3 ms·

I'm not sure that Apple's environment is hostile towards sustainability of small software businesses like the author claims. Sure, prices are low, but the marke

I'm not sure that Apple's environment is hostile towards sustainability of small software businesses like the author claims. Sure, prices are low, but the market is huge and it's extremely easy to sell large numbers if the app is worth anything. To put it differently: how well would a small software business that is struggling under these conditions have fared 25-30 years ago when you had to advertise in print magazines and carry the disks to the post office for every customer (and every update!)? The fact that there is more competition now, isn't exactly Apple's fault either.

visarga 10y ago
In the past, there was very limited ad space in tech magazines, so, inevitably, fewer softwares were known and money focused on those that remained. Today apps are competing with millions of other apps directly in the app store, anything you want it's been done and released free / with ads, so it's a whole different kind of difficult, probably more difficult than in the past.
greybox 10y ago
I think the problem is more that the consumer now expects to be able to download pretty much everything for free and for the developer to make money in some other way. E.G F2P games
doctorwho 10y ago
I started writing shareware in 8o's and even then there were alternative "marketing" and distribution methods to print, like BBSes, SIMTEL20 (and other FTP archives), usenet, user groups, shareware CD's and sharing among friends. It worked pretty well actually. There was abuse of course and it started a whole anti-piracy industry. Protection techniques cost a lot to create and maintain and they didn't really solve the problem. SaaS is so popular today because it practically eliminates piracy. Developers get paid for what they build or they go broke because nobody wants what they've built.

3 ms·

I'm not sure that Apple's environment is hostile towards sustainability of small software businesses like the author claims. Sure, prices are low, but the marke

by lazyjones 10y ago

visarga 10y ago
In the past, there was very limited ad space in tech magazines, so, inevitably, fewer softwares were known and money focused on those that remained. Today apps are competing with millions of other apps directly in the app store, anything you want it's been done and released free / with ads, so it's a whole different kind of difficult, probably more difficult than in the past.
greybox 10y ago
I think the problem is more that the consumer now expects to be able to download pretty much everything for free and for the developer to make money in some other way. E.G F2P games
doctorwho 10y ago
I started writing shareware in 8o's and even then there were alternative "marketing" and distribution methods to print, like BBSes, SIMTEL20 (and other FTP archives), usenet, user groups, shareware CD's and sharing among friends. It worked pretty well actually. There was abuse of course and it started a whole anti-piracy industry. Protection techniques cost a lot to create and maintain and they didn't really solve the problem. SaaS is so popular today because it practically eliminates piracy. Developers get paid for what they build or they go broke because nobody wants what they've built.