Opinions - Report: Apple to launch two phones in September

[crossy]

Apple was not happy with the quality of the Mac clones in the past IIRC and so controlling both the hardware and software seems to be what they prefer to do now. Also,it probably means they have better margins now.

Granted, but I'm not suggesting that they start trying to compete with Windows 7 - merely that if someone wants to buy the OS and install it on their own kit, then they should be able to do so. On the other hand, it's on the understanding that the resulting combo doesn't have to be supported by Apple. Let's be honest, there's precious little difference between the 'oily bits' in a Mac and a PC these days. You never know, you might end up with a system that runs MacOS better than a real Mac! (And yes, I know theoretically you can buy MacOS and bung the Apple sticker from an iPod onto your PC and be compliant with the letter of the MacOS license - but it still strikes me as dodgy)

Getting back to the phones, if Apple were to license iOS to others - say Samsung - then I would assume that they'd be able to dictate things such as minimum hardware specs. Maybe I'm being simple minded, but surely the more devices that are running the OS the better? Personally, I'd be fascinated to see what kind of iOS phone another manufacturer could deliver or, and I realise this is heresy to some, whether another manufacturer could deliver a better iOS tablet than iPad2?

[Bluecube]

It won't happen as Apple won't tolerate fragmentation of the hardware platform. Plus Apple would look stupid if someone else released a 2Ghz quad core iOS running phone while the Apple spec was pitful. And there's no way Apple would allow modification of the iOS for branding. There's control freaks, super control freaks and then there's Apple...

[Mattus]

Getting back to the phones, if Apple were to license iOS to others - say Samsung - then I would assume that they'd be able to dictate things such as minimum hardware specs. Maybe I'm being simple minded, but surely the more devices that are running the OS the better? Personally, I'd be fascinated to see what kind of iOS phone another manufacturer could deliver or, and I realise this is heresy to some, whether another manufacturer could deliver a better iOS tablet than iPad2?

It's never going to happen. It goes against Apple's core principles - cutting hardware and software out of the same mould and retaining 100% control over every aspect of the user experience. Making both the hardware and the software is a core element of the Apple experience and one of the things that Apple most often plays upon.

Remember, this is the company that's taken four years to consider it acceptable to assign a hardware button to the camera. Do you really think they'll ever relinquish control of their entire hardware platform?

[crossy]

It's never going to happen. It goes against Apple's core principles - cutting hardware and software out of the same mould and retaining 100% control over every aspect of the user experience. Making both the hardware and the software is a core element of the Apple experience and one of the things that Apple most often plays upon.

I'm well aware of that - I just thought it'd be interesting to hypothesise as to what could come out of some competition closer to home. Plus, an iOS licensee could target the low-end side of the market, something which (understandably) Apple is unwilling to do. Unless, of course, the second launch is the "iPhone nano" that some commentators have talked about.

Remember, this is the company that's taken four years to consider it acceptable to assign a hardware button to the camera. Do you really think they'll ever relinquish control of their entire hardware platform?

My point exactly - some competition would force them to up their game - not so good for them, but probably good news for us consumers.

[Spud1]

I think opening up the market for iOS would destroy Apple for a second time. It would be a bad move for consumers and a bad move for them..the only positive thing that would happen would be a price drop - but nothing more. The main reason technologically why Apples products are such a success is that they have complete control over the hardware (marketing aside - from a technology viewpoint this is their key advantage). Apple don't have to content with hundreds of OEMs making tweaks that break the software - they have to write a few drivers which they can do very very well, as you can focus on the quality when you are writing much less code. Windows and Android both suffer horribly because of that issue - and whilst it's not an insurmountable problem and the larger OEMs don't tend to have these issues, it does damage the brand and cause issues for consumers.

I've been laughed at before for saying that Android is "too open" - well, it is. It is one of its greatest strengths as a platform but also it's biggest weakness.

It makes absolutely no business sense for Apple to open up their software to other companies in the current market - at the end of the day they are in it to make money and thats it, and they do very well with their current strategy..If they could every single competitor would do exactly the same thing as Apple in a heartbeat.

Things may change in the next 10 years or so though, as this sort of success isn't likely to continue. I think we'll end up seeing Apple moving to a Software model eventually but it will start off small with a single very large OEM partner; not sure we'll ever see a mass OEM market with them.

[aidanjt]

You can never be 'too open'. But being open isn't for Apple, and they're doing well as a company regardless.

[Unique]

Oooh yes, that's a really good idea - but I can't see Apple allowing iOS to be installed on that, nor smiling on someone putting WP7 on "their" phone. To be honest, other than that nebulous "exclusivity" tag, I don't know why Apple didn't think about selling iOS licenses to other manufacturers. Or allow users to buy MacOS to put on their PC's (which I'd like to have done legally).

i think there are quite big differences between the computer and phone markets, in that people tend to do a lot more with computers, they are upgradable easily with both hardware and software, whereas phones at least not now or the forseeable future aren't really upgradable, so having an OS that is specifically designed for the product range is better. opening up IOS for other phones isn't half as appealing as they would have to do more work and testing to run on other devices, it opens the market up whilst they already have the lions share, and as a mobile OS can't be sold for anything like the money that a full computer OS does, it would mean the potential "extra" revenue would be small, whislt losing out a number of sales to people who want IOS but don't want to pay apples hardware prices

i've been all for OSX to be available to everyone for a long time, as i thought apple could benefit from increased sales to people who wouldn't dream of splashing out a grand for a mac but would maybe spend £50-£100 for OSX to try the apple experience, and potentially they may garner some market share. i also for a long time said that apple should let windows run on it's products (not via parallels), and they've embraced that and it seems to work well, and they've probably gained a few sales from doing it from people put off that the macbook can't run sage accounts or whatever is only available on windows. if the pricing wasn't such an issue the mac computers would sell a lot more from being able to adequately run both systems. you can get a decent hackintosh system but few would use it seriously for business use

i think apple have found their niche in that mobile phones are the type of device that benefits more from a closed system than an open one, and they are currently on top of everyone else who perhaps are only realising that now