[moosebear847]

All those companies were around before and during the existence of the iPhone. At least some had apps, and had an equal or better chance at having all those apps, so I wonder why they weren’t successful.

You have to start somewhere. If there were a good alternative, then adoption of it would drive gradual availability of these apps.

[kalleboo]

Software ecosystems with more than 2 platforms that need to be supported by developers just never happen.

Look at the desktop - we have Windows and Mac (and for a while it looked like we'd lose the Mac), Linux is still a desktop also-ran.

Look at the web - it took Microsoft completely neglecting IE for 5 years before there was any momentum at all towards other browsers. And now we're back to web developers mostly neglecting Firefox and praying for the day they can drop Safari support so we're 100% Chrome.

[moosebear847]

There does seem to be strong market pressure to have no more than 2 major platforms to support, and understandably so due to the amount of work.

Linux never became mainstream because of how poor the user experience was, not necessarily because there’s only room for 2 at the top. Even technically experienced people don’t want to muck around with drivers and deep-dive into configuration. Since few used linux, few apps were written for it.

I think there is usually room for new players, whether they have to usurp an existing one or have compatibility with others to do it.