Talk:Walled garden (media)
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I added the bit about iTunes and iPod, I hope nobody minds.. I know Wikipedia is about saying things in good faith but how can you say something positive about a walled garden? Another example of a walled garden is Sprint's Cellphone WAP service, where developers were only allowed to debug their WAP sites through Sprint Cellphones (paying with their own purchased minutes). Sprint could have offered a cellphone emulator, but didn't. I was at the NYSIA panel about the future of Cellphone services in New York, and witnessed a Sales representative of Sprint giving a 20 question quiz delivered as a sales pitch and subsequently boo'd off stage after This and telling the developers that there was no developer's kit for the cellphones, that everyone would have to work through the service. The Walled Garden reference should point back to what a walled garden is - a garden with high walls that keep people in from getting out and people outside from getting in. This is why I referenced this term as a method of creating a monopoly or a way to secure a system or environment (like with a firewall). In good faith you could see it as a process that businesses use to cash in on a special service, like MTV offers to advertisers selling viewers of MTV as a valuable commodity. MTV in this sense is a walled garden, as are every Television station. In a sense, Patents and Copyrights can be used to protect artists and inventors from infringement, but major corporations hold patents and copyrights of their employees to keep the competitors out.. It's this exclusivity that attracts investors, which is the primary reason technologies are patented. The methods that businesses use to corner a market are too numerous to mention, but the process is much the same.. The Walled Garden approach is just one of the many methods.. --Rofthorax 05:56, 27 August 2005 (UTC)
I don't think iTunes/iPod is a walled garden. This is a popular misconception. Perhaps it's more true to say the iTunes Music Store creates this environment, but iTunes can just as easily be used with MP3 files or anything else a user rips off a CD in MP3 or AAC unprotected format. These MP3 files can also be used with other players. And iTunes functions just as well as a computer player, it's not just for an iPod. Perhaps an update to more accurately reflect that the only walled thing is the store and its relationship with the iPod.
[edit] Origin
While the term might have been popularized by Engadget podcast, et al., I think it was a trade term that was used (even if not among popular culture) before Engadget podcast started. And the article mentions that its history might go back a thousand years. So it would probably be better to tone down the Engadget references a bit.
Also, per the "what good can you say?"... A few businesses at least have thought walled gardens might be a good idea, otherwise they wouldn't have done it. In terms of any possible benefit to consumers... maybe it might be remotely conceivable that customers's telecom service would be lower priced because of the exclusivity agreements? (eg. similar to the Preferred provider organization rationale). I don't know... --Interiot 08:21, 7 April 2006 (UTC)
I cannot in any claim credit for having popularized this term, it's been around in the tech world for years and most definitely predates any usage on the Engadget Podcast.PeterRojas 04:00, 23 October 2006 (UTC)
