> And when developers are forced to support all 5 big ones? That is a big assumption. Who is the forcing agent here you are positing? The whole point of making

> And when developers are forced to support all 5 big ones? That is a big assumption. Who is the forcing agent here you are positing? The whole point of making app stores a multiagent game is to reduce the leverage of one to force things on developers and consumers. > If the remedy for Apple picking winners is more stores, then it just means all of the big players will get to pick winners. For this to happen as bad as today a) they all will need to see a benefit in picking winners b) they all will need to pick precisely the same winners. The whole point of competition is giving power back to the end users (both app consumers and developers) in the form of choice. Any downside you mention is a competitive advantage first and app stores will have to synchronize hard and tight to forgo that to build a cartel against the users and developers (mind you they would also need to build precisely the same products with nothing to differentiate). And at its worst they still wouldn’t be worse than today’s single monopoly.