A while ago, I read an article on Mac360 about how Apple is supposedly destroying Android “from the inside out“. It’s a “fairly biased” piece, and it somehow seems to argue that Apple’s ability to make money off of content is a good thing for end users. But that’s not what caught my eye (since we all know the iPhone is essentially a shopping cart). Here’s what did.

The question that tech media and stock analysts should be asking is, ‘How long before Android and Google’s partners give up the chase?‘

Huh, what?

Personally, I can think of nothing worse to happen to the tech industry than what Mac360 is suggesting here. And not because Apple would come out on top. I’m admittedly not a fan, but things would be just as bad if every single smartphone out there ran Android.

Monopoly vs. innovation and open standards

Just look at what happened in desktop PC market, or the so-called “browser war”. Windows, with its 95% market share, has shown very little progress over the last decades. And Internet Explorer’s all-but-monopoly from ten years ago still casts a dark shadow on web development. Monopolies are not a good thing. Monopolies kill innovation. And they also make it feasible to create platform-specific implementations as opposed to using open standards.
The reason I really want Microsoft’s Windows Phone effort and Blackberry’s new BB10 operating system to do well is because I care deeply for the web. The web is going mobile, and the very last thing we need is for one platform to dominate that arena. We really don’t want the mobile web to just target one browser, with some content locked to one app in one app store. We want a free and open web, built on standards, that can be used on any device.

Turf war

It’s important to realize that this is a turf war that isn’t about selling phones. It’s about gaining control of the mobile internet. It’s a clash of ecosystems that sell hardware, software, services and content. And I think that the net is better off with four strong camps instead of just two.