I think they didn’t originally, and the problem is that when it started to be one, rather than stop and ponder how to keep the platform healthy in this new reality, they just went “cha-ching” and made it the centerpiece of the post-iPhone-growth “Services Strategy.” https://twitter.com/muellersimhofer/status/1274632148318916608

The big downside there is that now that the App Store is such a big cash cow, they’re dependent on that revenue to keep investors happy, and so must prop it up even at the expense of other things. https://twitter.com/elkmovie/status/1274402451693674496?s=21 https://twitter.com/elkmovie/status/1274402451693674496

One can argue that China was a similar problem for Apple - they shouldn’t have relied on revenue from China as much as they did, and now they have to take increasingly desperate steps to keep China happy even if they harm Apple in other places.

It’s the classic lazy-analyst “numbers guy” versus “product guy” problem, I suppose, with @tim_cook as the Welch/Ballmer “put up great financials but hollow out the company in the process” figure.