Hackers vs Casuals
Interesting piece about how a developer came to understand the ‘us and them’ divide in the Android market — 'us' being the types of people who like to tweak their devices ('hackers' - the kind of people who most developers are) and the types who just like to personalise ('casuals' - who change wallpapers, colour schemes etc. — but don't want to play with the functionality of the device.)
(via @jjn1)
I'd argue that this is something iOS developers have been pretty much taught by Apple rather than being left to figure out for themselves; by giving them frameworks and a set of standardised UI templates (carrot), forcing them to consider Apple's Human Interface Guidelines and the App Store's approval process (stick), as well as building the economics of app distribution, using the potential revenue sources to put the market at the top of developers' minds (carrot again.)