Michael Bauwens summarizes at the P2P Foundation a couple of interesting comments on the risks of the closed nature of Apple’s tablet device. Frankly, I find Tim Lee’s argument more compelling, that past closed efforts by Apple worked well despite being closed not because of it. His comparison of the iPhone to the AppleTV is particularly instructive.
Ed Felten articulates what I’ve been thinking almost since the product was announced: will it test Zittrain’s thesis in “The Future of the Internet”? He remains skeptical and I think justifiably so. As I recently wrote, I think Danny O’Brien has the right of it. The iPad may push the balance a bit but it is unlikely to completely upset it.
My sole remaining fear is that it may be the start of a harder to stem trend. I am skeptical of that, too, because of the considerable value that will always remain with open systems, but still. At any rate, one or even two (the iPhone) data points do not yet make a trend.
And cometh the Adriod Tablet running on Arm Chipset. Anyone wanna’ help me transform my TS7800 into a tablet?
The Android “Moses”
LOL. I am with ya cmdln!
–M