Given that a lot of things happen in the browser, I think it wouldn't be too crazy. There are even distros that look like Windows if you're after that. What part of it do you think isn't ready for this scenario? (honestly curious)
They've been crippling the free tier for a long time. And a few years ago they were about to restrict it completely (they've backed out last moment), to a point where many of us migrated to other platforms and never looked back.
> As long as an app is easy to use, people prefer a single look
No, people are used to an UI language, which in the case of iOS is quite consistent across applications. You expect certain things to work (e.g. flicking in from the left edge means "go back"). There are platform-specific patterns and I'd rather have the app behave accordingly rather than being consistent with other OS' version. The real 0.1% here are probably the users of your app with active devices in both Android and iOS!
This just isn't supported by data. Breaking users into two categories: users who develop a universal mental model of software, and users who develop application specific mental models. The latter group is the overwhelming majority. People don't learn iOS, they learn Spotify.
Designing with this in mind annoys the hell out of people in the former group, no doubt. Those people are likely love customizable software so they can make it the same everywhere. It's super common in Linux setups.
Different legal environment. Until 1908, player piano companies didn't have to pay royalties to composers. See White-Smith Music Publishing Co. v. Apollo Co..[1] So, in its growth period, the player piano industry didn't need to acquire music rights.
Then Congress changed the law, to create the "mechanical license" right to play out the song from a storage device.
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