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So Andy Rubin, Vice President of Engineering at Google has been quoted in the popular NY Time Tech blog, Bits, as saying:

“I’d be happy if that happened and someone wrote about it,” Mr. Rubin said. “With openness comes less secrets.” - Andy Rubin, Bits.

Rubin is of course referring to the recent 4th gen iPhone prototype that was lost and then posted about on Gizmodo. 

To which I wondered, really? Would I want that? Would I really want a fully open system running on my iPad, iPhone, or even Mac for that matter. If I were running a company and had a product that I had been working and developing for months (or years for that matter), would I want it to be leaked without my knowledge? Let’s see. 

The Macintosh environment has always been a closed system and for the most part, it has done very well as a closed system. Sure, there was the dark period of the 90’s, but hey, we can put the blame there on mismanagement. 

If the iPad/iPhone were a fully open system I am afraid that the inevitable problem would be that of stability and quality. If open systems were the end all be all of all tech products then why doesn’t everyone use a Linux machine? That’s a fully open system. Anyone can develop for it. It’s free. And yet, adoption numbers by “regular people” has been relatively low. Sure, geeks love it, but what about the other 98% of the population? 

An open system would cause confusion. Apple’s closed system has given us the future and so far it has worked out. Apple has lived (and almost died) on their closed system. The first time around, they lost that battle to Microsoft. This time around they have developed a mobile system that is so familiar to the lay person that they are poised to take full control of the mobile market. That familiarity comes from the closed system that they have so patiently developed since the first iPod was released. I personally like the current way that Apple runs things. 

As far as Rubin not minding a prototype Android being found and then written about, I have this to say. You wouldn’t mind because no one would give a damn about your prototype Andoid phone. Do you seriously think a prototype Android phone would garner as much media attention like the prototype iPhone did? I don’t think so. Your open system might dominate based on just sheer quantity of handsets running your OS, but you could never compare to the cohesive nature of Apple’s closed system.