Similarly, Win32 API was proprietary but resulted in
the largest app platform ever. Apple’s FairPlay DRM is
proprietary but created the largest legal media
ecosystem to date. So while the power of proprietary
platforms to create large markets has been
demonstrated, the ability of open source to create
large and lucrative markets coherent enough to attract
commercial developers in the consumer markets is yet to
be proven.
Ironically, if the iPhone platform can fail to dominate
the smartphone market because it’s too closed, the
Android platform may fail because it’s too open.
the ability of open source to create large and lucrative markets coherent enough to attract
commercial developers in the consumer markets is yet to be proven.
You mean the one that grew into a large commercial market dominated by the proprietary Internet Explorer, Netscape Browser, and Netscape Server?
[Netscape server was never a huge percentage of the servers, but it was the server of choice for companies during the period when the web turned from computer oddity to "thing real people use". The netscape browser only became open source in their death spirals.]
