The problem is that these platforms have gotten so big that it's hard to directly compete against them. Instead, developers have decided to join them, knowing

The problem is that these platforms have gotten so big that it's hard to directly compete against them. Instead, developers have decided to join them, knowing full well that the platform owners hold all the marbles and can yank the rug out from under you at any time. What's interesting to me is that Apple is getting lambasted over their 'closed platform', but we can clearly see with Twitter and Facebook that the 'open web' suffers similar problems when you build to someone else's platform.