John Nack on Apple’s Control Over Native iPhone OS Software)

Apple refuses to carry Lightroom in Apple retail stores. That’s okay; Lightroom is doing just fine against Aperture, thank you. But what if the Apple store were the only store? How would Apple customers get the benefits of competition?

If there were many credible alternatives to Apple and the App Store, Adobe would have other stores to go to. This would force Apple to act differently by reducing how much power they have. We would benefit from competition.

So I think problem number one is the lack of competition between devices. There is not very much for the iPhone and no serious competition for the iPad or iPod touch.

Android is popular and there will be decent Android tablets in the future. Hopefully HP will push WebOS forwards. Three is too few for proper competition. I'm not using any fancy economic theory; I don't think three is enough. Maybe five. It would be swell if every PC maker had a go at making just one tablet device.

(found via Daring Fireball)