It was amusing yesterday hearing Musk talking about "building his own phone" if #Twitter is tossed from the #Apple and #Google app stores for violations of their Terms of Service. Notably, his comment gives us instant insight into his lack of knowledge in this area. Let's review:

1) There was already supposed to be a Tesla Pi phone to be available by perhaps the end of this year. Maybe it will arrive in a fully self-driving Tesla without a human driver.

2) He doesn't actually need to build his own phone. If he wants an Elon phone, he could just rebrand one of the many Chinese Android clone phones (though notably, most of these will not have Play Store access, see below).

3) The phone isn't the problem for a toxic Twitter. The *ecosystems* are the issue. The Apple and Google smartphones ecosystems are built to provide end-to-end security for apps, best effort protection against malware (e.g. Google's Play Store "Play Protect" that scans apps for malware), and so on. If an app is not in the app stores, you can't easily run that app. Sure, Elon could sell a clone phone with his pay-to-play Twitter app already installed, but that phone would not be expected to have access to the Google Play Store for other apps unless they were preloaded also. Now you also need an update mechanism for the apps. Essentially, you have to build an entire new ecosystem.

4) Apple currently locks down their iOS devices tightly against non-app store apps. This will be changing with new EU rules coming into force. On the other hand, Google has always permitted sideloading of (non-Play Store) Android apps by knowledgeable users. Technically, Elon could promote users sideloading a Twitter app on Android (and presumably eventually iOS) to bypass app store restrictions. However, there is definitely significantly increased friction and potential for user confusion in this model.

5) We've heard Elon complain about the cut that the Apple and Google app stores take from app revenues. This of course only is an issue if your app isn't free and/or is charging users for something. This tends to validate the observation that Elon wants to turn all Twitter users into an ongoing profit center -- thus his talk about crypto, banking, etc. via Twitter, and his "anything app" fixation. While he may be able to convince significant numbers of users to pay him continuously for now worthless blue checks, the extent to which large numbers of Internet users will want to participate in a "your entire life belongs to Elon" app/banking ecosystem remains to be seen. -L