As Mr Jobs statements filter out through the CE world, I find myself wanting to highlight two key factors that don’t fit into his tight strategy. Choice and Mobility.

Running a tight ship for the software layers is important and can result in a better user experience and cheaper route to market for developers but that shouldn’t prevent other products being built. Smaller companies don’t need to be number 1 to be their own winner and there are niches out there just waiting to be filled with a good product choice.

One example is the mobile computing space. Photography, navigation, modular computing, remote control, multi-way video calling, thumb typing (as im doing while standing in my kitchen right now) and even simple things like weight and the ability to slot a 7″ device in a back pocket while you walk around the house.

Jobs knows there are markets out there but they don’t fit with his integrated approach so he tries to keep the message simple and targeted. He chooses mass-markets where sales can be in the tens of millions. Great, but don’t dismiss the efforts of others, Steve. I know many companies out there that would call 1 million sales a huge success and thankfully there are some open systems out there that allow small companies achieve that.

The end result of fragmentation and open systems may not be the best for developers but it allows smaller and very important markets to be addressed.

Post written using normal size thumbs on the Galaxy Tab.