Rethinking the App Store

All of this is critical context for understanding Spotify’s strong interest in the podcasting space. Spotify needs (1) a way to differentiate its service from Apple Music in particular, and (2) content that it does not have to pay for on a marginal cost basis.

Platform-provided AI capabilities will not only be the easiest way for developers to incorporate these features, they will also likely be the best way, at least in terms of the overall user experience. Users will understand how to use them, because they will be “trained” by Apple’s own apps; they will likely be cheaper and more efficient, because t... See more

Even so, it is highly improbable that Apple will do much more to be friendlier to platforms and creators unless the government forces them to. Why? They have a great business. Apple has a hardware monopoly over a specific set of consumers, and they’ve leveraged that into a monopoly on payments conducted on those devices.

Painful software plus good distribution and high switching costs is a hard combination to kill.

This made me think of the other recent case against Apple from Epic, where Apple's response to the court was essentially trolling. The judgement required Apple to allow apps to advertise outside marketplaces where users could purchase in-game items. So apple responded by allowing developers to apply to place exactly one text-only (non-hyperlink), s... See more