Scot Hacker says OpenID will compete with TypeKey. Not really. OpenID still requires centralized authentication services; it's a scheme to make centralized auth services compatible. Given we added a bazillion more customers this year, of course we want some way to let them play together. (I totally feel that, having wanted LiveJournal auth for my blog since TypeKey launched.)
Beyond that, OpenID is a much lower barrier to entry than TypeKey. Everyone with CGI-capable web hosting accounts can run their own OpenID servers; that's a fundamental design goal. Is this OpenID account someone's signing in with a human? There's no captcha requirement when you're the authenticating server. Did that human have a unique email address when e signed up? No clue. Do you want that address? Can't get it from OpenID.
In that the company runs TypeKey for free to add value to Movable Type and, finally, TypePad, switching to OpenID so you can run your own damn auth servers would be a blessing. (I wondered as I wrote that why no one's plugged Net::OpenID::Server into Tiny Orwell yet. Looks like it's because, like Kevin Shay's CMSEnhancer (found!), it disappeared when Tim switched his site.)
I don't think the company ever said a centralized authentication service wouldn't put a lot of people off. Obviously it does; you need to overestimate our obliviousness to say that, given how much yelling there was about it before we'd served our first public auth request. But there are a lot of people it doesn't put off, and authentication is a great tool for them, and as a spam deterrent it's been worth it.
Six Apart already runs the largest OpenID-based auth service. If TypeKey becomes an OpenID server, the more the merrier. Overall TypeKey and OpenID are an "and," not a "vs." But that's just how I see it, and I'm just a Perl hacker.
