12/04/13 16:33
Gruber made a couple good points about Apple's peripheral strategy:
One side thinks, Why in the world should we have to wait until 2016 to have a smaller, reversible plug? The other side thinks, Why in the world would you want a proprietary, non-standard, expensive plug?
I wonder why Apple didn't choose to open-source or license its lightning connectors the same was as Firewire? Even at $19, they can't be making
that much money selling the cables.
I also don't see the strategic benefit of tightly controlling the iPhone/iPad peripheral market. If anything, innovation in that area feels stifled. Yup, a new Belkin charger here, a new speaker-dock/alarm clock there, that's about it.
There are all kinds of cool accessories that could go with a powerful portable computer that is your iPhone. Due to byzantine licensing rules, many of them won't even be thought up.
Then again, there aren't exactly a lot of cool peripherals for Android or Windows phones that I've heard of either.
Related: Tech.