It is kind of relevant, we have zigbee. Which is a bit quirky, along comes Thread that promises to make it more open, better compatibility between vendors and more modern. If it turns out that big companies use Thread in a way to oppose those goals then I feel that is an attempt to enshittify the entire home-automation ecosystem.
Which must be the holy grail of enshittification, I mean it is one thing to make your own product/service worse. But to make everyones products worse? Jackpot!
Let’s hope the result is that the 2030s are known as the decade when consumers, users of apps, figured out it was worth paying for software from honest developers or companies, rather than getting it for free temporarily and then getting their data used in unexpected ways, enshittification, etc.
A large fraction, if not most, of potential users of software in the world can simply not afford paying any non-trivial amounts of money (by US/European figuring) for software of any kind; they simply don't have such money to spare. Look at median incomes in different countries:
Country-specific pricing is not a new thing, though. After all, if someone in a developing country paid for a smartphone they might be able to also pay for some apps.
Also, you don’t make any money advertising to poor people in poor countries. I imagine if they don’t have money in their wallets, their data isn't worth much either. (Well, except to OpenAI).
My point is that "free software supported by data harvesting and advertising" isn't more profitable in poor countries than software you buy off the shelf. Advertising revenue scales down just as much as disposable income for apps.
Have you tried watching a cricket match in India? The ad frequency is incredible. It’s usually essentially a long series of ads with a bit of cricket mixed in.
If advertising were lucrative, it probably wouldn’t be that way.
