<i>"'ll bet that in one of those Apple board meetings that Google (GOOG) CEO Steve Schmidt used to attend, he realized that Jobs was on the verge of building AppleWorld and he's been scared ever since."</i><p>I don't think it's possible to build a "closed digital world" that will have the traction of the entirety of the open Internet.<p>Closed systems are great for creating an ideal model of how thing "ought" to work. But the "wide world" tends to take those innovations and expand them beyond the limits of a closed ideal system.<p>Apple has made great profits on the Macintosh but it's also become happy with the Mac having a highly profitable niche position. That seems like the fate of the entire "Apple World" situation. Remember Disney never extended Disney World beyond Florida.<p>I'm sure Google is running. "Scared" seems like a bit of a reach. I suspect that Google is more afraid of entities which try monopolize and monetize their Internet pipes.