Equally superficial reading of this ends up to the following statement: Apple is building it's ecosystem on developers. Without developers Apple wouldn't be able to build an ecosystem and find customers for it

This isn’t necessarily true. You can actually have quite a useful device by only using Apple’s software. As a customer, I don’t need third party apps on my iPhone. (There are only one or two third party apps I actually use, and my phone would still be 95% as useful without them.)

I assume that other 5% is the internet?

No?

I use safari as my web browser, which is written by Apple.

I didn’t say “no third party content of any kind”, and this discussion is about app stores after all. Apple not having an App Store would still mean I get to keep safari, so the phone is still 95% as useful. I’d miss my baby feeding tracking app and… not much else.

Not at all directed at you, but I find it funny that this stance is often taken by people who would be outright offended if you replaced „Apple“ by „the state“ in statements like this.

That is funny, considering as how private companies are the same thing as the state.

Last time I checked, a private company can’t stop me because “I look suspicious”. They can’t take away my property via civil forfeiture and imminent domain. They don’t take 1/3 of my check. With part of that being a forced retirement plan that I can’t opt out of etc.

Only the government has “a monopoly on violence” and qualified immunity.

"can't stop me"

You mean imprison or kidnap. Large companies can stop you from using their ecosystems or entering their property for almost any reason they like.

And you compare that to what the government can do?

I could live my entire life without using any one of the large corporations.

It would be easier for me to move to a different country than to stop using services or devices of the large corporations.

Apple built hardware, like many others manufacturers, and then used the app store, which is a glorified index with a locked gateway mechanism, to control which software get used on the hardware they sell.

They didn't build an ecosystem more than others, they just made sure to kill any potential competitive ecosystem on the same hardware.

> They didn't build an ecosystem more than others, they just made sure to kill any potential competitive ecosystem on the same hardware.

That's how ecosystems work.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juglone

>They didn't build an ecosystem more than others, they just made sure to kill any potential competitive ecosystem on the same hardware.

How did that work out for Facebook phone or Amazon phone or Microsoft phone or the myriad of others that tried?

Apple built the best ecosystem and that's why it prints money.

So everybody should develop their own OS and their own iDevice?

That would be great for the planet ...

It's like saying you own your ISP an opportunity because without the internet you can't do much work.