A lesson to business people who think apps make their tech better
We’re making iPhone software primarily for three reasons:
- Dogfooding: We use iPhones ourselves.
- Installed base: A ton of other people already have iPhones.
- Profitability: There’s potentially a lot of money in iPhone apps.
Of course, the last two are related: it’s hard to have one without the other, but subtle implementation or demographic differences can make a huge installed base yield relatively low profitability.1
Without dogfooding, we aren’t motivated to make our software with craftsmanship and pride.
Without an installed base, too few people will be able to buy our software for it to be worth generalizing and releasing.
Without profitability, we can’t afford to make and support it.
For most platforms, all three conditions need to be met for a significant number of developers to justify writing software for them.2
Marco normally writes some great stuff geared towards developers. This one should be read by all the business people that think they can emulate Apple’s success by adding an “App Store.” I’m not just looking at the mobile/tablet industry, I think people across many industries are trying to find ways to add “apps” to their products.
Apple’s success came far before Apps. They built a damn good phone that was truly game changing. It wasn’t incremental, it was an entirely new way of looking at things. Before the iPhone the concept of an all-touch phone was ludicrous. The thing is, they didn’t just build a touch screen phone and ditch they keyboard. They built an exponentially better touch screen which allowed them to ditch the keyboard. I still haven’t used a touch phone who’s hardware can even live up to the 1st gen iPhone.
Then came the software. “It just works” is Apple’s mantra, and the sales show that it’s quickly winning people over. Every time I pick up my wife’s Samsung texting feature phone I find myself even wondering how to use it. It’s not intuitive, it’s not easy. How did people ever use their phones before the iPhone came along? Android has a pretty streamlined UI, and Palm “got it” too, but only because Apple pushed the innovation in that area.
That’s why Apple is successful, not because of an app store. The app store came after they changed the game. They won over the developers on the platform.
So business types, yeah you, the one with an MBA. An App Store may sound cool, but focus on making a truly great product first.
