open platform?

Steve Jobs said:

"You don’t want your phone to be an open platform. You need it to work when you need it to work. Cingular doesn’t want to see their West Coast network go down because some application messed up."

Apple is taking the wrong route in trying to lock users in with the iPhone. Scott Karp chimes in that Jobs is more focused on creating a user experience than building a massive ecosystem around Apple products. Jobs talks about third-party applications endangering Cingular's network, but the real deal is that he doesn't want to his to mess up the aesthetics of his latest creation by allowing just anyone to enter the inner sanctum of the iPhone.

Jobs is a strong willed, elitist artist who doesn't want to see his creations mutated inauspiciously by unworthy programmers. It would be as if someone off the street added some brush strokes to a Picasso painting or changed the lyrics to a Bob Dylan song. Jobs doesn't view the iPod or iPhone as part of the remix culture.

Jobs' modus operandi is to control the total user experience–the software, the fit and finish of the physical object, the marketing and messaging. With this first generation of a new product that is key to Apple's future, he is not about to let in software that could compromise the health or simple beauty of his new baby in its first few months of existence.

When Jobs said he doesn't want the iPhone to be an open platform, he more than likely meant that he doesn't want to allow third-party, downloadable software on the iPhone without a certification, quality assurance system in place that would ensure that the user experience continues to meet the Jobs standard.

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