Probably Predatory – Barely Legally

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4 pointshboon4 comments

The underlying issue, IMHO, is that the AppStore has been designed in such a way that what Marco is doing is probably the sensible thing for him to do, as it only supports "hit-based" business models. Well, and scam-based ones.

Except that with software, such a hit-based model is even more skewed towards winner-takes-all than music is. So let's put the blame where the blame belongs: the ones creating the incentive structure, not the ones doing their best within that structure.

Why is such a model more skewed for software than for music?

Because most people listen to more different songs than they have (or need) different apps. If I have one to do app and am happy with it, there is strong disincentive to buy/use a different one.

Whereas if I have one hit song, chances are I'll buy another one, there really isn't any disincentive.

Or put another way: count the number of apps (you use) vs. the number of songs you listen to.

Author here. I agree entirely. Apple's pricing and discovery issues created this perverse incentive structure, and Marco's just responding to it. Competition under this system gets ugly.

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