The elite restaurants (some would call them snobby) typically require gentlemen to wear a jacket and sometimes even a tie in order to dine in the establishment. This policy presumably keeps out the riff-raff and ensures that the dining experience is elevated for all in the restaurant. It’s the exception that an exceptional restaurant would NOT have such a policy. In NYC, one such exception that I’ve frequented is Babbo–run by former Iron Chef America and James Beard award winning chef Mario Batali. With a casual dress policy and rock music playing on the speakers, it tries to paint itself as the anti-snobby elite restaurant. However, it did end up losing it’s lone Michelin Star in 2009–for reasons that are unclear.
In the mobile world, no device is snobbier that the iPhone (admit it you iPhone users–you WANT to flaunt that device!). Development on the iPhone is like the jacket policy for dining in elite restaurants. You need to learn their code (Objective C) and follow their extensive guidelines in order to get past the velvet rope. But now Android comes along and they want to open up fancy dining (or fancy mobile apps in this case) to any developer (read this). Will developers flock to Android with their flip-flops and leave their jacket wearing iPhone brethren behind? Or will this open policy lead to unrefined apps and a loss of quality for Android? Time will tell.
Tags: Android, Development, iPhone, Jason Wong, The Mobile Gourment
