Is Apple Becoming So Big It's Threatening The Open Web?

Jimmy Wales

iOS - the operating software for iPads, iPhones and iPod Touches - is fast becoming one of the most used computing platforms in the world.

But unlike other operating systems - like Windows or Android - app developers have to go through Apple to get their apps on these devices. That's what Apple wants and that's what Apple controls with strict rules and regulations. It calls it the App Store.

So, iOS is not, DEFINITELY NOT, and open platform. It's very closed and closely guarded by Apple.

The founder of Wikipedia, Jimmy Wales, says this is dangerous and it's control gone too far.


 “The concern is that in order to make software and distribute it for free, you have to get permission from Apple so that chokepoint is very dangerous and something I’m concerned about. When you own a device and you want to give someone that software, you should not have to get permission from someone else and I think that is a very important thing.”

The founder of the internet, Tim Berners-Lee, has the same fears. He worries about the dominance of a few big companies on the internet. And by a few, read Microsoft and Apple.