A walled garden approach highly enables a large install base. The two are strongly coupled. The bar is much higher for an open approach to achieve the same thing. Commercial FUD is largely to blame for that. We've seen the proof on this very site, when potential buyers drop in with the usual laundry list of misinformative talking points (ie, "Linux is more vulnerable to attack because it's open!"). Thank you, Steve Ballmer.

But I think the MeeGo approach has the potential to overcome this. It will all come down to execution. Skepticism abounds due to past missteps. At this point, Nokia, Intel and others need to perform flawlessly for MeeGo not to follow prior examples... not just theirs, either. They have a lot of inherited albatrosses to shed.