HACKER Q&A
📣 rezvovmobile

Why mobile software infrastructure never belongs to its owner?


There’s one question that’s been on my mind lately.

Over the past twenty years, we’ve learnt to take ownership of virtually any digital infrastructure.

But why does mobile software infrastructure still almost never belong to its owner? Is there a fundamental technical reason for this, or is it more a matter of economics, ecosystems and market habits?

I’d be particularly interested to hear the views of engineers who have worked on the architecture of mobile platforms or major mobile products for iOS and Android.

Perhaps I’m simply overlooking some fundamental limitation.

  👤 coreyp_1 Accepted Answer ✓
Which part of the mobile software infrastructure are you referring to?

Do you mean, for example, Jellyfin, which reaches out to my home server and is for my personal use? Because that works.

Or do you mean why don't we just write our own apps which talk to our own infrastructure?

Or do you mean that it's just hard to have your own/personal infrastructure? Or that most apps don't support your own infrastructure?

Or are you referring to the fact that the mobile platforms lock down things such as push notifications so that it absoultely must go through them?

Can you be a bit more specific?

👤 brudgers
What are the economics of it for each stakeholder in the existing infrastructure?

How would changes to it comply with regulatory requirements?

Is it as reliable as the existing system?

Those answers are perhaps where the reasons lie.

👤 xp84
This sounds like an interesting question, but really needs clarification on what you mean by “infrastructure.”