Linked by Thom Holwerda on Tue 19th Jan 2010 23:31 UTC, submitted by jebb
Now this is material that piques my interest more than anything: insights from one of the bigger names in the industry. Jean-Louis Gassee debunks the "Apple-must-license-its-software-or-die" myth by looking back upon the past - and if you don't know who JLG is, then please take that dunce hat and stand in the corner for three hours, contemplating your existence. Note: OSNews has a bug with using diacritic marks on the front page, so JLG's name is misspelled. It is correctly spelled in the article body.
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Member since:2005-07-14
Yes, I agree. When you license, you open the door to poor re-implementations and poor (and inconsistent) end user experiences. Apple is king of it's domain precisely because of it's totalitarian way of controlling every aspect of it's product's experience cycle. Android, for all it's openness, will have a difficult (if not impossible) time trying to reach similar heights of user satisfaction, IMHO.
RE[2]: Comment by merkoth
by Colonel Panic on Wed 20th Jan 2010 12:42
in reply to "RE: Comment by merkoth"
Member since:2005-07-28
RE[2]: Comment by merkoth
by BallmerKnowsBest on Wed 20th Jan 2010 16:58
in reply to "RE: Comment by merkoth"
Member since:2008-06-02
When you license, you open the door to poor re-implementations and poor (and inconsistent) end user experiences.
The flipside is that you also open the door for better re-implementations that out-compete/embarrass your own products - which is the problem that Apple ran into when they authorized clones in the 90s.
You'll hear lots of revisionist history from Apple fanboys about how the clone makers somehow "betrayed" Apple by daring to compete for the same customers. But the purse and simple reality is that Apple couldn't even compete with their own licensees (or they just lacked the testicular fortitude).
Member since:
2006-09-22
To me, Apple licensing OSX or iPhoneOS makes no sense whatsoever. A Mac isn't just OSX nor a bunch of off-the-shelf computer components, it's the sum of all those parts that make the final user experience. Granted, it isn't my cup of tea (I tend to have a fairly rough time whenever I'm in front of a Mac), but the fact that they're able to deliver a solid and smooth computing experience is undeniable. At least for their target audience, of course.
Let's take the iPod Classic as an example: Why did it become the most successful PMP? Was it because it was powered by impressive hardware? No. Was it because it used a top notch OS? Nope. It was successful because Apple figured out how to offer a great experience. They had the music, the proper app to get access to it and the media player had the hardware and software it needed to power the features people wanted in such a device. Nothing more, nothing less.