iPhone and App Store Attracting Developers
MercuryNews reports on how the iPhone and upcoming App Store are attracting many developers to Apple's mobile platform. Loopt's cofounder, Sam Altman, describes how he's seen an excitement amongst mobile developers:
Context & Ripple Effects
On the eve of the App Store's launch, MercuryNews reports that developers are flocking to the iPhone platform — Loopt cofounder Sam Altman describes palpable excitement among mobile developers. This is the opening move of a gold-rush arc our coverage has tracked closely: from early enterprise apps arriving within months of launch, to a coder's half-million-dollar hit proving the gold rush was still on in 2009, to companies scrambling for space on phones, and eventually the sobering realization that the App Store is more casino than gold mine.
First-order effects
- Developers like Loopt redirect effort toward Apple's mobile platform ahead of the App Store's launch, making iPhone apps the default first target for new mobile products.
- Apple gains a supply-side moat before competitors respond: an expanding catalog of third-party software becomes the iPhone's core differentiator at launch.
Second-order effects
- Rival phone makers are forced to open their own app storefronts and developer programs to avoid ceding the software ecosystem battle to Apple.
- A land-grab economics sets in — small shops like Tapulous later ride outsized hits while the long tail discovers the market behaves more like a lottery than steady income.
Third-order effects
- The App Store model — a single company controlling distribution of reusable software artifacts on its hardware — becomes the template for platform gatekeeping across the industry, with lasting implications for developer dependence and regulatory scrutiny.
- Mobile shifts from carrier-controlled walled gardens to OS-vendor-controlled ones: the question of who owns the customer relationship moves up the stack to Apple and Google.
The trend: This is the founding data point in the shift from handsets as hardware products to platforms as curated software ecosystems, where control of app distribution becomes the industry's most valuable chokepoint.