Gruber: Apple's Real Moat Was Great Apps, and It's Eroding

John Gruber argues that Apple’s true competitive advantage was never the App Store’s revenue cut - it was that the best software lived exclusively on Apple platforms, which pulled users toward iPhone, Mac, and iPad.

That advantage is now fading. The cause isn’t that rival platforms are improving their app ecosystems. Instead, fewer developers feel the creative or financial incentive to build polished, native-first apps solely for Apple. The result is a regression toward mediocrity across Apple’s own platforms, as cross-platform and lowest-common-denominator development becomes the default.