Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

yodaxl7

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jan 25, 2010
768
0
Apple, Playstation, xbox 360, and nintendo are examples of a closed system. Google's Android and Microsoft's window 7 are examples of an open system. I am a fan of a closed system. I like it when there is uniformity between software and hardware. Microsoft makes the software operating system that are used by a variety of hardware manufactures. Sure, this does allow some freedom to be creative for hardware. It is just too open. Could Microsoft do an approval program of the hardware, such that it controls some quality? I have been using pc for a long time and I have enjoyed them. Apple was too expensive for me to try back then. iPhone was my first apple product. It was the best computer based product I ever had. I do enjoy my gaming consoles, too. Now, I do have the money and am enjoying macbook pro, too. I have played with android phones and find them awful like the window ce phones, ie treo, ipaq (pda). I have tried the droid x and find the moto blur awful.
 
wasn't into the closed system when I got my first mac, but I realized it really allows a more controlled user experience, meaning higher quality experience. This can only be successful through extremelyy realized software engineering, which I think apple is king at doing.
Open system, nowadays, just seems like a sandbox for screwing up your hardware/software that's already hanging by a thread to begin with.
 
I'm a fan of open systems. However, I bought into iPhone OS. The only phones that has interested me, besides iPhones, was the Nexus 1 and the Pre. Had the N1 had a real successor, an Android phone without some stupid skin over the UI, I would have bought that instead of iPhone 4. Or had some really sweet hardware come out running WebOS I would definitely had jumped to that ship.
 
Don't really have a preference; there's good and bad points about both of them.
 
It entirely depends on if a company is able to maximize the advantages a closed platform can offer. If youre willing to be singularly accountable for every aspect of a product, you can create the best product in its class. In my opinion, Apple is the only company in the tech industry that really does this right now. Everyone else sort of passes the buck and it's the consumer that's ultimately stuck with the liability.

That is exactly what fascinates me so much about Apple. They're accountable for every Mac, every iPhone and every user experience... And they've come through for so many years. Yes, they certainly exploit all that control to a degree that nobody else is willing, but they always do so on the users behalf.

With a closed system, there are only two options.. You either stand by and work to nurture the walled garden you create for your customers - or you can lure customers in with promises of features and and abandoned them in it. So far, Apple is the only company in tech that's of the former.
 
Depends on the environment, on a phone or games console I'm more inclined to go with a closed system because I'd prefer any software I download to just work and be a consistent user experience / functionality.

On a Desktop or Web based system I'd prefer an open system as for the most part you'll have a much larger hardware set to work with, so the more users are able to contribute to making it better the more likely the system will work.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.