Billions of apps for Apple iPhone are downloaded. The web traffic share of the iPhone in mobile devices or smart phones is in Q1-2009 between 50 and 66% dependent on the source.
Now that the iPhone is hot, application developers are hurrying to get their apps approved by Apple. Apple is quite a moral censor on its proprietary (closed) platform. But, as the Apple iPhones have only a marginal market share in smart phones (9% now), there is no reason from an anti-competition perspective to take action on "abuse of market power", unless Apple is able to increase its market share based on actual usage popularity: the staggering web traffic share. Other platforms are Symbian (open source) with ~50% market share, RIM with around 15% (Blackberry), Microsoft Windows Mobile OS with around 13% and Google's Android. They all seem to be able to quickly win (back) web traffic share.
If Apple continues its current practice of heavily censoring & controlling the apps that can be downloaded by users, it may destroy the potential killer app, and reduce the chances of long-term success for its platform as it has done with its PCs and MP3 players before. Apple's puritanistic approach has been proven totally wrong historically for other platforms.
Thursday, May 14, 2009
International distributor embraces Open ICEcat
A major distributor has inked a deal with ICEcat. It will promote the free Open ICEcat catalog, also towards its vendors. The IT distributor will become a major user, which will be another boost for the market's confidence in (Open) ICEcat. It has only taken 3.5 years after the introduction of the Open Catalog model to reach the top of the European market, which proves once more that an open model can work even if it is about serious business.
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