iPhone’s App Store and the important of the quantity of apps

This is a really interesting topic for me because of Apple’s roots.  Apple wasn’t a platform play in the beginning.  Remember once they initially kicked out Steve Jobs, all the analysts said they had to license their OS and copy Microsoft.  Compete head to head with them and that’s the only way Apple can survive.  Apple did that and they failed.

Steve Jobs came back in, bought their licenses back and basically did the opposite of a platform strategy and won.  This is what defines Apple.  This is why I always believed that platform economics were secondary to quality of the user experience for Steve Jobs.  So when you ask me if it’s the quantity of apps that makes the iPhone important, I say no, because Steve Jobs won against the platform by not competing for it, and I believe he built the iPhone so that it would succeed even if it didn’t become the dominant phone platform.

Niche apps are what make the iPhone special and, in my opinion, still the best general-purpose device.

via For the iPhone’s App Store, Quantity Really Does Matter Gadget Lab Wired.com.

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