't give a darn if iPhones are open or closed. They don't care if Android is open, either. They just care that the devices are cool and useful, and that there's plenty of nice software to run that's easy to get. iPhone is leading in that race now, and as long as they're all that, nobody important gives a darn otherwise.

Should Apple Open Source the iPhone?

Yes. They should also make it 100% based on Java.

Rebuttal

Since then: nothing out of Apple, despite mounting pressure from projects like Android that are vying for Apple's throne.

First off, I want to point something out: "Apple's throne" was achieved in less than two years, starting basically from zero, when competing against companies that have been in the cell phone market since the 80s. Keep that in mind when criticizing Apple's business strategies.

Open source is becoming the default way to develop software in many industries.

One SIGNIFICANT subset of the industry where open source is not the default way to develop software: Industries where the user interface matters. Think about how many times you've heard the phrase "As easy to use as Linux".

Open sourcing the iPhone gives customers a much broader selection of applications. Customers faced with a plethora of attractive applications when they visit the app store will spend money.

There is a lot of empirical evidence to refute this. Customers DO NOT want choice. One of the big complaints about Linux is that people have to choose between Ubuntu, Redhat, Slackware, Debian, Kubuntu, Fedora, LFS, Gentoo, etc. Or maybe FreeBSD or NetBSD. And on top of that, Gnome or KDE or something else. When faced with too many choices, the reaction amongst most humans is give up. One of the reasons Ubuntu has been so successful is that (unlike, say, Slackware) you don't have to go through and choose which programs and window manager/desktop system you want.

One of the biggest wins by far of the App Store is that there is a certain minimum quality level needed to be in it. If they opened that up, it would turn into something like SourceForge and it would be impossible to find the good stuff amongst the chaff.

It Will Solidify Apple's Dominance.
Apple's got a rare opportunity to solidify dominance in a market by killing the competition in the cradle.

But I thought you said choice was good? ;)

Honestly, I prefer Apple to have competition. Keeps 'em honest.

If They Don't, Someone Else Will

All of the other smartphones are already a lot more open than the iPhone, and (with the exception of Android) they've been around a lot longer. Apple's still whuppin' their asses.

That's right, Linux on the iPhone. Earth to Apple: if the iPhone had been open sourced, this probably wouldn't have happened.

Wow, you don't understand Linux people at all, do you? There is a certain sort of person who will try to install Linux on anything that stands still in front of them for too long. The only computing hardware that people won't try getting to run Linux is computing hardware that's already running Linux. And even then, they'll try to swap in a *custom* version of Linux. It's what they do. Making the iPhone more open would just have made that happen more quickly.

They did...

one would think apple would have learned from their past mistake of a less closed platform overtaking them and nearly sending the company down the drain

Apple went down the drain more from the clones. Look, Apple's whole thing is about the entire consumer experience from store to computer hardware to boot. It always has been and hopefully always will be. To say that Apple should just be like Microsoft, is kinda crazy. Apple doesn't have the money to compete with Microsoft or Dell and so the real brand differentiator is that they have an entirely different business model.

mod parent up... business model is key

Different business models entirely--Apple learned their lesson in the late nineties by finally stopping its efforts to be like the big boys. By focusing on a niche market and slowly expanding it is perhaps akin to Southwestern Airlines vs. American

Re:They did...

Not to be contentious, but you might want to review your statements before posting.

Dell market cap on 12/10/2008: $23.41 billion.
Apple cash in the bank at quarter ending Sep 08: $24.49 billion.

Apple could write a check for Dell and have a billion dollars left over. If they aren't competing with Dell, it's not because of a lack of money.

Re:those who dont learn from history

And those who do learn from history go mad while watching the same shit happen over and over again.

Re:Nobody cares.

The awesome thing is that Apple's one phone is going to sell more than all the Android phones combined.

Joe User doesn't care about open source. He cares about his phone being 'cool.'

And I care about being able to only have one device instead of 3.

Exactly, this is not Highander!

There is room for more than one model for how to develop a product. The iPhone is targeted to consumers who want a very well thought out, consistent, easily usable (and therefore more useful) device. Not all of us WANT the iPhone that would result from open source.

  I don't know why more people cannot grasp this. There is plenty of market share to go around for both Apple and Android, both platforms have really easy to acess dev kits and great potentials, with different focuses for consumers.

People act like in the end There Can Be Only One, when in a real market there are Several. I'm sure even Windows Mobile will hang on pretty much forever.