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Comment by tomlin | Hacker News Reader

I upvoted because I dig the psychological aspect of the article -- The teenage market is where I like to turn for a prediction of where the general market will be in a few years. Because while teens aren’t nerdy, they tend to be early adopters because it’s cool

But the argument about openness is greatly flawed.

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Very much agree about the openness argument. Though, speaking to the quote about teens and prediction, I present this:

This is what Motorola and Google and Samsung and BlackBerry and everyone else, with the sole exception of Apple, do not get about “open” computing. It’s powerful, but for ordinary people, it’s too powerful

Notice a prominent name missing from that list? If what the author feels is true (and being a teenager himself), this speaks volumes to just how far they are behind the curve.

I notice 2.

Microsoft and Nokia.

Also "BlackBerry" is a brand/model, not a company. What does that say for RIMs status in the market? It's defined by a single product.

My fault. I completely forgot about Nokia - and Windows Phone 7 is actually kind of nice. And yes, I have in fact used it. I'll update the post a little bit later (I'm planning a whole update post)

Thanks for the vote. Curious what you think is flawed. I'm more than open to criticism as long as you aren't a jerk. Care to elaborate?

In any case, thanks for reading.

The argument against Apple, iPad, iPhone regarding openness is more about freedom than it is about usability. So when you banter about it being more open one would assume you're charging back at the notion that it is not.

In other words, you're preaching to the choir - but using a headline that belittles your real point.

Now, I am a fairly young person myself, but the author is in 8th grade. I'm not sure he's qualified to talk about changes in the market over a few years.

That's what they told Gates and Jobs. :-)

It's the innate understanding of the market viewed from a teenage perspective--they already count Microsoft out.

It's not too young for an interested person to know this stuff. In the eighth grade, I was already dual-booting Linux on the family computer, was following VA Linux Systems' and Red Hat's IPOs, and was looking for alternatives to MS Office for my school.

Observation is available to anyone at any age. A person who is outside of the tech bubble may also look at the market from a psychological point of view rather than a pragmatic one.

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