I think if everyone adopted the same model Apple has, new hardware development will suffer considerably. The only way a hardware manufacturer can survive will be through a partnership with an OS vendor, and the market will become incresingly balkanized. I’ve asked you directly and repeatedly if you think this would be a likely outcome. I think all the dancing around you’ve done to avoid any consideration of that possibility is rather suspicious.
It's kind of hard to tell on these Apple threads what it is that the MS crowd wants to hear.
I guess I don't know what it is you're asking.
If I understand what I think you're asking, then I disagree with your premise. Apple has dictated the terms of its platform with a vertical market. Risky, but I believe it will succeed where MS has so miserably (and, in some cases dangerously) failed. The consumers are voting with their dollars.
You appear to think they're stupid.
If MS had built- or enforced- a workable software platform for the hardware they purport to make software for, your world might be different.
So, do I think Balkanization a likely outcome?
No. MS killed the competition-- a wiser company would have encouraged it.
I rather think that the fix that MS finds itself in is because exactly because it tried to own a market-- not for the good of the customer-- but for its own good. The two are not mutually exclusive.
The difference between Apple and MS is that Apple understands this.
Until you convince me that Apple poses a threat to the average consumer (much less MS) I think you're crying into your towel.
Every car manufacturer makes its own hardware, and the development is doing fine. Although just like Apple there's a lot of trading of parts and partnerships going on.