
Fatal Exception's Neil McAllister discusses
10 ways locked-down app store delivery models limit choice for developers -- and ultimately hurts users. The model, best known in the form of
Apple's notoriously finicky iPhone App Store, has established an entirely new relationship between software vendors and consumers, one some are calling 'curated computing,' a mode in which choice is constrained to deliver more relevant, less complex experiences. This model, deemed essential to the success of tablets, provides questionable value to developers, undermining their interests in a variety of ways. From disproportionate profit cuts, to curator veto powers, to poor security, fragmentation, and
hostility to free software, developers must sacrifice a lot to 'curated computing' to get their wares into the hands of end-users.
Member since:
2005-07-07
Exactly!
The only problematic part is the "single store only" artificial monopoly, all other points in the article are consequences of it.
The article then goes on and even makes this initial mistake more worse by over genernalizing and only basing points on Apple's variant of an app store.
For example it claims that app stores are hostile to Free Software. This looks correct from an unprepared readers point of view because the assumption everywhere in the article is Apple's app store.
In reality this can be the other way around, e.g. Debian's app store.
Parent has this right: "curated" is not the problem, "one and only source" is.