Reply to Fred Wilson on Apple's Closed System

Fred, I don't believe you're talking about technology, here, though that is the tenor of many of the comments. I would guess that your real point is about open vs. closed systems -- and that open is the ethos of the day. Closed systems have a more limited lifespan now.

Whether the technology for going from one screen to another is Flash or AIR or anything else ( and I know people who make little distinction among screens) what you want is to be able to watch and listen to what you want, when, where you happen to be. If Flash is the current lingua franca for that type of experience, so be it, and that's why (I'm guessing) you're encouraging Apple to allow Flash.

The point you make about Apple being closed has been a long-standing complaint and a reason it took me a long time to come over to using Apple computers. Even now, they're more open than they were -- one can, for example, use Windows on them, and there are various syncing capabilities with non-Apple products -- but the system is clearly still built to create the preference for Apple's closed ecosystem.

That's ultimately, i think, going to hurt -- unless their strategy is to be a high-end niche product for very specific groups, and not reach ever-widening scale.

(I could play devil's advocate and talk about how Apple computers work, bug-free and the devices that ARE approved work fairly seamlessly together with minimum hassle, unlike PCs. But that's a different discussion.)

Disclosure: typed this on a Mac. A PC laptop is on the shelf over my shoulder in the kitchen.


Originally posted as a comment by DorianBenkoil on A VC using Disqus.

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