> Still a drag on human progress & welfare, sure.
The App Store since 2009 has directly resulted in the creation of Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, WhatsApp, WeChat etc.
Not sure how you can argue the world hasn't progressed since then.
The App Store since 2009 has directly resulted in the creation of Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, WhatsApp, WeChat etc.
Not sure how you can argue the world hasn't progressed since then.
But also: those successes are attributable to mobile apps in general, not Apple's self-serving policies.
Plausibly, all of these should be possible as zero-install web apps – but as Apple (& others) have started raking in the App Store money, their investment in competitive open web technologies that could match proprietary-platform native-apps has languished.
Further, the App Store's market power is now being used to limit the functionality of such apps – banning competitive payment mechanisms, or entire classes of disfavored speech and content, or product benefits that compete with Apple offerings.
And the App Store plus iOS power is being used to torpedo the business models of Apple competitors – as with the changes in tracking defaults that have kneecapped Facebook revenues, mafia-style.
Does local protection rackets deserve credit for every business that manages to pay, & survive, their shakedown?
Worth noting that this was basically what Jobs offered developers initially and everyone hated it.
It's good some effort was plowed into both, at different timescales!
But currently, the App Store's monopoly/monoculture abuses are retarding progress. The App Store deserves credit not for creating or enabling the social app listed in the ggp – but instead for capturing more of the value of those innovations for AAPL owners & insiders.
No evidence of this what so ever.
We have no idea what the present would look like if the app store was more open.