Maybe the reason you haven’t seen a mass exodus on Android is because going off-store only gets you out of Google’s 30%, and Google users famously don’t pay for apps. So no ROI for skipping Google’s, and you still have to pay Apple’s so why bother? But maybe the moment developers can bypass both, the economics flip and literally any high-margin subscription business now has a financial incentive to move, because keeping 100% of revenue across all mobile users is suddenly viable.
Or maybe you’re right and no major app would ever take that option. If that’s the case, then why are we blowing up a proven security and privacy model to one Android shows is less safe, (and burning hundreds of millions in regulatory overhead and wasted development cycles for features that Android shows customers won’t use) for a change that, by your own logic, achieves nothing at all?
When the App Store is optional for developers, it becomes optional for them, but their apps don’t magically become optional for me. The point is not whether every app vanishes, but whether the user retains the guarantee of a single trusted distribution point. Once that’s gone, I’m no longer in control of whether I need to chase an app elsewhere the developer is. Meaning my closed ecosystem is no longer closed.
The consumers’ preferences have been taken away, when consumers who cared already had an open option. Taking choice away from the consumer so developers can freeload.
