A couple of days ago, I posted about my frustration with Apple’s AppStore. Recently, T-Mobile announced the G1 which is the polar opposite of the iPhone from a platform standpoint. The G1 is based off of Google’s new open source Android software which is a highly extensible OS for smart phones. The beauty of the platform is that the API’s are publicly available and anyone can write applications.
Android thus avoids the Apple big brother approach to applications. In my opinion, this is the right way to do it; end users should have the right to download and install any application they want and this model has been embraced by Android and Blackberry.
I hope that Apple recognizes this issue; however, I am not sure if they ever will. Their historic model is a proprietary one where they tightly control the hardware and software of their platforms and I envision this continuing with the iPhone.