[WilliamLP]

It's ironic that what developers hate about iPhone is precisely what makes it ideal for developers who want to make money. This being the walled garden, the inability to easily install free third party programs, and also the fact that there is a financial barrier to entry (a Mac, plus a dev fee) means that other developers are reluctant to make their apps free in the first place - meaning you don't have to compete with people giving their apps away!

It's a brilliant, (albeit arguably evil), strategy by Apple to create a viscous circle where developers bind themselves to iPhone, which means the good apps wind up there and thus users buy the product and pay for superior apps, which makes it more lucrative to develop for, and so on. And they sell some extra Macs and make money on dev fees, and take a cut out of every app store sale. It's really a simply ingenious grand strategy which has worked unbelievably well for them, however unethical or limiting some people might think it is.

[dejb]

> It's a brilliant, (albeit arguably evil), strategy by Apple to create a viscous circle where developers bind themselves to iPhone, which means the good apps wind up there and thus users buy the product

The only problem with your theory is the 'Android Sales Overtake iPhone in the U.S' part. Perhaps Android will need a bigger market share (double?) to really start stealing the higher quality developers from iOS but if the trend continues this will happen.

[demallien]

Not really. Firstly, if you're going to count all Android device sales against the iPhone, you're going to also have to count all iOS devices, such as the iPod Touch and the iPad. At this point, iOS is still well ahead of Android in the US.

Secondly, the US is not the whole world. Here in France I don't know anyone other than tech geeks that have Android phones, but a majority of my friends have iPhones or Blackberries.

Thirdly, you have to take into account the fact that Apple has created a culture of users paying for content. They have also made paying for content as painless as is humanly imaginable - select item, enter password, and it downloads straight to your phone. Android devs have a long wait ahead before they start to see the returns that iOS devs are seeing.

[steamboiler]

by Apple to create a viscous circle where developers bind themselves to iPhone

I think you mean a vicious cycle. Or a virtuous one depending on how you perceive Apple.

[WilliamLP]

Yes, indicative of positive mutual feedback, not a round area of slow and sticky fluid flow:) Thanks.

[napierzaza]

Evil circle of ...

Please stop. This is what every single company on the planet does. Few things are inter compatible and you'd be naive to hope that they would. Apple has solutions (implementations) to a problem which are different to everyone else's.

[paul9290]

I created this poll here http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1571592 to find out are iPhone users really more inclined to buy over Android users?

Appreciate u taking the poll.