April 1, 2011 Leave a Comment
I was watching a debate unfold on Facebook over the past two days. A friend of mine’s iPhone died and he polled his friends to see what he should do: buy an Android-based Motorola Atrix, or go again with another iPhone. Aside from the typical jabs and banter, I found myself thinking about the platforms. Only this time it wasn’t about the technology as it was the costs of switching.
Most of us have the same dilemma. If you use any form of digital music or reader, you’re likely very tied to the device and platform that deliver content. iPad, iPod, iPhone all lock you in to iTunes. Got a Kindle? Try moving your books and magazine subscriptions to Barnes and Noble’s Nook.
So now you’re saying, “so what? This isn’t new or novel.” Where my head was going is the problem we (humans) have with silos and lost potential. The Internet, for all its standardization and commercial appeal, still falls short of its potential to reduce if not remove barriers. The always present argument of “security” or “ownership” is the last remaining hurdle to full and free exchange.
Where the information silos once were mainframe platforms, were replaced by personal computers and desktops. Desktops became laptops, went mobile and are now reduced to smart phones. Throughout all of this, we’ve had applications. Applications for every environment and technology silo imaginable. The problem is: rather than build applications for the web and remove those silos — by figuring out revenue models for secure, profitable communities — we continue to follow the easy path — build applications for hardware platforms and be locked-in to a particular vendor. Instead of being able to get any application’s functionality on any device, people unknowingly are limited to certain applications or companies/developers are tasked to port applications over to a number of selected platforms.
The issues with this are wide and many. The app stores that control the delivery of content tools can select, control and evaluate the who/what/when/why/how of applications deployed via their stores. Apple has already had a slew of stories regarding limiting or removing applications based on apparent political pressures of various groups. Some companies forego development of applications for some platforms in favor of others with little if any input from the user community.
The “Big 3″ (Apple, Google, and RIM) all stand to gain. Now, they’re all very good platforms for what they do. I’m not trying to disparage hardware or software manufacturers and engineers. But the loser in this is the Internet. This isn’t disruptive innovation, it’s sustaining innovation. Innovation that entrenches an incumbent and that existing users will find appealing. This comes at a price of sub-optimizing the Internet. Which ultimately means that we (humans) miss out on what could be.
Who knows…maybe HTML 5 and enhanced richness will collide with multi-core phones and 4G networks to provide a level of hand-held compute power that will stem some of this trend. But chances are, platform providers are going to be loath to relinquish the hold they have over your paid for or self-provided content (or at least the delivery mechanisms).
