Hi everybody.
Since I believe the "AppStore Power" is very interesting, I like to place a further note on the aspect of the "Development Ecosystem" which the application store represents.

This text helps further explain what I said before as some possible "missing" equivalent of this Development Ecosystem in the FOSS (free/open) world.

The argument here is very simple and is represented on the following diagram:



I don't claim I have a full research or even a deep analysis on the subject, but I do have follow this matter since around mid 90's, so, I think I my doubts have some justifications attach to it.

Let me repeat this doubt.
Looking at the power that Microsoft have with its Win32 franchise plus with its Visual Studio Tools plus its Microsoft Developers Network and "categorizing" it as a Development Ecosystem 1.0, and looking at iPhone Form Factor plus Apple AppStore plus the SDK plus the development/publishing model of 70/30 as a possible Development Ecosystem 2.0, then, my doubts is around the following question.

What is, if it exist, the counterpart of the dev-ecosys 1.0 (MS) and what is the counterpart of the dev-ecosys 2.0 (Apple) for the FOSS universe?

As I said before, if we look at Google's Android Platform, it seems to have "almost" all the features to be the equivalent model for FOSS, but to this day, I personally still thinking that there is "something" missing on the Android Platform to put it in direct comparison with the two mentioned models.

And, as I said before, the eco-systemic power that this dev-ecosys unleash for the whole platform is so powerful that it leaves all the "competitors" (that don't have it), into a whole layer "behind".

To conclude, I don't even know if this "counterpart" is possible for the FOSS universe directly or if it can be "translated" in some way, but I do know that the kind of power that it represents cannot be misunderstood. A better comprehension of the subject is necessary for the FOSS world. Its implications are too much important to be ignored.

Any kind of "translation" or "adaptation" of the idea to the FOSS universe is something that is worth considering. If the whole thing cannot be achieved, at least parts of it would be enriching the FOSS universe in unprecedented ways.

Valter