Apple almost went out of business 14 years ago, and many would have blamed what seemed one of the seminal business blunders in history. Bill Gates was chatting with students at Stanford at the time and recalled letters he'd written to Steve Jobs begging him to allow cloning of Apple hardware. Had Mr. Jobs complied, Apple's operating system might have become the de facto universal standard, the one everybody wrote software for—a role that fell to Windows instead.
Google is giving away its smartphone operating system, known as Android, for free. The effects are likely to be the same. Because Mr. Jobs insists on keeping software and hardware under tight control, Google's platform is the one that will benefit from competition among multiple handset makers, producing lower prices and faster innovation, including a flurry of soon-to-arrive tablets and a variety of new devices aimed at niches (say, with a focus on navigation or texting).
Likewise, because Mr. Jobs insists on vetting all applications that run on his phones via the iTunes App Store, you'll need an Android phone to capture the full benefit of openness to the Web. Soon, Android users can expect their available services and apps permanently to outstrip those available to iPhone users through the App store.
The search giant risks delivering a crummy, fragmented, even disastrous user experience, with security leaks, viruses and customer service that fails when needed most. For Apple, the immediate danger is overreach, undermining its ability to deliver an ineffably superior user experience that just pleases.
Read more at the Wall Street Journal.
