It's a long talk but

https://youtu.be/ci4kbCmEmOI

It's by James Whittaker. Basically people are downloading and using way less apps than a few years ago. Today to get the users to use something it has to be sortof built-in the ecosystem in an other way then simply forcing someone to go search for and download a specific app.

The platform building that functionality themselves. Vertical integration in the customer-facing direction. 90% of my apps are Google-made now.

Similarly, Apple News is pretty crappy, but I still check it now and then because its right there. That's a "pageview" that used to go to a "media company".

What does "functionality themselves" mean? If possible please elaborate a bit? TIA

I think he's referring to the platform itself providing most of the apps.

e.g. Google Play Music replaced spotify for me when I used android. It can now play podcasts (like Apple's podcasts app) and also recognize music playing (like Shazam). Google's Inbox replaced Dropbox's mailbox. Google Map has a lot of features I used to find in Waze, even some extra ones (like Timeline). etcetc

It reminds me of what Microsoft used to do: embrace, extend, extinguish.

"Embrace, extend, extinguish" was Microsoft's strategy for destroying open software interoperability standards. I understand what you're saying, but it's not nearly the same thing.

> It reminds me of what Microsoft used to do: embrace, extend, extinguish.

I guess they still do it on the enterprise level. But they have fallen behind in terms of consumer ecosystem.

I assume they mean most of the features that were once in separate apps are now built into the OS.

by its own uselessness