[_qulr]

Counterintuitively, the walled garden may make the problem worse.

The App Store is a single target. It makes "discovery" easier for malware. Imagine if these apps had to get users the "old fashioned" way, one-by-one, word-of-mouth, etc. It also requires less initial setup for malware developers, as opposed to having to develop their own software distribution infrastructure. Every claim about the App Store making things easier for developers also applies to malware.

Moreover, the App Store race to the bottom undermined the previous paid upfront software model in favor of everything being free, supported either by ads or by "cash cow" manipulative IAP.

[breakfastduck]

This is a valid point & well made.

I would argue that the race to the bottom is caused more by Apples gratuitous 30% cut than anything else, though.

Totally agree the free by default model causes more harm than good in the grand scheme of things when it comes to these app stores.

[mschuster91]

> Moreover, the App Store race to the bottom undermined the previous paid upfront software model in favor of everything being free, supported either by ads or by "cash cow" manipulative IAP.

Microtransactions were a thing even before the App Store race - remember Farmville, MafiaWars and the other host of Zynga's Facebook games?

[_qulr]

I didn't say microtransactions weren't a thing. But clearly the App Store vastly expanded these practices.

Pointing to Facebook just proves the point. Facebook is a walled garden, but does anyone think Facebook is a "healthy software ecosystem" for developers and users?

[KONAir]

Ancient GSM services were the starting point for those, from daily horroscope subs to java applet games sales... Apple is still eating the "take that out of GSM menus and sms orders and put it on its own dedicated internet app" cake (with same rate of tax of those ancient provider app stores took from 3rd parties).