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Comment by save_ferris | Hacker News Reader

Then what’s the point of even building an app if it’s going to be ripped off as soon as gets traction?

I sometimes wonder what the iOS ecosystem would look like if Apple took stewardship of the App Store seriously. If developers weren’t constantly under threat of some bogus copycat app or IP theft from Apple, what would that do the app ecosystem? It’s hard to see how it would hurt Apple, but perhaps I’m blind to the downsides.

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What's the point of even building a website if Google is just going to scrape the information and put in a SERP? You need to add value and build a relationship with your customer.

It’s kinda hard to do that when the company who controls the platform you’re developing on is also building relationships with your customers, and can add far more lifetime value than you ever could building your app.

How many people do you think ditched their iPhones when Spotify published their antitrust complaint towards Apple? And Spotify is a huge company itself.

Anything you can do, the platform owner can do better, and this is particularly true in Apple’s case.

One obvious downside would be that Apple could no longer copy the most successful apps and make money from them.

They make money from the most successful apps that aren't theirs, though. 30% is admittedly less than 100%, but if the market is 4x, Apple wins more with the former. Also, the 30% doesn't require much developer time (sure, you have to maintain the app store, but that is amortized over many many apps).

100% of $0 is always going to be less than the 30% cut. I seek out Apple apps as they're usually of better quality, and not going to be ridden with cruft and most if not all of their consumer level apps are free.

Sure, and that might affect them short term.

But Android’s App Store isn’t any better IMO, and if Apple put effort into drawing talent towards their mobile ecosystem and letting them flourish without being worried about Apple screwing them, they might be better off overall.

Their strategy of ratcheting up phone prices isn’t sustainable and they’re losing users to cheaper phones with similar specs. The relative parity (and lack of quality) between both app stores doesn’t help them, and improving the app ecosystem could help, but idk.

> if it’s going to be ripped off as soon as gets traction

Isn't this called "competition", and isn't the scope of protections you're seeking covered under trademark law?

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