3 ms·

No? Software platforms are always going to lead to a few competitors at best. It's a natural monopoly scenario and smartphones are pretty much a saturated marke

No? Software platforms are always going to lead to a few competitors at best. It's a natural monopoly scenario and smartphones are pretty much a saturated market at this point. There really isn't much room for new competitors and the barriers are extremely high. Why should Apple be able to abuse consumers and devs?

thegrimmest 5y ago
There's plenty of room for new competitors who can properly innovate on the platform, much in the same way that there was plenty of room for Apple when they brought out the iPhone amid Blackberries. Anyone who can do the same should be promptly thanked and not further interfered with. Or do you think we have nothing to be grateful for?
- ethbr0 5y ago
  The phone market was drastically different in 2007 vs now. If you want to make the case that launching a new mobile phone platform is as easy now, I'm all ears.
  - thegrimmest 5y ago
    It seems like you're saying there is no more room for innovation/paradigm shifts in handheld computing. Do you really think that's true? Phones will be more or less the same as they are now forever?
    - ethbr0 5y ago
      I think there's a ton of room for innovation/paradigm shifts in handheld computing. I think that very few of them are significant enough to flood over the moat Apple and Google have built. Among those? Screen-less mobile computing (glasses/HUD) and true conversational AI agents. But the rub is that (particularly within the Apple ecosystem), a competitor has to not just be better (on day 1, vs the 14+ years of iPlatform evolution), but better enough that people are willing to jettison the entire Apple platform for a competitor. Which means Apple can release later, with less quality, and still retain most of their users. That's the evil genius of pivoting to a platform / services company. Google to some degree, albeit to a lesser extent, since their services aren't as tightly coupled to first party hardware.
      - thegrimmest 5y ago
        You could have said all of this about RIM in June of 2007. How is the current situation any different?

thegrimmest 5y ago

There's plenty of room for new competitors who can properly innovate on the platform, much in the same way that there was plenty of room for Apple when they brought out the iPhone amid Blackberries. Anyone who can do the same should be promptly thanked and not further interfered with. Or do you think we have nothing to be grateful for?

ethbr0 5y ago
The phone market was drastically different in 2007 vs now. If you want to make the case that launching a new mobile phone platform is as easy now, I'm all ears.
- thegrimmest 5y ago
  It seems like you're saying there is no more room for innovation/paradigm shifts in handheld computing. Do you really think that's true? Phones will be more or less the same as they are now forever?
  - ethbr0 5y ago
    I think there's a ton of room for innovation/paradigm shifts in handheld computing. I think that very few of them are significant enough to flood over the moat Apple and Google have built. Among those? Screen-less mobile computing (glasses/HUD) and true conversational AI agents. But the rub is that (particularly within the Apple ecosystem), a competitor has to not just be better (on day 1, vs the 14+ years of iPlatform evolution), but better enough that people are willing to jettison the entire Apple platform for a competitor. Which means Apple can release later, with less quality, and still retain most of their users. That's the evil genius of pivoting to a platform / services company. Google to some degree, albeit to a lesser extent, since their services aren't as tightly coupled to first party hardware.
    - thegrimmest 5y ago
      You could have said all of this about RIM in June of 2007. How is the current situation any different?