FREE HISTORY OF COMPUTING COMPANIES LESSON
2007 — Put a market inside the phone
Apple, Android, HTC, Samsung, and the app economy
Put a market inside the phone
Apple integrated device, operating system, SDK, review, store, identity, payment, and update distribution. Android used an open-source base and a multinational handset alliance to supply a multi-vendor counterplatform. Both lowered developer distribution costs while concentrating important rules in platform owners. Open is not one binary property: source, governance, compatibility, services, defaults, and store access can have different owners.
An app platform creates value by coordinating trust, payment, discovery, APIs, and updates—the same control points that give its governor gatekeeper power.
Institutional reconstruction
Build a developer profit-and-loss model including tools, review delay, discovery, platform fee, payment, support, and rule-change risk. Compare iOS and Android at every authority boundary.
Trace the scarce resource, coordination mechanism, power boundary, and newly possible failure.