

Ask HN: the Internet wave created billionaires - did the mobile app wave? - zxcvvcxz

If not, why is that?
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taproot
I'd guess that it has something to do with a walled garden or two.

In more concise seriousness, in the same sense some joe schmoe made billions,
no not really. In a different sense sure it has and will continue to for the
manufacturers/telecoms/google/apple.

The mobile markets were already far too entrenched in big corp, most of the
money is funneled to the manufacturer's of the yearly upgraded hardware and
telecoms which service them. As for the app side of things the distribution of
said apps was heavily guarded by the operating system creators (google/apple.)
You could say that google doesn't operate a walled garden to the same extent
of closure that apple does but you'd have a hard time keeping a straight face
saying that competition at the distribution level isn't locked down by lockin
& implementation of their system.

I should perhaps note after spending a large chunk of the text above talking
about apple/google that they still get sweet fuck all of the pie most of the
money is going to the oligopoly of telcos who collude and backroom deal away
our net neutrality.

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geophile
Instagram sold for $1b.

Twitter is valued at $10b.

Square is valued at $3b.

There are probably others, but those are the first that come to mind.

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benologist
Rovio comes immediately to mind!

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m_ke
Apple and sir Jobs

