Closed Platform

Closed Platform

A walled garden is an analogy used in various senses in information technology. In the telecommunications and media industries, a "walled garden" (also known as a "closed ecosystem") refers to a carrier or service provider's control over applications, content, and media on platforms (such as mobile devices) and restriction of convenient access to non-approved applications or content. For example, in telecommunications, the services and applications accessible on any device on a given wireless network were historically tightly controlled by the mobile operators. The mobile operators determined which applications from which developers were available on a device's home portal or home page. This has long been a central issue constraining the telecommunications sector, as developers face huge hurdles in getting their applications onto devices and into the hands of end-users.

More generally, a "walled garden" refers to a closed or exclusive set of information services provided for users. This is in contrast to giving consumers unrestricted access to applications and content. Similar to a "real" walled garden, a user in a walled garden is unable to escape this area unless it is through the designated entry/exit points or the walled garden is removed.

Read more about Closed Platform:  Examples

Famous quotes containing the words closed and/or platform:

    Since time immemorial, one the dry earth, scraped to the bone, of this immeasurable country, a few men travelled ceaselessly, they owned nothing, but they served no one, free and wretched lords in a strange kingdom. Janine did not know why this idea filled her with a sadness so soft and so vast that she closed her eyes. She only knew that this kingdom, which had always been promised to her would never be her, never again, except at this moment.
    Albert Camus 1013–1960, French-Algerian novelist, dramatist, philosopher. Janine in Algeria, in The Fall, p. 27, Gallimard (9157)

    I have rather a strange objection to talking from the back platform of a train.... It changes too often. It moves around and shifts its ground too often. I like a platform that stays put.
    Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924)