[HN Gopher] Startups threatened by iOS 14's new features
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Startups threatened by iOS 14's new features
Author : Tomte
Score : 34 points
Date : 2020-03-11 20:52 UTC (2 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (techcrunch.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (techcrunch.com)
| craftyguy wrote:
| Won't someone please think of the, uh, smartphone wallpaper
| startups!?
|
| This article seems like clickbait.
| jpxw wrote:
| Agreed. I couldn't identify even one "startup" actually
| threatened by these changes in the article.
| codetrotter wrote:
| > This article seems like clickbait.
|
| I disagree. Being aware of potential pitfalls like these could
| help the founders of future startups think more deeply about
| their value proposition than if they were not paying attention
| to what is going on with other startups.
|
| And actually additionally after reading this I am left
| wondering, as a customer of Apple products, might this also
| affect me in my personal life? I might be jumping the shark
| here but, I am thinking that if this is the strategy that Apple
| has moving forward might we eventually see them implement too
| many different features? So that they then become unable to
| support all of the features they built and then they either
| leave the features unmaintained or alternatively shut down the
| servers supporting those features and removing said features?
| There is at least one FAANG company known for doing that, and
| the name of that company starts with a capital G.
|
| Back to startup land this then raises the question whether
| Apple might begin acqui-hiring more startups when if in the
| future they find themselves unable to support all of the
| features that they built. And if so, when would be the right
| time to try and get in touch with Apple to raise their
| awareness about your startup, if your startup is building
| something with a set of features that Apple added to their
| software and for which they might end up unable to support that
| feature to a satisfying degree?
| karolist wrote:
| I've been having these thoughts recently that app stores were
| just proving grounds for the corporations.
| ultrarunner wrote:
| It will be interesting to see how AirTags is designed. I love my
| Tile that I got as a gift this last Christmas, but the app
| experience is terrible. I have been kicking around the idea of
| reversing the Bluetooth protocol so I can write my own that gets
| out of my way and stops trying to sell me stuff. I suspect that
| Apple will obviate that desire if AirTags don't end up coming
| with a three-digit price tag.
| api wrote:
| Mobile startups that don't have a substantial value add outside
| just what they do on the phone are just prototyping new features
| for the FAANG companies.
| oarsinsync wrote:
| I guess you're being downvoted because it's an unpopular
| opinion and/or there's some historical precedents that "it's
| just a feature" (eg Dropbox) doesn't always hold true.
|
| That said, I can't see a world where if Dropbox was a startup
| today, that they wouldn't either get acquired, or cloned as a
| good enough native feature, putting them out of business, which
| is ultimately your point.
| brianwawok wrote:
| It's really great. If the startup flops FAANG is out 0. If it's
| a must have they just add it to the next release.
|
| Thinking this has happened for a while. What happened to all
| the disk defraggers when windows added one built in? I think
| maybe they licensed it... it it sure didn't help the market.
| neonate wrote:
| That of course was one of the things that got Microsoft in
| monopoly trouble way back when. I suppose the current players
| are lucky to have a duopoly.
| markkanof wrote:
| Your not wrong, but it's also a bit depressing that we live in
| a world where giant companies can just wait until they see
| something becoming successful enough and then use their
| essentially unlimited resources to copy it and put the original
| creator out of business.
| _jal wrote:
| Tech was exciting for a time, but human history is full of
| gatekeepers demanding their rents and only allowing others in
| their turf if they aren't too threatening.
|
| We've been living through the good parts. It is only going to
| get more "normal".
| mcny wrote:
| This sounds right but still feels wrong. You could argue that
| even Uber (can one imagine a bigger mobile "startup"?) is "just
| prototyping new features for the FAANG companies".
|
| Any manufacturer who sells exclusively (or even primarily?) on
| Amazon.com (think Ring) is potentially an acquisition target
| from Amazon.com
|
| Personally, I don't have any solution but it gets in the way of
| my dream: I'd prefer the mobile platforms (iOS, Android)
| require that independent software vendors submit human and
| machine readable source code and build instructions and have
| the app store build and serve binaries with its own keys (think
| F-droid). Probably opt-in to begin with but eventually, I'd
| like this to be a requirement to be on the app stores.
| mrfusion wrote:
| What technology does tile use? Bluetooth? How will airtags work?
| sky_rw wrote:
| Speculation: This could be powered by the underreported U1 chip
| that included int he latest iPhone models. Ultra-wideband
| positioning power driven by this chip would allow spatial
| location of these tags potentially. Many people speculated this
| was going to happen when the chip was first announced.
| deerIRL wrote:
| Bluetooth. I think AirTags will most likely use some
| combination of bluetooth and the new U1 chip included in the
| iPhone 11 Pro which should hopefully give it more granularity
| than a plain old bluetooth tracker would.
| judge2020 wrote:
| The ultra-wideband U1 chip is going to be the main push
| behind AirTags. As I understand it, with 3+ devices close to
| each other, you can pinpoint the exact location of any of the
| other devices, so I imagine there will be an app for finding
| your AirTags in AR by moving your phone's camera around.
| deerIRL wrote:
| I really hope this is the case. The biggest issue I always
| have with the trackers is the granularity just doesn't seem
| to be fine enough.
|
| Mind you I have never tried Tile, so they may be better in
| that regard, but there is only so much you can do off a
| single bluetooth signal
| colechristensen wrote:
| Tile uses bluetooth. (at least the versions I used a few years
| ago did)
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