4 ms·
It's such a nasty side effect of demand aggregation platforms which is what everyone has been trying to build for the last decade+. It's a real prisoner's dile
by donmcronald 5y ago
It's such a nasty side effect of demand aggregation platforms which is what everyone has been trying to build for the last decade+. It's a real prisoner's dilemma too. Earlier adopting developers get to be "fart app millionaires", but there's a definite tipping point where the supply side becomes commoditized.
I think Ballmer got unfairly criticized for laughing at the iPhone. I always thought he looked at it and thought it was such a ridiculously bad deal for both developers and users that no one would adopt it. His biggest mistake was underestimating the ability for people to act in their own long term self interest.
- cglace 5y agoPlease tell me which option we had that was “in our interest”.
- Enginerrrd 5y agoBlackberry started smartphones with the user having root by default. iphone changed that and people were perfectly ok with a sudden paradigm shift.
- mananaysiempre 5y agoBlackberry really gave you root? Huh. Symbian S60, which was an attempt at a Blackberry clone as far as I understand it, had a mandatory app signing policy (but no app repository or review, just a rent on developers).
- ucosty 5y agoThat's a very charitable take on Ballmer's reaction. The Windows mobile platform may have been more hackable, but from an end user's perspective it was pretty awful.
- philliphaydon 5y agoWindows Phone is still the best mobile OS. I really miss it.
- tonyedgecombe 5y agoWindows Phone came three years after the iPhone. At the time of Balmers rant it was Windows CE, which was crap.
- philliphaydon 5y agoOH ok in that case I agree.
- Semaphor 5y ago> but from an end user's perspective it was pretty awful. Wasn’t it more that it never reached critical mass? Every time I read or hear about Windows Mobile, users seem to have loved it.
- gumby 5y ago> I always thought he looked at it and thought it was such a ridiculously bad deal for both developers and users that no one would adopt it. That famous video of him laughing on TV was from the first announcement when there were no plans for an app store at all.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- annexrichmond 5y agoIf we’re thinking of the same interview, he laughed at the iPhone because it lacked a physical keyboard and cost $500 fully subsidized. There was no App Store or any indication of a developer platform.