And this is the root of the problem- lack of discoverability for apps. Once you have several thousand apps (not to mention 1MM+), it becomes exceedingly diffic

And this is the root of the problem- lack of discoverability for apps. Once you have several thousand apps (not to mention 1MM+), it becomes exceedingly difficult to find apps that are relevant to you. Someone might create a better app than the one you have on your phone, or one that you don't even realize you need, but how will you know about it? If you can only rely on the App Store rankings and search engine, you are going to have to spend alot of time looking through irrelevant results- most people don't have that kind of time. The result is (as brought up in the article) that app developers need more sophisticated 'growth-hacking' techniques outside of the ecosystem, which tend to be hit or miss depending on some degree of luck. There have been several app discovery platforms like AppGratis and Chomp, but Apple has shut them all down. Apple may have wanted to preserve the Appstore as the single authority on their apps, but now they have created a more dangerous, and possibly existential crisis for themselves- irrelevance of the app ecosystem. Why should I create apps (or invest in app developers) if my chance of success is less than 0.1%? As a consumer, I may still buy Apple devices, but it will be less because of the great apps, which will become increasingly scarce.