"Closed Versus Open," "Context or Distribution" Debates Never Die

Remember "Videotext?" Few now do. Before there was a public Internet, before browsers and the World Wide Web, AT&T and other telcos, as well as cable companies were experimenting with what we might today call multimedia.

And the approaches illustrate how some fundamental business and technology challenges oscillate over time, but never really are firmly settled. The "Viewtron" system was closed. The service providers were in charge of programming the service just as video entertainment service providers select which channels to carry. 

At the time (early 1980s), that might have appeared the only feasible way to aggregate and present electronic content on a widespread basis, as the PC had yet to clearly emerge as a mass market device. 

Later, we saw the first iteration of the "open versus closed" approaches to software or hardware platforms, a debate that never seems fully settled. 

Likewise, executives and observers of the video entertainment business have in the past argued about whether "content or distribution is king," a phrase that nicely captures the characterization of influence within the ecosystem. At times, it has seemed as though either content or distribution were "king." Recently, Apple's products have been the chief examples of instances where "distribution" (device ecosystem, in this case) seemed to be paramount. 

Apple also has emerged as the chief exemplar of the "closed" approach to development of software and hardware, at least in terms of end user experience. Recently, Android has emerged as the latest example of an open approach. 

It often seems, for a time, that one approach has decisively "won." In the PC era, it seemed open had clearly beaten closed. In the early mobile era, closed seemed to be the only model. In the smart phone era, open is emerging again.

In the video entertainment business, content initially was king. But with the advent of cable TV, power shifted towards distribution. With the arrival of the Internet and broadband, influence is shifting back towards content. 

The point is that these debates never are "finally" settled. Perhaps the reason is that a variety of business strategies will work.