Vertical Quality And McNealy: Why Apple, Sun & Google Have It Right Here's a great analysis of the "closed" versus "open" systems approach that so often defines the reason why people won't buy Apple computers. You know, the argument that Apple should do it like Dell and Microsoft... let everyone else in on the goodness. As this author defines it, we're talking about "vertical" versus "horizontal" markets, and it's been a horizontal world for quite some time now. He argues that the approach taken by Apple, Google, and Sun is ultimately better for consumers, as well as being better for innovation.