The closed ecosystem, the iOS has been irking the consumers and this can be gauged from the fact that the Evasi0n Jailbreak for Apple devices using iOS 6 has been downloaded 7 million times in just 4 days according to the Forbes magazine. It all points to a growing majority of Apple fans who want a more open ecosystem like the Android OS. It has been the practice of the Cupertino Giant to release a new OS every year and fans are hoping that the iOS 7 will be more amenable and open than in the past.
There has been a growing consensus among experts that after the evasion JailBreak, Apple should open up its iOS platform. The clamor for Apple to open up its iOS has been rising from fans as well as developers and even Apple execs.
Evad3rs team that developed the Evasi0n jailbreaking tool even started a campaign on Twitter and managed to get more than 11000 signatures for “WeWantAnOpeniOS,”
Even Steve Wozniak, Apple’s co-founder,in May 2012 made a plea to the company to open up its iOS to public. He said, “I think that Apple could be just as strong and good and be open, but how can you challenge it when a company is making that much money?”
Crass commercial profits force Apple to refrain from opening up its iOS. Apple makes tons of money with its App Store to the tune of 29.7 cents for every 99 cents app sold and the developer pockets the rest 69.3 cents. If Apple continues to model its App Store like the Cydia Store and increase the share to the developers, still it may not earn much in the coming years simply because it will attract very few developers.
Apple has always opposed jail breaking tooth and nail while Google has left users free to do what they want with its software. However, the fact that a hardware prevents the developers and users from altering the Android OS drastically, leading to many experts accusing Google of misleading about its OS being an open source. However Apple locks it’s OS at the root code level and has additional security features.
Apple of late has been following a flexible strategy and has changed according to the changing market scenario. It is going to launch a big screen smartphone aka Galaxy Note 2, it has launched a phablet in the form iPad Mini and is also believed to be working on a watered down version of its iPhone , iPhone Mini. So who knows the next iOS 7 can see an OS which is more open.
