Agreed on 2, and I would even go further: While I think there is definitely something odd to the behavior on display here, dramatizing that as a cult is perhaps too far (though I don't know for sure how I would put it myself).
Good thoughts on 1. It does make you wonder how different things would be if apps were priced more similarly to desktop software from the beginning (maybe smartphones would never have caught on?). We're in so deep with 99 cent apps that it's easy to overlook that or take it as a given even though it didn't have to be this way.
99 cent pricing wasn't a done deal in the first year of the App store. I wonder what would have happened if Apple (and/or Google) had mandated a price floor for games and if Apple had allowed free, time-limited demos.
I greatly prefer "paid" mobile games without obnoxious monetization schemes. Conveniently someone on HN made a web directory for them:
Good thoughts on 1. It does make you wonder how different things would be if apps were priced more similarly to desktop software from the beginning (maybe smartphones would never have caught on?). We're in so deep with 99 cent apps that it's easy to overlook that or take it as a given even though it didn't have to be this way.