Web Excursions 2021-09-10
Tech Epochs and the App Store Trap by stratechery.com
Trump’s gambit accomplished what the Chinese government never could: aligning private companies’ incentives with the state’s goal of economic self-sufficiency.
It is one thing to align private incentives with state incentives;
it is an open question if doing so by removing the drive for dominance and outsized profits ends up being a case of one step forwards, and two steps back.
In 2014 I described the The Three Epochs of Consumer Tech to that point
The PC epoch had Windows as its operating system, productivity software as its killer app, and email was the dominant communications medium.
The Internet epoch had the browser as its operating system, search as its killer app, and social networking, particularly Facebook, was the dominant communications medium.
The mobile epoch had iOS and Android as its operating systems, the sharing economy as its killer app, and messaging was the dominant communications medium.
In 2020, I argued we had reached The End of the Beginning:
about the overall shift in computing
from mainframes to PCs to mobile,
which mirrored the shift from one room computing to desktop computing to cloud computing
This is a progression where the potential for crypto-based computing and its inherent decentralization fits right in
It was the Internet that gave mobile the fuel to get off of the ground
It’s much harder, particularly in 2021, to appreciate the extent to which Apple increased the total addressable market for everyone
What is new to the App Store are the shift of more and more productivity applications to subscription billing.
What is not clear is if, in a vacuum, this is particularly good for their business
The App Store, though, is not a vacuum:
it is an economy where Apple sets the rules
by 2015 it seemed clear that the era of mobile productivity apps was going to be a disappointing one
Six years on and not much has changed
Apple, meanwhile, is seeing more challenges to its centralized control of the app economy than ever before,
from antitrust lawsuits to potential legislation
to run-ins with regulators around the world.
What is important is that these changes happen sooner rather than later, for the sake of tech’s fourth epoch.
If consumer tech’s second epoch — the Internet — was built on and enabled by the first — the PC — then it follows that the fourth epoch is built on and enabled the third.
Whether that innovation can be achieved as control is re-centralized is one of the most important questions of the next decade.
the question, as always, is about
the companies that aren’t formed,
the creators that aren’t empowered,
the metaverses that die on the vine because developers couldn’t make money, or
the platform creator couldn’t justify the risk.
Stop Doomscrolling: 6 Ideas for a Quick Break
Listen to a short podcast
ListenNotes is a great podcast search engine, and you can filter for podcast length on its free version.
Get in some foreign language study
Duolingo is a great, free option for learning vocab. You could also find a short easy language podcast.
Try walking meditation
Calm and Headspace, two popular meditation apps, both have a bunch of walking meditation sessions.
Create and listen to 15-minute playlists
Do a search on "energize," "relax," or "destress" in whatever music app you use.
Enjoy a long read of personal interest
While the read-it-later app is also useful to clip and manage all the work- and industry-related articles you want to read, that's not what you want during your break.
Instead, find some sources or authors that regularly publish long reads with a strictly personal appeal.
Maria Popova's Brain Pickings,
Something more classic like The New Yorker.
Writer aggregation sites like Medium and Substack, where you'll find content on every topic imaginable.
Blinkist
If you just can't resist the social media…
You don't want to fall into Twitter toxicity or weirdly inauthentic lifestyle Instagram feeds.
Instead, pre-select specific hashtags or accounts that bring you joy or relax you. The Dodo (@dodo) and the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust (@SheldrickTrust) have happy animal videos. Highly recommend.
Bonus option #7: It's a phone. Call someone close and have a chat.
Daring Fireball: Why iPhone Names Have Numbers and Most Other Apple Product Names Don’t
Apple wants people who are buying new iPhones that were first introduced 2–3 years ago to feel like they’re getting a new iPhone.
They should, because they are — they’re great devices at lower prices, and will be supported for years to come.
But if the iPhone XR were named “iPhone (2018)”, they’d feel old.