Quote:
Originally Posted by Ed Hansberry
The main reason I am posting this is the Fool has some research showing that closed systems are crushing open systems in the marketplace. Closed systems are represented by Nokia, Apple and RIM, where the own the operating system and do much if not all of the hardware design. Open systems would include Palm, HTC and Motorola where the software is purchased from a third party, like Microsoft or Google.
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I don't agree with the Fool's definitions. Open and Closed to me mean the source code, and Windows Mobile isn't "Open" (Android is).
I'd call things Loosely or Tightly Controlled. Apple and RIM tightly control the experience by developing both the hardware and software (I'll leave Nokia out for now because they're moving Symbian to open source). Microsoft loosely controls the experience by developing the software, but only setting minimum requirements on OEMs who develop the hardware. Google may control Android even more loosely (although I don't really know).
I suspect Palm's Nova will be tightly controlled, at least initially. Whether Palm will market the OS to other OEMs remains to be seen.