Why Google's Android Will Win

The war between competing Android and iPhone app markets is one to watch. When built properly (even the best markets require some form of regulation and boundaries within which players can innovatea), markets will almost always trump the selection/tastes of an individual - or even a group of individual - and that's why I suspect Android's opensource experiment and their market will trump Apple's with time. From the P2P foundation via swissmiss:

A good example of manual curation vs. crowdsourced curation is the competing app markets on the Apple iPhone and Google Android phone operating systems. Apple fans complain that the Android marketplace has too many low-quality apps for any given task. They complain that it’s hard to find an “official” or “sanctioned” app. On the other hand, Android fans criticise Apple for limiting their choices. They don’t want to be beholden to the whims of a select few. Apple is a monarchy, albeit with a wise and benevolent king. Android is burgeoning democracy, inefficient and messy, but free. Apple is the last, best example of the Industrial Age and its top-down, mass market/mass production paradigm. They deal with the big head of the curve, and eschew the long tail. They manufacture cool. They rely on “consumers”, and they protect those consumers from too many choices by selecting what is worthy, and what is not. Google Android is building itself as a platform for bottom-up innovation. Their marketplace publishes first, filters second, utilizing little more than the rankings of the community.

Of course, the fact that they've announced they will only be taking a 5% cut in their Chrome store which could end up catering to a much larger audience can't hurt (TechCrunch).