[ralfd]

No, look at the quarter results of Apple. Their revenue is selling hardware stuff. Digital content is relatively a small amount. I also find "artificially scarce" a very biased description. The App Store has an unbelievable positive impact on the developer ecosystem. And if books/gamecartridges/printed newspaper are replaced by digital stuff we shouldn't deride payment for that. Look at ebooks or Amazon kindle. These are good things. The scarce thing is really your favorite band making a kickass song, investigative journalism instead of astroturfing and GRRM writing the next ASOIAF novel in less than five years.

About Googles "superior business model": Ultimately it is just advertising. The product which is sold is you. I don't want to sound polemic, I have tons of respect for Google. But this is a strong realization most never make. Because of that I avoid to being to dependent on their services (maybe I will move my email from gmail to icloud).

EDIT:

Oh, never mind. I just read your other reply to kawahe. You clearly are enlightened and are not bound by the chains of tyranny. I am out of this discussion.

[jhuni]

The App Store has an unbelievable positive impact on the developer ecosystem.

Paul Graham (the creator of this site) commented on the App Store himself, and his words were not entirely of ignorant praise like yours are:

http://www.paulgraham.com/apple.html

The scarce thing is really your favorite band making a kickass song, investigative journalism instead of astroturfing and GRRM writing the next ASOIAF novel in less than five years.

Although this is besides the point, it is pretty easy to envision a moneyless post-scarcity society where such songs, novels, reports, and other forms of content are delivered to everyone free of charge:

http://adciv.org/

[kahawe]

> Paul Graham (the creator of this site) commented on the App Store himself, and his words were not entirely of ignorant praise like yours are

And you will find just as many people who love the app store oh and 18,000,000,000+ downloads and counting should nicely prove those 2 year old prophecies wrong.

[jhuni]

The fact is Apple's reputation has been permanently tarnished in the face of developers, including PG. Even today, Apple uses very restrictive license agreements in the appstore. Here is a full explanation of their licensing restrictions from 2010, feel free to provide more up to date information:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/03/iphone-developer-progr...

[sbuk]

Resorting to ad verecundiam doesn't prove or disprove your point either way. It's just an opinion.

[jhuni]

Before you blame me for argument for authority, notice that rolfd's post is already ridiculously exaggerated because he said "it has an unbelievable positive impact."

[sbuk]

Tu quoque fallacies are just as bad. Anyone using emotive words or unnecessary superlatives undermine the point they are attempting to make.

[kahawe]

hahaha I don't know which developers you are talking about, just look at the numbers:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/App_Store_(iOS)#Milestones

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:AppleAppStoreStatistics.pn...

And just because PG said something doesn't dispute the overwhelming success of the app store and the itunes store. There were just as allegedly "legendary" and allegedly "influential" (seriously, what influence and importance does PG really have outside of the smug cloud of valley startups? None to zero) people who said there will be a maximum of 5 to 6 computers around the world and the internet is completely useless. So, again, this does not an argument or a point make. The numbers prove it wrong. Just because someone says it has no relevance. Useless ad verecundiam right here.

If anything, Apple was incredibly smart about how and where they put the shackles on so most customers will happily accept the platform as it is. Ultimately, most people just care about the fact that it works and Apple continues to deliver on that front.

[jhuni]

First of all, where are the applications in Google search? You just type in what you want, and the system uses AI to provide you with an answer. The fact that you can do that without having to think about millions of arbitrary applications is largely why it is so great. The fact is that people don't have an intuitive understanding of applications like "iTunes" they just have ideas of tasks like "listen to music." So I think the very idea of applications is flawed to begin with, and all applications will be made obsolete by a smart AI services, namely Google search.

Then there is the issue of over pricing these applications, when they could be free, which means that lots of people that are poor cannot acquire them.

But that isn't enough, behind the scenes, Apple has been screwing over developers with shackling licenses that I linked to above, and I don't care if they have been "incredibly smart" about how they have been screwing us over, they have still been doing it.

[kahawe]

Google is way more than just google-search and has been for a long, long time. Those are the google applications I am talking about; all the different ways google gets data from you through allegedly free services. And they track you as best as they can and you cannot change that. You can use them but of course you don't have to. Same with apple. Don't like it, don't use it.

And yea, I get it, you like google search, alright... no ned to repeat it all the time. There are better search engines out there. And other people like their macs, iphones, ipads. You think you are smarter than other people to show them what they like is wrong? Preposterous.

iTunes works just fine and it is free. Apple software overall is generally considered very intuitive and I know a lot of total computer beginners who can use OS X and especially the ipad just fine. This is an absolutely ridiculous statement.

> about how they have been screwing us over

Do you have a single app in the iTunes app store? No? Then what are you complaining about? Or do you see yourself as some sort of vigilante and defender of all those "helpless" devs?

Do you really think devs who built iOS apps need _YOU_ of all people to "help" them understand how the appstore works? Do you really think they are not as smart as you and have nooooo idea what they got themselves into? This is outrageous.

You can develop for droid, win 7 or webos or plain old java programs for pre-smartphone mobiles or chrome apps or just some regular software. The possibilities are almost unlimited. If you don't like how apple conducts business and distributes software through the appstore, just don't develop any iOS apps and don't buy any. You won't miss out...

Again, in your own little black-and-white world you are making up Apple to be some sort of super-evil that is practically mind-controlling you and raping you for your money and freedom when they neither have a monopoly in any of the markets they are in nor are you stuck for choices and alternatives. End of story. You have absolutely no grounds for your ridiculous and completely empty claims. It all comes down to: don't like it then dont use it. That's it.

You are in absolutely NO position to tell any software or hardware company how to do business as long as what they are doing is legal. If you don't like what they are doing, don't buy their products and make your own alternatives or buy shit from their competitors.

[Duff]

I think of Apple as akin to a warehouse club like Costco or Sam's.

These "clubs" sell a high margin membership, and you get to buy low-margin toilet paper 50 rolls at a time.

Likewise, Apple sells digital media, which is a relatively low-margin business. But by doing so, they get you to buy high-margin hardware and services.