Why compete on merit when you have an insurmountable marketing/advertising advantage? A feature of the modern smartphone ownership experience is being bombarde

Why compete on merit when you have an insurmountable marketing/advertising advantage? A feature of the modern smartphone ownership experience is being bombarded with ads for clones of existing businesses, the best of which are almost as good as those pre-existing offerings. The Music, TV, News, and Books icons on the home screen are really just ads. Each of these "apps" contains a prominent ad, followed by a torrent of push notification ads. In a way, the home screen is a re-imagining of AOL from the 90s: a crippled proprietary take on the web, spoon-fed to a captive audience, lacking the egalitarianism that allows companies like Spotify and Netflix to thrive.