In essence, Apple is allowing the clone makers to sell current products but has shut off licensing of future technologies, potentially including the next-generation Rhapsody operating system. We're kind of amazed by it. He said that Apple's argument that the cloners were not growing the market, and instead stealing business from Apple itself, was off the mark. Apple itself is hardly bringing in new Mac users, either, he said. And by shutting off alternative Macs, the issue of market growth worsens, not improves.
Open markets are more attractive than closed markets.
I don't think in the recent but rapid history of computing there is a single instance of a closed system . . . In fact, the evidence is quite the opposite. That technology would have allowed alternative Mac manufacturers to build innovative and less expensive Apple clones using more industry-standard parts. Apple Chief Financial Officer Fred Anderson said this week Apple had no plans to authorize CHRP machines, nor portables. In response, Motorola said that although it believed its license with Apple allowed CHRP products, it was withholding for now shipment of CHRP computers so that customers would not get caught in the crossfire.