Has anyone noticed that we haven’t really heard of a new app in awhile? I feel like the last time I heard about an app on the news or on Reddit(in the past) in a long time. The last big one I heard of was the Threads app.
Where are the apps? I haven’t downloaded a new app since I got Boost for Lemmy.
I’ve worked in the industry for the last 11 years, and my experience is that the industry has changed dramatically.
In 2012, there were still huge niches in smartphone software that has not yet been filled. There were also almost no barriers to entry - a team of <10 people rapidly expanding didn’t have to think about Cookie Banners or Google Play store delisting. Finally, there was the promise of a huge payout - the win condition for a startup was to BE the next Google.
In 2023, dominant players have captured all aspects of the software experience and when a new idea becomes popular (Snapchat in 2016 is a good early example), big tech has the lawyers and developers to simply clone it with a higher budget (e.g. Insta & FB Stories, Youtube Shorts). Because of scale, big companies can more easily afford to deal with regulation and can even sometimes regulate their competitors (Play Store). Finally, big tech is guaranteed high payout for developers - these days, the win condition for a startup isn’t to BE the next Google, its to be acquired by Google.
The eventual end of all this is Google continuing to strangle open & free Android by buying/shutting down any new ideas and extracting more and more rent from its platform.
The only way to opt out is to move to non-Play AOSP alternatives.
Do you have any non-Play AOSP suggestions that run on less popular devices? Everytime I hear about a newandroid distro it’sostly for Nexus phones and a few other popular phones. I have e. g. a Wiko Power U30 thats okay (and mostly cheap) that I would love to use with something better.