Sherlocking

A colloquial term, derived from Apple’s historical practice, for when a platform company builds a first‑party feature that replicates or replaces a popular third‑party application in its ecosystem. Named after Apple’s Sherlock search tool, which incorporated functionality previously provided by a third‑party app called Watson. Sherlocking carries significant strategic risk: while it may generate short‑term revenue or improve the core product, it signals to the developer community that the platform will compete with its most successful partners. Developers who fear sherlocking reduce their investment in the ecosystem, slowing innovation and reducing the diversity of complements available to customers. Platforms that manage this risk well tend to build only broadly applicable features and leave specialized niches to third‑party developers.

Example: When Apple introduced screen time tracking into iOS, several third‑party apps that provided similar functionality saw their usage decline, raising concerns among developers about the platform’s competitive boundaries.