To publish something on a feature phone was much more costly, including five-figure quality approvals. The App Store was a true revolution and probably needed new players that were not as entrenched with carriers like Nokia, and Siemens.

Interesting. Nowdays people put more money to lure devs to their platforms.

They still charge those 99$ a year, don't they?

I think so. But I meant no work contracts and lots of employees.

Imagine Apple even got paid by developers and not pay them