Yes, but each has their own distinct track-record (each with their own risks/rewards). Twitter earned an early reputation for reliability issues, making it preposterous IMO for a Twitter app developer to be “surprised” when something doesn’t work as expected.
The iTunes store also has its sad track record relating to Apple’s perspective on appropriate content being the only perspective that matters; you don’t find out that perspective until AFTER you’ve sunk your development costs.
So the moral of the story is, if you use a 3rd party infrastructure without bothering to understand its risks, shame on you.
UPDATED: Note that I’m not advocating eschewment of all 3rd party infrastructures: that’s an invitation to reinvent the wheel at every opportunity. I’m suggesting it’s important to be smart about it.
Marco posts an interesting article on not relying on things that are beyond your control for your business.
However, while it’s not an apples-to-apples comparison, couldn’t much of the same be said for writing iPhone applications?
- The app store can be down
- Apple has all the control
- Apple can change the rules anytime
I presume that Marco is treating his time at Tumblr as his primary income, and anything from Instapaper as supplementary income, but that doesn’t largely change the argument, I don’t think.
