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Comment by smt88 | Hacker News Reader

> I may be banned from doing something I love for the rest of my life (not to mention having no apps to add to my portfolio)

1. You can continue writing Android apps. You can (very likely) start distributing apps through the Play Store again just by creating a new account with a new credit card. Create an account as a company instead of an individual, for example.

2. Unless you're very old, distributing apps through the Play Store isn't something you'll be doing "for the rest of your life" regardless. Technologies come and go. Native apps will be replaced by web apps on mobile, just like they were on desktop.

3. You don't need to have apps in the Play Store to have apps in your portfolio.

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> "Native apps will be replaced by web apps on mobile, just like they were on desktop."

Provocative. I might agree with you.

Google and Apple appears to be trying to avoid it but I hope that they fail.

Google is pushing PWAs pretty hard and WebKit recently started working on service workers so it's closer than we probably realize

I'm seeing this already, no one wants to install apps anymore

I can see that. I've been burned by shitty apps that drain my battery and spam the notification panel more than once.

The cross-platform support that the web lets us have is too luxury.

>Native apps will be replaced by web apps on mobile, just like they were on desktop.

Google and apple make a fortune from their app stores. They have a huge incentive to stop this from happening, and the means to do it by restricting the mobile browser. Can you really sell a mobile app today anywhere near as effectively as a native app?

The only reason this works on desktop at all is because IE eventually lost it's monopoly. And only because Google ran what would have been one of the most expensive advertising campaigns in history to get chrome out there. And Microsoft never even had a successful app store to defend.

> Google and apple make a fortune from their app stores

Google has a web app store already, and makes vastly more money from web ads (including search, where most people would find non-store web apps) than it's app stores, anyway.

I suspect that busting Apple's app store in favor of web apps would be a bigger win for Google than losing Play Store would be a loss.

I've actually been looking into creating an LLC for this same purpose. But I am still a student, so time is precious (and money, which I assume it would require). But thank you for your response! You are right, of course, that I won't be doing it for the rest of my life. Nevertheless it is frustrating!

I think registering an LLC in Utah cost me ~$45.

Starting a LLC should cost ~$200. Maybe the person who got you into this situation might pay that?

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