There have been several comments made in the last few days in reference to Apple’s decision to block some Google Apps from the iTunes App Store, and the following FCC interest in that whole situation (which is bad bad bad) – the most interesting of which I think is Chris Messina’s thoughts about Steve Jobs and the almost suicidal direction the App Store is being driven. It’s an interesting read for many reasons but the core of it echos what many of us have been saying for a while now. While there are many roads to take, some of which might be very lucrative, they are all heading to one place and that one place is the web.
The platform to end all platforms is the web, that’s bee proven again and again at this point and really we’re just waiting for everyone to squeeze everything they can out of all the other platforms before jumping on the ship. It’s a bit frustrating in the same way it is to watch people make the same mistakes you did but know you can’t warn them because they won’t listen. Or maybe you do warn them but carry on anyway. This is the same thing in that we all know where it’s heading and where it’s going to end.
That’s not to say that developing things for the iPhone is a bad business choice. Apple has a lot of resources behind it and it’s not going away anything soon. There is plenty of money to be made on that platform in the short term. But the key point to that is to remember it is a short term, and that the App Store isn’t going to be the end all be all platform that every person with a computer uses. That’s the web.
