• New York Times, Monday, October 18, 2010 10:13 AM

Miguel Helft points out that there are more than 20 smartphones running Android in the U.S. and about 90 worldwide. If you want an Apple phone, on the other hand, you can get an iPhone or an iPhone or an iPhone. Sounds like something cooked up by Henry Ford a century ago.

Apple has been there before, of course, setting itself up against the entire PC world in the 1980s by insisting that only its hardware could run its OS. That decision almost put it out of business. Is it repeating the mistake with the iPhone despite the current approval of investors who have sent the stock soaring?

"Having a tightly controlled ecosystem, which is what Apple has, is a large short-term advantage and a large long-term disadvantage," says Mitchell Kapor, who founded Lotus Development Corp. and is now an investor in app makers. "The question is, how long is the short term?"

Don't forget, too, that the iPhone is coming to Verizon and the iPad and the iPod Touch iPhone also run Apple's iOS mobile software, which is good for the iPhone because consumers like having access to content and apps on multiple devices.

Read the whole story at New York Times »