So there's the idea in business of creating vs. capturing value. You want your product to create value for the user, but you also want to be the one that captu

So there's the idea in business of creating vs. capturing value. You want your product to create value for the user, but you also want to be the one that captures that value (in the form of $$). IBM in the 80s/90s created a massive amount of value with the PC, but let Microsoft and Intel capture just about all of that value. Bad move on their part. Apple, on the other hand, has positioned itself in such a way that it captures a huge percentage of the value that its mobile products create. Its pretty amazing what they did, particularly in the US where historically the power in the mobile industry was in the network providers, not the device companies. And as you've pointed out, they've somehow convinced app developers to work for almost nothing to add lots of functionality to their products (which helps sell more products). Obviously not a groundbreaking recommendation here: pay attention to what Apple did. When you generate value, be sure to line things up so that you capture a fair amount of it. This can be applied for both your business and your career. IMHO developers tend to create far more value than they capture in the workplace.