And the lemonade stand has the advantage that it doesn't have to compete with every other lemonade stand in the world.
If we had Star Trek style replicators where recipes are protected, how many people would be able to make a living selling lemonade? One of them might sell more, either by chance or because he has a slightly better recipe. So uldn't the money flowing in allow him to spend money improving the product or its marketing, leading to increased sales in a self-reinforcing cycle?
Yes, a few people could make a living selling 'not what everybody drinks' lemonade, but that doesn't quite work that way in software because people do not gain status (yet?) from having that "look how rich I am" app.
> people do not gain status (yet?) from having that "look how rich I am" app.
Actually, some time ago there was this app [1] that was basically just a background image but the price was set at the maximum allowed at the time in the Apple App Store.
Incredibly, it turns out that it actually sold several times due to people were actually "gaining status" just by having it.
In the end, it was a signal that you could spend 1K USD in a stupid background and it made no difference to you. Kind of the most abstract idea of status in a product that I can think off, i.e. I can just literally waste the money and I can prove it sort of thing
If we had Star Trek style replicators where recipes are protected, how many people would be able to make a living selling lemonade? One of them might sell more, either by chance or because he has a slightly better recipe. So uldn't the money flowing in allow him to spend money improving the product or its marketing, leading to increased sales in a self-reinforcing cycle?
Yes, a few people could make a living selling 'not what everybody drinks' lemonade, but that doesn't quite work that way in software because people do not gain status (yet?) from having that "look how rich I am" app.