Steve Jobs on His Final Quarterly Analyst Call: ‘We Think the Open Versus Closed Argument Is Just a Smokescreen’

After linking to it earlier today, I re-read Steve Jobs’s remarks from his last appearance on a quarterly analyst call. It’s a banger of a good read: You know, even if Google were right, and the real issue is “closed” versus “open,” it is worthwhile to remember that open systems don’t always win. Take Microsoft’s “Plays For Sure” music strategy, which used the PC model — which Android uses as well — of separating the software components from the hardware components. Even Microsoft finally abandoned this “open” strategy in favor of copying Apple’s integrated approach with their Zune player, unf

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