

How Apple Gets All the Good Apps - Lightning
http://allthingsd.com/20130312/how-apple-gets-all-the-good-apps/

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nivla
Can't we say the same about the PC market? Sure, Apple doesn't make mobile
apps for any other devices but it doesn't sing the same song when it comes to
PC. Apple makes the official versions of Itunes and Quicktimes for Windows.
Why? Because its business at the end of the day! You can't play adamant when
you are not the market leader, it will cost you in money. The same reason, you
find all official Google apps for Windows PC and iOS but not a single one for
Windows Phone.

Its a simple motto for all companies, let's keep our differences aside when it
come to raising that stock price.

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webwielder
For an alternative body to that headline, you could say:

A) A 30 year history and culture of setting and raising the bar in application
design, attracting like-minded designers and developers to their platforms who
continually one-up Apple's own efforts. B) Coherent, stable, powerful
application frameworks C) Relatively fixed device specifications

~~~
batgaijin
Maybe it's

1). Have a reputation for charging more for hardware and attract people
willing to pay more

2). Create devices that take advantage of people with more disposable income

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seanmcdirmid
Ah, that tired myth again. iPads and iPhones are overpriced, unless you
consider the competition, then they look like a better value. Ah, what?

At the end of the day, its just good execution, Apple hasn't mis-stepped in a
while and seems to be doing everything right. But if you want to justify your
own alternative purchasing decisions by seeing Apple as overpriced, please go
ahead.

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WayneDB
You can't say it's a myth when it's based on opinion. If people have the
opinion that iProducts are overpriced, then they are because "overpriced" is
completely subjective. Simple as that. There's no myth, but the fact that
you're tired of hearing it does mean that people think it.

I am of the opinion that Apple products are overpriced. They really have no
value for me or other people like me who want more choices and more control. I
don't like their whole culture or ecosystem, so really any price is too high.
Furthermore, in purely practical terms there's nothing that I can't do on an
Android device.

~~~
seanmcdirmid
But you see, its not opinion. The prices for iProducts and their competitors
are public info. They are either overpriced with respect to equivalent value
products or not; the truth is easy to see.

The ones who ignore the truth are just experiencing cognitive dissonance, and
there are quite a few of them left over from the PC era.

~~~
pook1e
Value is an opinion. The Nexus 4 provides me with more value than an iPhone 5,
yet costs nearly half. Therefore the iPhone is overpriced, right?

~~~
seanmcdirmid
Obviously the nexus 4 is a good deal, and if we see more android phones with
those specs selling for those prices, we can begin to call iPhones overpriced
(I.e. google isn't just selling these phones at cost). Still, there are plenty
of head on reviews that can't make up their mind which one is better even with
the huge price delta.

I haven't actually seen any nexus 4s for sale yet in my market (china) beyond
a few smuggled in. It will be interesting to see what happens then.

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stanleydrew
The article doesn't really explain how at all. It just makes a simple
observation that competitors to Apple in mobile platforms are releasing their
apps on iOS as well as their own operating systems.

This seems like a classic example of how new entrants to a market try to
attack the leader. Get people attached to using your services on the leading
platform, then claim (perhaps valid if you cripple your iOS offering in some
way) that the integration is better on yours.

~~~
greggman
Most of those apps are not crippled to get people to switch. They're crippled
because of Apple's policies.

Specifically you can't make another browser be the default. You can't make
another browser period, you can only skin the one that's built in. So no V8,
no JägerMonkey, no Gecko, etc. Google Maps can't be the default map app. The
Kindle app can't sell books. The Amazon MP3 app can't sell music. (or at least
can't competitively sell)

And on and on.

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bryanjclark
Mossberg's got an interesting observation here, but he's missing a really
important point: Apple's core profit engine is selling hardware. Amazon and
Google make money by selling services and non-hardware goods.

Since Amazon/Google make money regardless of platform, they have an incentive
to produce content for Apple's platform. Since Apple only makes a real profit
if/when you buy their hardware, they have no incentive to do the same.

~~~
nextstep
From the article: "...it stems from the different business models of the big
rivals. Google, Microsoft and Amazon are primarily software and services
companies, though each makes some mobile hardware (Google through its Motorola
subsidiary). But Apple, while famous for making good software, sells that
software almost entirely through iconic and expensive hardware, from which it
makes the vast majority of its money."

I think he covered that the different companies have different business
models.

~~~
bryanjclark
Shit - I missed that! Good catch - I only watched the video :/

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dm8
Apple doesn't sell software or hardware. They sell 'experience'. And for the
best experience they design their own hardware that is optimized for their own
software. Their competitors on the other hand have different focus. AMZN is
all about consuming (or buying) content from any device. GOOG is all about
information access regardless of device. Most of MSFT's revenues come from
selling software.

Simple analogy would be - MSFT doesn't sell the games that it creates for xbox
on other platforms.

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ch33zer
Yes, because what is an android user gonna do without Apple's Maps?

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ghshephard
Probably get directed to the Atherton Train Station last night, only to
discover CalTrain doesn't stop there on weekdays. (Apple Maps Pointed me to
HopStop, which correctly recognized that Atherton TrainStation was NOT where I
wanted to be)

Let's just say I won't be trusting Google Maps to get Transit Directions which
involve Caltrain in the near future. Standing out there in the cold at 10:00
at night after a 30 minute walk quickly cured me of that bad habit.

~~~
HorizonXP
I'm from Toronto, and I've been in Palo Alto for the last month, and all I
know about Atherton is that you do not want to be there.

<http://imgur.com/a/aNPaI>

~~~
claudius
I would hate having to deliver packages there with all these paranoid people.

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AdrianRossouw
So the secret is that they get all their own apps and the best apps from their
competitors?

I guess the benefit is entirely predicated on whether the user cares for the
default apple offerings. I don't personally care for the vast majority of
them.

~~~
rplacd
"their own apps" + "the best apps from their competitors" minus "their own
apps" does _not_ correspond to a single competitor's offerings - which is
Apple's advantage, according to Mossberg's logic. His argument's got little to
do with Apple's own apps (not that they have particularly much of a presence
either - even on their own devices.)

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ghshephard
"Google’s artificial intelligence app Google Now and its payment app Google
Wallet are AWOL on Apple devices. " - ironic how quickly that might (soon?)
change...

[http://www.theverge.com/2013/3/12/4096074/google-now-for-
ios...](http://www.theverge.com/2013/3/12/4096074/google-now-for-ios-teased-
in-alleged-demo-video)

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eloisant
Who cares? Who would want the iPhone's map or iBook on Android? Ask Windows
users forced to use iTunes for their iPhone if they like it. Ask Safari users
on Windows (oh sorry, I forgot - nobody uses it).

Apple is a hardware company, their strength is to control the hardware and the
OS. Apps they make for other systems are crap.

~~~
bryanlarsen
The article mentions Siri, iMessage, iWork, iPhoto and FaceTime. I don't miss
Siri, iWork or iPhoto, but the lack of FaceTime and iMessage is definitely
noticed when most of your network uses Apple products.

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nodata
It doesn't. Compare Dropbox on Android with Dropbox on iPhone.

