>I stand by my position that end users don't actually want competing third-party app stores. I have 9 chat apps on my phone. I just counted, and that's skippin

>I stand by my position that end users don't actually want competing third-party app stores. I have 9 chat apps on my phone. I just counted, and that's skipping things like email and basecamp that I might have included to inflate the number. It's not ideal, and the downsides can be exaggerated for the sake of banter, but overall the chat app situation is fine. Similarly, I wouldn't mind having more app stores. I expect there'd be one all the free software hardcores believe in, one that fills the role Steam does on PC, another with all the "too hot for TV" content that Apple and Google won't touch with a 10 foot pole, a few developer-publishers big enough to get traction, and dozens of also-rans that nobody uses. Yes, slightly more inconvenient like all the chat apps, but in reality it'd also be fine. I don't think it makes sense to say what consumers do and don't "want," because largely they don't understand the terrain the App Store and Google Play put down. Ask people if they'd like a 2nd store that lets them install apps that contain porn without putting it behind hidden curtains in otherwise general-purpose apps, then we might expect positive responses. Ask people if they want an app store that contains more malware because the app store monopoly provides a chokepoint to enact user protection that on-device sandboxing can't, then we'd expect negative responses.