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Yes, the app store was genius. We'll see how the 30% shakes out in the long term, with the recent revolt from Epic etc, but creating a platform on top of your s
by wmab 6y ago
Yes, the app store was genius. We'll see how the 30% shakes out in the long term, with the recent revolt from Epic etc, but creating a platform on top of your software/hardware vertical integration is a decent monopoly play that creates sustainable revenues.
- RubberShoes 6y agoWhat's funny is how much friction and persuasion it took to get them to actually do the App Store. Steve was hellbent on WebApps and I hope the history books recognize how much influence jailbreakers had in shifting the discussion to native apps https://youtu.be/8Vq993Td6ys?t=32 https://youtu.be/8Vq993Td6ys?t=32
- wmab 6y agoThat's super interesting, thanks for the video! Perhaps they understood that there might be resistance to native ("small market" at the start) and so looked for something that could help the transition?
- Someone 6y agoMore likely, they knew the hardware couldn’t really run much more. The first iPhone had 128MB of RAM and ran at 412 MHz, underclocked from 620 MHz (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPhone_(1st_generation) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPhone_(1st_generation) ), and there was disbelief that what they showed could be built at all at the time with the advertised battery life. They likely also didn’t want to commit yet to an API for third-party apps, as they didn’t know what was reasonable there.
- whynaut 6y agoI was under the impression Steve was (rather unhappily) forced into this position because of the state of native apps by launch. Can't remember where I read this or I'd gladly link it.
- oblio 6y agoI agree with you, I'd be amazed if Steve "Control Freak" Jobs would have wanted an open app ecosystem.
- catmistake 6y ago> Yes, the app store was genius. Meh. make was genius. Makefiles were genius. pkg_install and pkg_add were genius. PMS was genius. RPM was genius. FreeBSD's ports tree is genius. pkgsrc is genius. Like nearly everything Apple ever did, AppStore is not at all original, not remotely the first, not by over a decade. It is really no different from any other binary package manager. It is Brew for iOS.
- basch 6y agoIt's exclusive, with a gatekeeper, and no workaround. It just works. It has payment processing built in. Like most Apple things, they weren't the first. Their genius isnt being first, it was spit polishing things to be simple for the masses. Over the years, they have lost a bit of that vision and turned googly with new products not quite replacing old products (how many times has photo sharing and backup been redesigned) but comparing the whole suite to components is a bit unfair.
- InitialLastName 6y agoAs others have said, the genius of the app store isn't the technology (as you rightly point out, the technical problems have been solved for decades). The genius of the app store is in the business model: Make and market a device with unlimited demand, give third parties only one way to reach such a large market that they're willing to pay you 30% (while drastically lowering technical barriers to entry), and raise the barriers-to-exit so high for users that nobody ever leaves the ecosystem. Rinse, repeat, profit.
- Miraste 6y agoNothing you listed has a competent GUI. For a mass market product that is everything.
- catmistake 6y agoHow about Cydia, which predated AppStore by 2 years?
- 6y ago