The situation you describe has already happened in the console world - Nintendo. Today the Big N is a shadow of it's former self, albeit still quite popular.
Apple offers the iTunes store -Nintendo used cartridges they manufactured and licensed as their way of controlling what is available and taking a percentage. Whyis apple copying Nintendo all over again ? On 26/02/2011, at 6:37 AM, Reinier Zwitserloot <reini...@gmail.com> wrote: > Yes, of course. Similes are a way of making complicated issues seem simpler. > > And... this is one particularly complicated issue. > > The deal seems pretty solid. In exchange for 30% and _significant restriction > of liberties*_ you get to sell your apps into a platform that's renowned for > stability, with quite a bit of free marketing to boot if you can finagle your > way into the top 25 lists. That very stability appears to be dependent on the > restrictions and so seems quite allright. > > This has a parallel to sharecropping, where getting into the sharecropping > game was far, far simpler than buying your own land. > > And for a time it was good. In fact, the entire model isn't inherently > designed to end up as racket for the platform owner, but it does appear to be > heading that way over time. It went all pear shaped with share croppers and > it might, too, with apple's deal. > > When the next enormous app comes along for the iPhone, on the scale of for > example a facebook, what would happen? Apple could claim some new obscure > interpretation of the rules and simply ban your app and you'd have absolutely > no recourse**, which instantly means that the truly large valuations for > companies based around iOS apps simply cannot occur, because that risk is far > too high. Apple changes the goal posts all the time (just like the > sharecropper business!), for example, with these new rules regarding buying > subscription content and eBooks off-site. The internet thrived, and AOL died. > > *) Hyperbole? Hardly. One can argue these restrictions aren't being forced > upon you, you're accepting them with open eyes when you sign up to put an app > in the app store, but what you sign up for includes significant restrictions, > I hope we don't have to quibble on this point, but we can, if some aren't > convinced. > > **) Well, there's making a stink on the web, but this system doesn't scale, > is unfair (the famous can far more easily air their grievances, except in > such a system only the already famous stay famous. It's fairly well known > that an economic system where only the wealthy can be wealthy will degrade > into irrelevance very quickly. This is no different), and rewards twisting of > facts and being a loudmouth. A bad system if ever there was one. > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "The Java Posse" group. > To post to this group, send email to javaposse@googlegroups.com. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > javaposse+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/javaposse?hl=en. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "The Java Posse" group. To post to this group, send email to javaposse@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to javaposse+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/javaposse?hl=en.
