Network Effect

A Second Opinion on Palm Pre's App Numbers

You may be right, for the small customer base that the Pre has, they may be downloading a lot. Who cares in my opinion. The reality is that Apple does have the largest mobile ecosystem and it is now growing itself. The self-perpetuating cycle between buyers and sellers is now in place with the iPhone/Pod/Touch/App Store and it cannot be beaten by anyone except Apple itself. The only thing that will tear this down is poor execution on Apple's part ... and we all know where Apple stands on execution. Unfortunately for a lot of companies and industries, this snowball is going to continue to roll down hill and no one can stop it. Even if Palm or RIMM or anyone for that matter comes out with better technology, it wont matter. The value lies in the ecosystem, and you can't build one when there is already a dominant player in the market. Someone might be able to carve out a niche in a vertical market if they beat Apple to the punch. This is the strategy all these other phones should be going after - build out a mini-ecosystem in as many small vertical segments as they can before Apple gets there.