The gig economy is based on (digital) platforms, where the platform owner makes the rules. I used the example of Apple's platform, because this is a community of mostly developers. The theory of the platform economy has not been fully developed yet, but some patterns are quite clear. The power of a platform owner where the barrier of entry is very high is of course greater than when the barrier of entry is low. Airbnb is technically just a CRUD website that links supply and demand, while Apple holds much more power. We should be very careful in assuming that Apple will not abuse its power to a greater extent. In absence of competition, many of us might very well end up as low-pay gig workers.

Airbnb provides a commodity. This is not really applicable to most very successful app on the App Store. Developers have several magnitudes more leverage than any host on Airbnb, or Uber driver even if it's still limited.

> end up as low-pay gig workers

Or you know switch to developing other software. As long as this is possible individual developers will be still in a much better position than low-skilled gig workers.

> Or you know switch to developing other software.

Apple is buying up its supply chain AND other platforms copy Apple's tactics. In the future, where do you want to run your software on?

> Apple is buying up its supply chain AND other platforms copy Apple's tactics

Do they? Has Google/Android (or even Apple for that matter) gotten much worse in that regard over the last 10 years?

You can switch to making desktop, web, enterprise, video game etc. software. Or something more specialized. I mean yeah, I understand the issues you're talking about and I don't think they are not important. However it's not entirely black and white. And I don't think the situation really comparable to low wage/skill gig-workers who generally have almost no real choice whom to work for.

Are there really less viable (openish) platforms to build your software for than 10/20/30/40 years ago? I'm pretty certain that the answer is not that obvious as you seem to be implying.

Apple has gotten a larger market share and has implemented some new app store policies re: their 30% cut, but otherwise I think you're right that the landscape hasn't drastically changed.