I suspect that people not really paying for certain things has had an impact. Remember when there were a lot of high quality, paid keyboards for Android?
I doubt those were particularly profitable, but there was a lot of innovation back then.
Why pay for a keyboard app when the default keyboard is already good enough?
Moreover, why risk installing a 3rd-party keyboard app when the App Store is filled with adware and malware? All those handy flashlight and camera apps are a Trojan's Horse, why should one assume that the various keyboard apps in the App Store aren't keyloggers trying to steal my login info?
In 2025 I can do mostly error-free blind typing on the Pixel 7 keyboard, with all autocorrect and predictive spelling intentionally turned off. Why would I need innovation?
>why should one assume that the various keyboard apps in the App Store aren't keyloggers trying to steal my login info?
Honestly, you shouldn't.
Theoretically, Apple + Google take a % of all payments that go through their store, with the expressed reason being to "monitor and police the safety of the apps on the app store". You really should be able to trust apps on the official app stores, but I don't trust Apple or Google, so the whole system is moot I guess
>Moreover, why risk installing a 3rd-party keyboard app when the App Store is filled with adware and malware? All those handy flashlight and camera apps are a Trojan's Horse, why should one assume that the various keyboard apps in the App Store aren't keyloggers trying to steal my login info?
And unless the app gets acquired by the big companies, it will eventually turn into malware.
> Why pay for a keyboard app when the default keyboard is already good enough?
That's probably what people would have said before Swype was invented too. But lots of people use that in their default keyboards thanks to the people that _did_ pay for keyboards back then.
Who knows what innovations we are missing out on today just because we've consolidated things down to 2-3 suppliers?
I doubt those were particularly profitable, but there was a lot of innovation back then.