Before the popularity of the App Store for Apple and Android, many people developed software for Windows (and before that, DOS). It was fairly easy to create software back in those days, requiring only a compiler without the need to get certificates from a device manufacture (Apple) so it runs on your device (like iPhone). Most of the software you create were placed on websites you hosted yourself or placed in free repositories offered by universites and generous places like WinSite. To allow people to find your software, you submit your software to directory listing sites and let search engines find them. Finally, you made sure the software included a PayPal address so you can get paid over the internet.
Today, the hosting of the sofware files, finding the software, and payment for the software are done on an App Store owned by the device manufacturer (Apple, Android, Windows, etc). It is now very difficult to create software because getting it to even run on your device requires permission (signed certificates included in the compiled software) from the device manufacturer. In addition, your software files can only be hosted in one App Store and how you get paid is also locked into that App Store. Although there are some benefits of this (security and ease of use in some cases), it is not very healthy for the software development industry.
Imagine if every regular product that you bought must ONLY be sold and stored at Walmart. This monopoly position means every product manufacturer is at the whim of Walmart's policies, including product placement and promotion, storage prices, and percentage cut from sales, etc. While it is easy to buy at Walmart and there is the ease of getting everything in one store, imagine there are no other stores that can sell similar products elsewhere. There would be no price or product competition from other stores, no stores catering to niche products, no other place to find your product.
The biggest problem with App Stores is that they have very restrictive policies, and they have a negative effect on the software development industry as a whole. Many people are turned off to software development because the entry point is overly complex and in some cases cost prohibitive. To compile software for the iPhone, you need to own a Mac computer and pay a yearly fee to Apple. You even need a credit card (which means no kids under 18), and the country listed on the credit card address also determines what you can and cannot do with the device. Your created software will not get exposed to any meaningful audience unless you pay Apple a large fee to show it on top of the App Store when people open it or search for keywords. But the biggest problem is getting certificates from Apple so that software you develop can even run on devices you bought and own. The hardware is also locked down so tight that even accessing simple stuff (2D pixel buffer of the screen) must go through complex 3D API layers that are very high level that calls even more secret lower level functions not released to the public. The device you develop on is really at the whim of the device manufacturer. Gone are the days where people can simply compile a hello world on the screen to learn software programming because now they have to own a MacOS computer, pay apple $99 a year, and get a signed certificate to include in any compiled software to run the on device. It is even harder to actually release the software and get exposure because how you get paid is through the App store and how it is found is also on the App store, competing with everyone that is using the same keywords to find your software.
Maybe one day all device manufactures will allow people to simply press a button to let the device know that this device will be used for software developement. All the security layers will vanish and the software development industry can get kickstarted again. Let people develop software for their devices as they wish, remove all the restrictions. It can even lead to new operating systems and languages. The current environment is too restrictive and actually hampers the software development industry. There are no innovations anymore. Everyone must compile using the same language (the current one promoted by Apple is Swift), and must use the same API to do stuff (all controlled by Apple). There are no competing languages, operating systems, new ways to do things, hard to get young people excited to get into programming. Since Apple already got your money when you bought the device, they shouldn't care if you find other ways to install sofware on the device, or even wipe the device and do other things with the device other than run official Apple software. The software industry is a dying art, a niche area only for people working at big companies that can afford to dedicate their resources molding people to develop in tightly controlled software enviroments, similar to the old Mainframe era.
This webpage is dedicated to the past era when software development was truly free and full of creativity, not hampered by company overlords. Dedicated to the time when you didn't need to get permission to learn and explore, where sparks of genius can flower in many places around the world. It is sad that one of the most innovative space is no longer a friendly place.
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