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Take away those apps and those iPhone's become useless bricks. Apps + developers add huge value to the platform.

• threeseed 6y ago
  I think you are vastly overstating the importance of apps. Apple could easily remove the App Store tomorrow, sign deals with a dozen or so companies e.g. Facebook, Netflix, Twitter, Snap, Google, Microsoft etc and they would still sell devices.
  • kjakm 6y ago
    I think if you think back to 2007/8 and people had the choice of Android with millions of apps and a higher priced iOS ecosystem which only has some high profile apps so few people would choose iOS that it would quickly become a waste of money for FB/Twitter/MS to build their apps for it and it would die.
    • majewsky 6y ago
      In 2007/8 people were buying iPhones despite them not having an app store at all.
      • kjakm 6y ago
        There was no App Store for the first year, which I believe is a time when Android didn't exist. An app-less iPhone would not be able to compete with an app-store backed Android.
  • mirchibajji 6y ago
    Isn't this part of the problem though? Apple _could_ remove the app store, and consumers would lose the apps that have existed so far, with no alternative.
• kristianc 6y ago
  The parent complains that apps on phones are mostly useless Barcode Scanners and scam QR readers. Apple could easily do away with third party apps and sign licensing deals with third parties, and they’d still be massively popular. Most people download the same apps, and then there is an enormous long tail with barely any downloads at all.