Let me introduce you to a little friend of mine called sense.
Perhaps for now. But what really nearly killed Apple is that they didn't license their OS. In fact, it's a problem that they will always face. Apple claims to be a hardware company. But they're not really. If you're going to divide the computer world into software and hardware makers, well Apple doesn't fit either. Their hardware only runs one OS (ok it can run windows, but how many people are buying it just for Windows? Too expensive), and the OS it runs only runs on Apple hardware.
That aside, Apple's growth is severely limited by the above factors. If Apple doesn't let other companies make hardware to run their OS, they're doomed to follow the same path they did in the late 80s and 90s. Think about it... what happens as Apple's marketshare grows. HP and Dell's market shrinks. So they approach Apple to make computer to run Apple's OS. Apple says no. The market wouldn't stand for Apple being the only computer manufacturer. HP, Dell, etc. have stockholders to please and they'll fight back. But it won't get that far. Apple won't get more than 15% market share most likely. But that's still all rebound growth and good for the company right now. They're on the upswing.
But what happens with the iPhone platform? Think of the new little war the iPhone started as analagous to the PC war the Mac started. Apple is following the same path. They start out big with a great product that they completely control. They have a huge share of the market. Others start to enter the ring. This isn't an audio playback toy. No. The war has now been taken to the big leagues of the business world where companies outfit their employees with a whole slew of product at once. Palm, Moto, Rim, everyone will want to compete in that realm and they'll ask Apple if they can make a product that can use the iPhone OS. Apple says no. So, all these other companies are forced to do it themselves and eventually they'll get close enough and charge half as much and the iPhone will slip into a niche market as suddenly it's not compatible with whatever open OS fills the void. Windows95 filled that void years ago in the PC world. It wasn't as good as a Mac, but it was close enough, the computers were cheaper, and they were more powerful.
Just a thought. I've seen others mention it before. Apple may be happy being an expensive niche product that is known to be the best. But I worry as a stockholder that the current high is just that, a high. Might even get higher, but there will be a limit if they don't play nice with others, and once there's something competitive and open for all to license, every cell and pda manufacturer will jump on board, and Apple's PDA/Phone market will plumment like the mac did.
Looks like a green link btwn phones or sumthn
ish enough
