Gruber seems to make the assertion that a platform only has worth based on its exclusive "killer apps". This is a straw man. Android's lack of much in the way

Gruber seems to make the assertion that a platform only has worth based on its exclusive "killer apps". This is a straw man. Android's lack of much in the way of exclusive native software is novel among the few mainstream software platforms over the last few decades. Maybe this state of affairs is interesting, and maybe it isn't — we're dealing with a small sample of comparisons, the web is an extraordinary leveler, and to the extent Android has a shared lineage with Linux and its developer community, exclusivity is an alien concept anyway. But pointing out this historical anomaly isn't tantamount to claiming Android has no worth, as Gruber takes pains to mention. There's no need to assume a defensive crouch.