[fnordpiglet]

I think they seem to be doing fairly well as a company, and part of that is not letting themselves be tethered by a standard to allow competitors equal access to their walled garden. Whether you like that or not, it’s the strategy they’ve taken. They would rather not have your app than distort their platform to accommodate its ability to run on another platform.

For developers the reason to adopt the apple ecosystem is fairly simple. People willing to pay for an apple device are likely willing to pay for a subscription. The apple model is essentially you buy a subscription to their hardware - they release at a regular clip, they anticipate most customers will refresh, there’s no meaningful upgrade path, etc. As a developer I prefer subscriptions over one time purchases because it incentives my maintenance and growth of features for existing customers rather than a never ending grab for new customers. As a consumer while my pocket book certainly prefer one time pay, I actually do see the benefit in incentivizing continuous improvements for existing customers. (I do however wish that apple didn’t hide the subscriptions management so deeply and made it very prominent, and until they do it falls into the abusive category IMO)