I love Gruber's assessment:
Yes, there is much jealousy from iPhone developers at the sacks full of money being made by Zune and Windows Mobile app developers.
Microsoft: iPad’s Closed Platform is “Humorous”
21–25 of 25 posts
Re: Microsoft: iPad’s Closed Platform is “Humorous”
#22Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you can compete with the million dollar budgets of video game companies I don't think anybody can stop you from developing for Xbox.
Microsoft certainly can. You have to accept their license agreement and possibly an NDA to develop on the Xbox platform. I don't think the exact terms are public knowledge. We can look at the XNA license/participation terms for some hints though: "Microsoft reserves the right to take down a game retroactively without notice. Microsoft encourages peer reviewers to report objectionable content in a game." "Peer reviewe…
If I understand this correctly, you can't make free games for Xbox? At least you can make free apps for the App Store.
Re: Microsoft: iPad’s Closed Platform is “Humorous”
#23Earlier quoted context omitted.
Microsoft certainly can. You have to accept their license agreement and possibly an NDA to develop on the Xbox platform. I don't think the exact terms are public knowledge. We can look at the XNA license/participation terms for some hints though: "Microsoft reserves the right to take down a game retroactively without notice. Microsoft encourages peer reviewers to report objectionable content in a game." "Peer reviewe…
If I understand this correctly, you can't make free games for Xbox? At least you can make free apps for the App Store.
Worse, you can't make free updates for Xbox games. MS demands that all additional content cost money - this has been a point of contention between Valve and MS recently, as they are in the habit of releasing frequent, small content packs their games, and the pricing structure prevents this.
Re: Microsoft: iPad’s Closed Platform is “Humorous”
#24Earlier quoted context omitted.
If I understand this correctly, you can't make free games for Xbox? At least you can make free apps for the App Store.
Worse, you can't make free updates for Xbox games. MS demands that all additional content cost money - this has been a point of contention between Valve and MS recently, as they are in the habit of releasing frequent, small content packs their games, and the pricing structure prevents this.
I'd like a source for that claim, because there are some free DLCs for XBOX 360 ...
Re: Microsoft: iPad’s Closed Platform is “Humorous”
#25Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well... Microsoft has had tablets around that can do all of those things for a while. They can do more, actually. No, they do not look as sleek nor are they as targeted. However, all it takes is one hardware vendor to put together something solid together and MS has a strong competitor to the iPad that doesn't tie one down and could provide a much richer applications world.
This attitude is why so few companies even come close to replicating the Apple experience. It's not about "what the device can do", it's about elegance and design from end to end. No one will ever make a Win tablet that can compare to the iPad because the applications will not target that specific device, they will always have a watered down UX.
Maybe I just don't get it, but if the opportunity is there, then what stops an established company or a startup from making a tablet that does exactly this but is more flexible? Probably easier with a linux variant? My point is that this device could likely easily be replicated with a ux that treats the owner like an owner. By restricting everything so much, Apple has seriously limited its options -- especially in enterprise computing.
I don't know if the tablet market will progress the same way as the smart phone os market has, but I doubt Apple has hit a home run here. I look for a "Symbian tablet" or RIM-like product to take the majority of the market share and profits.