One of the nicest things about Apple products is the simplicity of the underlying business model: you get hardware (most generally, also some software and services like AppleCare) from them, and you give them money in return. I think Gruber is a fan of this approach.

Apple's brand and future success then depends on you loving the product, which means they spend a lot of the money you've given them on hiring smart and dedicated people to build more loveable products. It's a virtuous cycle.

But most web-era companies (like Google and Facebook) have adopted a different business model: you get their product for free, with the trade-off being that you have to look at a few ads here and there.

The problem with this approach is that they end up hiring more smart and dedicated people to work on advertising techniques, sales, UI, algorithms, &c. than those who actually work on building ever more loveable product. (And they might even IPO at a high valuation, putting even more pressure on the company to deliver advertising revenue growth.)

App.net is trying to get back to the virtuous cycle of people paying for nice products – that has been the standard in commerce since the beginning – so that they can concentrate on making a great, benign product as opposed to spending the future fretting about 'monetization' (think about how awkward that word really is!) or advertising.

It's a trend I'd love to see more of, and I hope that everybody here gives backing a second thought.

EDIT 1: Gruber obviously carries some sway, the total grew by $1850 in the last 10 minutes.

EDIT 2: To continue the above, the total grew by $15000 in the last 2 hours.