The Tortoise And The Hare

Aesop has some great fables but my favorite is The Tortoise and The Hare. I was reminded of it yesterday when I saw this chart in my colleague Nick‘s deck for a talk he is giving this week in Hong Kong

(I know the photo is messed up. Will fix later. At yoga)

That is the installed base of iOS phones vs Android phones globally over the last decade.

I have been a long and loud fan of Android’s open (or at least more open) model and an equally long and loud detractor of Apple’s closed model.

I’ve taken a lot of heat and ridicule for it over the years and still do.

But to me, there is no way to win long term with a closed model.

It is a lot like The Tortoise and The Hare.

Closed allows you to build a better user experience and get out of the gate quickly. Open takes longer, the user experience is poor initially and for quite a while, but when open gets going, it is unstoppable.