To compete in a global marketplace with no barrier to entry it's not enough to simply ship software. Apps are commodities. You've got to create something with unique value. Probably that means doing something technically difficult or new.
- The barrier to entry is so low as to be non-existent. We haven't seen a mass distribution channel with entry barriers this low since the lemonade stand.
- Since the above point forces most participants in the market to now compete mostly on price, the race to the bottom of the last decade or so has raised a generation of consumers who now expect software to be free.
- The subtle friction of finding and installing apps has led the average person to basically not bother at all, as we now know most people install zero apps per month. The lions share is now exclusively the domain of those with ridiculous marketing budgets and iffy business practices.
I'm just not sure exactly where we are on the technology curve of App Stores. Are we in the trough of sorrow, where a new horizon of viability and sustainability coupled with lowered expectations is just around the corner? Or will we look back at the App Stores as the AOL of the 2010's? I'd love to hear opinions on the subject.
don't forget the subtle friction of having to pay for stuff, which is another factor triggering the race-to-free.
You accept the friction of paying for a porterhouse steak because no butcher could sell them for less than the marginal cost of producing them and remain viable. Since the marginal cost of producing apps is (essentially) nothing, it's no surprise almost nobody can resist the downward pressure and make a buck off apps.
I know there's a lot of great apps, produced by hard working Programmers. I've just spent so little time in iTunes, I don't even know what you guys are offering.
In all honesty, I don't like iTunes. I liked it in the beginning. The more complicated/flashy it got, the more I used it in emergencies.
I couldn't imagine having a lot of time/money invested in an iTunes app today. I imagine the tides will turn though?
If a new version of Windows comes along there is no guarantee that my software will still work on it. And there is certainly no guarantee that my current version of Windows will work on a replacement machine.
With Android everything is controlled from the store. If there is a officially supported way to transfer apps without re-downloading from Google Play I don't know of it. Also if I want to share an app how would I even do that without lending my phone?
Ours is primarily a Netflix device.
If we had Star Trek style replicators where recipes are protected, how many people would be able to make a living selling lemonade? One of them might sell more, either by chance or because he has a slightly better recipe. So uldn't the money flowing in allow him to spend money improving the product or its marketing, leading to increased sales in a self-reinforcing cycle?
Yes, a few people could make a living selling 'not what everybody drinks' lemonade, but that doesn't quite work that way in software because people do not gain status (yet?) from having that "look how rich I am" app.
Actually, some time ago there was this app [1] that was basically just a background image but the price was set at the maximum allowed at the time in the Apple App Store.
Incredibly, it turns out that it actually sold several times due to people were actually "gaining status" just by having it.
In the end, it was a signal that you could spend 1K USD in a stupid background and it made no difference to you. Kind of the most abstract idea of status in a product that I can think off, i.e. I can just literally waste the money and I can prove it sort of thing
[1] http://gizmodo.com/5033621/99999-iphone-app-i-am-rich-probab...
> Since the above point forces most participants in the market to now compete mostly on price, the race to the bottom of the last decade or so has raised a generation of consumers who now expect software to be free
In India, apps aren't just free. You get hefty discounts if you use apps. Race to the bottom has meant that VC funded business can simply terminate the competition by burning through the investment. The barrier to entry might be lower, but that is setting a potentially dangerous precedent for the app-store economy on a whole, as app-developers continue their focus on acquiring users luring them with discounts, with a view to gain in the long run (which works for the e-commerce companies).
Tech companies like Google, that offer high quality apps for free, have spoilt the regular user-- no one expects to pay even a $1 for an app well-designed and well-built. Games get the money because its addictive and companies like Google haven't invaded that market yet with their free offerings driven by ad-revenues, user-profiling, and vendor lock-in.
'It's only the price of a cup of coffee" does not fly after you've paid for 10 media player apps, none of which fully work or are stable.
It would be nice to use the built in media player, even with all its faults , but unfortunately it is very limited in format support on iOS.
(When looking it up to confirm that it used to be one day, I found out that in August 2014, Google actually bumped it up to 2 hours - but I never found out about the policy change. Two hours isn't really enough time either - I might buy an app at lunch but only get to try it out in the evening, after work. A two hour window still kills impulse purchases.)
It’s a very useful law.
And the result of this we're seeing everywhere now in the IT. Wonder how come your fresh sparkly edition Windows is a turd ? Why you don't get any updates for your Android phone ?
That's why, you get what you pay for.
Ban me, whatever I care, but this is by far the stupidest top comment I have ever heard in HN. If you are still reading basically this is a lie, search for "Mirror app", in summary it has millions of downloads, it just an app that shows your camera, it has nothing new, nothing special, is just that is the first result. It has nothing to do with "unique value", it's all about the sorting algorithm Apple uses. And the same happens if you search "Flash light" and another million searches. Meritocracy is just another myth people like to believe.
That mirror app was created 6 years ago. You can create any trivial app and succeed if you're one of the first in the market.