Developers for hot platforms tend to become very excited; the leap onto a platform when it is young, create some blasting applet that gets tons of attention, then get waylaid when the platform owner decides that it wants the attention (and money) that comes with said applet. Everyone has heard of the troubles with Apple and iPhone/iPod development - now welcome Facebook as that lover that turns into Satan.
A good CNet article here: link
I had coffee yesterday with a new friend that told me about his experiences creating some compelling content for Facebook a while back. He went from zero to blasting in just a few months, and the results looked spectacular.
Right up until the day that they turned off the spigot.
This just serves as a reminder that depending on a large platform to hand over cash is a fool's gig; as my friend says, what you are really doing is early market testing for them, and the second they are able to see the monetization option, you are dead. So banking on Apple, Facebook, Twitter or even Google (the "Don't Be Evil" moniker notwithstanding) is a very shaky business deal unless you can find a way for the mothership to buy you before they kill you.
The current landscape is just too creepy. I'm gonna go make some music now...
[ddg]
No comments:
Post a Comment