I don't know how applicable my story would be to current Apple developers, but back in 2022 I posted this HN comment when someone asked "What made your business take off that you wish you'd done much earlier?":
Abandoning Macintosh for Windows. Released software for Mac in 1989, but sales stayed flat. Finally released for Windows in 1994, and sales took off. Time and money spent on marketing + engineering had a 10x better ROI under Windows. Gave up on Mac in 1999.
dlachausse · 2h ago
It’s even worse on Windows, Linux, and Android. Piracy is rampant, customers don’t want to pay for software. Web-based SaaS applications are the only non-Apple platform worth developing paid software for.
JustExAWS · 2h ago
Sherlocking is not unique to Apple. It’s been known for years that if you are filling in a platforms gaps and your product should be part of the platform, it soon will be.
This has been the case since software vendors had plug ins to print landscape on Lotus 123.
In the case of Apple, Connectix claim to fame was utilities like SoeedDoubler (a better 68K emulator for PPC Macs), Ram Doubler (a better memory management utility for Macs that wasn’t a scam like the Windows utilities) and Copy Doubler.
nxobject · 1h ago
Pre-Jobs Apple did license a few Extensions from Connectix... Jobs-era Apple just didn't care, I guess.
Abandoning Macintosh for Windows. Released software for Mac in 1989, but sales stayed flat. Finally released for Windows in 1994, and sales took off. Time and money spent on marketing + engineering had a 10x better ROI under Windows. Gave up on Mac in 1999.
This has been the case since software vendors had plug ins to print landscape on Lotus 123.
In the case of Apple, Connectix claim to fame was utilities like SoeedDoubler (a better 68K emulator for PPC Macs), Ram Doubler (a better memory management utility for Macs that wasn’t a scam like the Windows utilities) and Copy Doubler.