Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism

by Yanis Varoufakis

The stroke of genius that unlocked cloud rent for Steve Jobs was his radical idea to invite ‘third-party developers’ to use free Apple software with which to produce applications for sale via the Apple Store. In one fell swoop Apple had created an army of unwaged labourers and vassal capitalists whose hard work yielded a host of capabilities available exclusively to iPhone owners in the form of thousands of desirable apps that Apple engineers could never have produced themselves in such variety or volume. Suddenly, an iPhone was much more than a desirable phone. It was a ticket to a vast vista of pleasures and abilities that no other smartphone company could provide. Even if an Apple competitor, say Nokia, Sony or Blackberry, had managed to respond quickly by manufacturing a smarter, faster, cheaper and more beautiful phone, it would not matter: only an iPhone opened the gates to the Apple Store. Why didn’t Nokia, Sony or Blackberry build their own store? Because it was too late: with so many people signed up to Apple, the thousands of third-party developers were not going to spend their time and effort developing apps for other platforms. To be competitive, Apple’s unwaged third-party developers, mainly partnerships or small capitalist firms, had no choice but to operate via the Apple Store. The price? A 30 per cent ground rent, paid to Apple on all their revenues. Thus a vassal capitalist class grew from the fertile soil of the first cloud fief: the Apple Store.