
Startups threatened by iOS 14’s new features - Tomte
https://techcrunch.com/2020/03/10/all-the-startups-threatened-by-ios-14s-new-features/
======
LeoNatan25
Instead of thinking of this as "sherlocking" or "threatening", it should be
viewed as an opportunity for startups to step out of the comfort zone and
offer genuine innovation, which will further benefit the consumer. Having
basic features integrated in the OS is essential, and will happen more and
more, especially with so many horror stories of seemingly innocent apps
brokering user information for cash. Startups need to step up their game in
privacy as well as technological and product innovation. Good luck.

~~~
AmericanChopper
I’ve always thought that if your business can be made redundant simply by
another product implementing a new feature, then you have a really obvious
business risk and should make decisions accordingly.

~~~
_bxg1
The counter-argument is that Apple's implementations aren't "playing fairly",
because iOS's restrictions mean Apple can give its own features special
integration into the OS that third-parties don't have access to. Of course,
some degree of this is inevitable with any platform. So there isn't a clear
line where it becomes anti-competitive.

~~~
AmericanChopper
I don’t think that’s a valid counter-argument at all. The same line of
reasoning applies to any service. There’s plenty of products that are
essentially 3rd party implementations of features in other services. If you’re
going to make a product like that, you absolutely must know that your entire
value prop can be wiped out if the 3rd party ever happens to get around to
implementing that feature themselves. Apple does plenty of stuff that could be
argued as anti-competitive, but I don’t think “implementing my product as a
feature” is one of them.

It is perhaps a good reason to think twice before making an iOS app though.
But as a consumer I prefer it to the opposite approach, which I’d consider a
company like Atlassian to have. If you ask Atlassian when they’re going to
implement a rather basic and highly demanded feature, the answer tends to be
“never, buy it on the market place”.

~~~
_bxg1
> If you’re going to make a product like that

It's... it's basically all products. Virtually any product on iOS would
function and perform and integrate better if implemented by Apple. It's just a
question of at what point it gets popular enough that they want to bother
doing so.

> The same line of reasoning applies to any service

iOS is a special case because of how locked-down it is. Not only can't third-
parties do things like draw over other parts of the UI or add items to system
UIs, they can't even (truly) run in the background.

Of course, on Android, apps can do all of these things and that's part of why
it's a security nightmare. Which is why as I said, there's no clear answer to
the problem. But it is a problem.

~~~
AmericanChopper
> It's... it's basically all products

I looked through every app I have installed on my iPhone and I only found a
couple that would fall into that category. I have a shopping list app which
Apple could theoretically implement as a feature if it wanted to (but not
fully, as this particular shopping list app allows me to share lists with
android users), and Authy.

The rest of the apps I have installed are just interfaces for 3rd party
services. Apple doesn’t have the power to subvert the value of those services
any more than any other service provider does (Apple has a maps app, I still
use google maps).

I guess Apple could also make a Sudoku app if it really wanted to, but I’d
consider that pretty unlikely.

I think there’s a strong argument for saying something like Spotify vs Apple
Music is anti-competitive, but for rather different reasons.

------
karolist
I've been having these thoughts recently that app stores were just proving
grounds for the corporations.

~~~
setr
Everything that isn't held by patents is a proving ground for everyone else
who has time and resources, including other corporations, startups and
individuals.

It's why you need a moat, or you don't really have anything stable for the
long term.

Just because you had first idea & implementation that worked in the market
doesn't mean you have the best implementation (of the features that actually
matter)

------
matz1
Still a good strategy to be the first to implement. Collect the profit as much
as you can, then move on.

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unnouinceput
If your great startup/business/whatever is threatened by new features added
into a new iteration of an OS then it was not great to begin with. And I don't
have pity for mediocrity.

~~~
tonyedgecombe
Watson[1] was a great product, in no way did anybody consider it mediocre.
Apple pretty much cloned it when they introduced Sherlock.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karelia_Watson](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karelia_Watson)

~~~
CharlesW
And yet Alfred[1] remains enormously popular and is a clear step-up from
Sherlock.

[1] [https://www.alfredapp.com/](https://www.alfredapp.com/)

------
api
Mobile startups that don't have a substantial value add outside just what they
do on the phone are just prototyping new features for the FAANG companies.

~~~
markkanof
Your not wrong, but it's also a bit depressing that we live in a world where
giant companies can just wait until they see something becoming successful
enough and then use their essentially unlimited resources to copy it and put
the original creator out of business.

~~~
_jal
Tech was exciting for a time, but human history is full of gatekeepers
demanding their rents and only allowing others in their turf if they aren't
too threatening.

We've been living through the good parts. It is only going to get more
"normal".

~~~
m_fayer
Think different.

~~~
thanks4io
Thanks for this comment. It saddens me whenever I hear normality is the gold
standard, because what is normal?

------
ultrarunner
It will be interesting to see how AirTags is designed. I love my Tile that I
got as a gift this last Christmas, but the app experience is terrible. I have
been kicking around the idea of reversing the Bluetooth protocol so I can
write my own that gets out of my way and stops trying to sell me stuff. I
suspect that Apple will obviate that desire if AirTags don't end up coming
with a three-digit price tag.

~~~
xenospn
I'm doing this, but for pets.
[https://ppn.gethuan.com/](https://ppn.gethuan.com/).

There's no need to reverse engineer anything - it's using standard BLE and
iBeacon, and you can buy ready-made tags and program them however you like
from Alibaba suppliers.

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sitzkrieg
unrelated to article but why on earth does this site completely demolish my
ability to go back to HN on safari, obnoxious

~~~
j1elo
Got curious so opened the link, waited to load, and pushed back. It worked
without issue This is with Firefox on Android, and the uBlock add-on.

I tried again, this time with uBlock disabled. It took like 30 full seconds to
load, but still the back action worked fine... so it must be an issue specific
to Safari.

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Fnoord
[https://archive.is/3jx7e](https://archive.is/3jx7e)

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mrfusion
What technology does tile use? Bluetooth? How will airtags work?

~~~
deerIRL
Bluetooth. I think AirTags will most likely use some combination of bluetooth
and the new U1 chip included in the iPhone 11 Pro which should hopefully give
it more granularity than a plain old bluetooth tracker would.

~~~
judge2020
The ultra-wideband U1 chip is going to be the main push behind AirTags. As I
understand it, with 3+ devices close to each other, you can pinpoint the exact
location of any of the other devices, so I imagine there will be an app for
finding your AirTags in AR by moving your phone's camera around.

~~~
deerIRL
I really hope this is the case. The biggest issue I always have with the
trackers is the granularity just doesn't seem to be fine enough.

Mind you I have never tried Tile, so they may be better in that regard, but
there is only so much you can do off a single bluetooth signal

~~~
slimsag
I've tried Tile, it'll tell you if it's within 15-20 feet and then has an
audible noise. Kinda OK, but not great.

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5cott0
Happy Sherlocking!

~~~
Apocryphon
There should be a Mac Mausoleum as an equivalent to the Google Graveyard-
except the programs in there weren't created by Apple.

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agustif
Well it's not like Apple doesn't do this transversally across its hardware
products and software apps or cloud services.

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cocobende
We don't give a damn. :)

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craftyguy
Won't someone please think of the, uh, smartphone wallpaper startups‽

This article seems like clickbait.

~~~
jpxw
Agreed. I couldn’t identify even one “startup” actually threatened by these
changes in the article.

~~~
MBCook
The big one is Tile. The company so afraid of a product that is only a rumor
at this point they testified to Congress about how evil Apple is.

~~~
briandear
Perhaps Tile should step up their game then or add more value.

