They won't care if it's open, but they might care if the openness facilitates some really useful or innovative apps.
It's interesting to me that Apple seems to be letting useless apps proliferate in the App store, yet is denying some apps that could really have value. If that is indeed the case, they are keeping one of the worst (from a consumer POV) aspects of openness and throwing away one of the best.
Right, but as a developer, I would go for the platform with large market/easy distribution built in rather than openness any day. Android may be a cool platform, but if no one is using it in the first place, why bother?
Apple knows how to market technology to regular people. So far, android only seems to be aimed at the tech crowd.
Large markets are great, but as a developer I avoid markets where I will have no idea if I can launch my product until I spend the time to develop it. It doesn't matter how big the market is if Papa Steve says I can't play in his sandbox.
It's interesting to me that Apple seems to be letting useless apps proliferate in the App store, yet is denying some apps that could really have value. If that is indeed the case, they are keeping one of the worst (from a consumer POV) aspects of openness and throwing away one of the best.