Apple is using platform monopoly to effectively force developers into certain "agreements". They have established one (defacto) agreement and then, before various developers have seen return on their time investment, they are dictating a much less advantageous agreement. I wonder how many developers would have invested time in this platform had they known of this up front.
To me, this is dishonest. It is also a poor business decision, and I hope this will hurt their platform -- I don't really have anything against Apple, but I don't want to see this type of practice thrive. (Full disclaimer: I've never particularly liked Apple because I want to control my computing experience, not have them do it.) Apple does not seem to view their devices as products that you buy, but rather an "experience" to which you subscribe. From that view this is a very reasonable step -- people are getting an "experience" for which Apple is not being compensated The biggest profit for Apple is not the individual developers -- most of whom I imagine already sell an app through the app store as their only market channel, but companies like Amazon and (perhaps more likely) Netflix, who do most of their sales outside of Apple channels. Amazon is not small, already has their own, fairly popular e-Book reader, and eBooks are on the rise. They could likely take their bat and ball and go home. Netflix, if they want to reach the mobile market, is stuck (for now) with the iPad. I also notice that Netflix plays in the media delivery space, which is the space in which Apple re-invented itself and likely wants to dominate. I hope this fails miserably, as ultimately the consumer pays the price and I don't want to see the distribution channel taking a large chunk of the profits (RIAA anyone?). Wild speculation: this might be a "panic" move -- try to monetize their tablet monopoly before they lose it as Android enables viable tablet alternatives. -- Dewey _______________________________________________ bblisa mailing list [email protected] http://www.bblisa.org/mailman/listinfo/bblisa
