Matt Gemmell - how to compete with the ipad

Really enjoying reading this article from Matt Gemmell. I especially love this bit:

Closed system. This is the very opposite of what your customers care about. The percentage of your customer base who make a buying decision based on the openness of a system (in terms of system-level customisation options, use of open source software or otherwise) is vanishingly tiny. They’re very vocal, certainly, but commercially they’re irrelevant__.** **Pandering to this segment will most certainly damage your penetration into the market. Be extremely wary about sacrificing large-scale appeal for the sake of a tiny but noisy technical minority. The tablet space is in no way designed for or aimed at such users.

Italic bolding is mine. It's so very true - anyone else seen "open" handsets doing well? Android is starting to get there, but it'll never be open enough for some. Nokia has opened up a little, same with some of the others. But in general: most users don't give a shit. Make it work. Give me a phone that rings and lasts 5 days. KTNXBAI.

Nic Wise

Nic Wise

Auckland, NZ