App stores do not democratize technology. App stores limit access to technology to Officially Approved Developers who don't piss off the platform owner.
Democratizing technology isn't fundamentally about Freedom and Openness and Fairness.
It's about making technology useable by everyday people.
You can do that by making everyone an engineer, or by placing arbitrary limits that increase the likelihood of people using the thing, or any number of ways. Limiting access to technology can absolutely democratize it.
The word app doesn't only refer to something in an app store. The article mentions "I'm talking small, stupid applications that serve no purpose other than to take up space in some app store or some .com". threewords.me is such an app that takes up a domain.
"But last time I checked, companies started with one application, sold it, then made a few more" ... like 37signals and their apps.
