What makes the software market so fascinating from an economic perspective is that the marginal cost of software is $0.2 After all, software is simply bits on a drive, replicated at the blink of an eye. Again, it doesn’t matter how much effort was needed to create said software; that’s a sunk cost. All that matters is how much it costs to make one more copy – $0.
The implication for apps is clear: any undifferentiated software product, such as your garden variety app, will inevitably be free. This is why the market for paid apps has largely evaporated. Over time substitutes have entered the market at ever lower prices, ultimately landing at their marginal cost of production – $0.

Stratechery vuelve sobre el tema de la aplicaciones, y cómo la tendencia es hacia la gratuidad. Aun así, se puede seguir ganando dinero con el software, como demuestran Oracle, Android o IBM.