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432 points nobody9999 | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0s | source
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amelius ◴[] No.46246687[source]
Why didn't Microsoft, back in the 90s, have an app store that businesses had to pay for to sell Windows applications in?

I mean, it's certainly not for lack of business insight. And you don't need the internet to sell applications.

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rimunroe ◴[] No.46247412[source]
> And you don't need the internet to sell applications.

Could you elaborate on what you mean by this? I don't know how you'd sell them otherwise. How do you do you process a payment without a network connection? The only thing I can think of is offering a catalog in the OS which users could browse and physically order stuff from, but I wouldn't call that a store.

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ThrowMeAway1618 ◴[] No.46247951[source]
>Could you elaborate on what you mean by this? I don't know how you'd sell them otherwise. How do you do you process a payment without a network connection? The only thing I can think of is offering a catalog in the OS which users could browse and physically order stuff from, but I wouldn't call that a store.

Not GP but, processing payments absolutely does not require a network connection. Doing so is absolutely not nearly as convenient, but in my adult lifetime it was pretty normal for retailers to pick up a phone, give a customer service rep and/or automated call handler CC info and dollar amounts and get appropriate confirmations.

As for a business without an OS interface not being a "store," that's ridiculous on its face. If that were true, we'd have to call 7/11 or any similar place (like those at most gas stations) convenience "locations with items for sale but not a store, because stores are only places with catalogs in my OS," and "places which sell stuff but aren't stores because rimunroe says they can't be a 'store' without a catalog in their OS."

Touch grass, friend.

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Gracana ◴[] No.46248374[source]
You can probably bet that the dumbest possible interpretation of someone's argument is not what they had in mind.
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ryandrake ◴[] No.46248780[source]
There wasn't an argument. The OP was just asking a (presumably honest) and simple question: How do you do you process a payment without a network connection?

I can understand how someone under, say, 30, might not know how commerce happened before the Internet. My 13 year old can't believe there was even once a world without the Internet.

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1. Gracana ◴[] No.46248890{3}[source]
I was referring to ThrowMeAway's response to rimunroe. "That's ridiculous on its face" is a clue that they meant something different.