Apple is riding high on their iPad sales right now, but I think Jason Snell is on to something. While showing off his iPad to a (non-techie) colleague, he ran into this:

The other day I was talking to a colleague, a bright guy who obviously works in the technology and media industries, but isn’t on the technical side. He’s what I’d call a moderately informed tech consumer, and I was showing him my new iPad. His response to me was shocking: He said that he had been interested in buying an iPad, but needed to read PDF files, and since Apple only supported its own formats, he couldn’t buy one.

Now of course, you can view PDF files on an iPad, and, load video and audio that didn't come from Apple. but - notice the assumptions. Apple is building up a reputation as a walled garden outfit. If that meme spreads, then their hardware sales will suffer.

Apple needs to open up the iPad and iphone enough to kill that growing meme - or the fall from grace they experienced during the rise of DOS and Windows will happen again.

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