Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Netflix is the latest company to try bypassing Apple’s app store

marketwatch.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

301–310 of 482 posts

Re: Netflix is the latest company to try bypassing Apple’s app store

#301

Post by wvenable »

Barrin92 wrote: post #295
gesman wrote: post #285

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Building business that solely relies on constant mercy of someone else's platform is an extremely risky endeavor to begin with.

And virtually unavoidable in the smartphone app space because of the gatekeeping function of the stores. I don't know exactly how we got here given that nobody would have accepted this sort of curation on a desktop, but we somehow just walked into it on our phones.

You have to get there from the start; the app store has to be there from day one. Since that didn't happen on the desktop, it's pretty hard to retroactively introduce one (although Microsoft is trying hard).

Re: Netflix is the latest company to try bypassing Apple’s app store

#302

Post by dmead »

madrox wrote: post #214

I worked on an app that is in the same category as Netflix. A week before launch, Apple chose to reject us in spite of months of meetings and reviews with their app teams and assurances we were in-bounds since we were working with them for launch featuring. It came down to the fact we required an email address and password for IAP so you could bring your subscription to the web or other platforms. While everyone else…

Isn't that illegal? Didn't Microsoft lose a huge case about IE just like this?

Re: Netflix is the latest company to try bypassing Apple’s app store

#303

Post by fenomas »

threeseed wrote: post #282
Donzo wrote: post #262

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess what we're seeing here is a developer/development-first ideology versus a platform-first ideology. Should the developer/development have to resubmit to the benevolent platform? Or should the platform have to support the development that has occurred? I don't really care, but I know that I'd rather develop somewhere where my contributions aren't under constant threat of being wiped off the landscape. Again, go…

You have painted this false dichotomy. In Apple's world: The users come first. Everyone else second.

The policies described in the root comment we're replying to have nothing to do with putting the user first. Apple puts Apple first, even when it's bad for users.

Re: Netflix is the latest company to try bypassing Apple’s app store

#304

Post by michaelmrose »

tommymachine wrote: post #179
michaelmrose wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What would people do if the web backend that safari and third party browsers are obligated to use refused to let you access a particular site? Its trivial to censor if you don't have a right to install the software you prefer.

It's true that it would be technically trivial for Apple to censor web access on iPhones. However, they don't do this, and it doesn't seem reasonable to expect them to in the future. Sandboxing apps / discouraging side-loading are categorically different than going the way of Communist China. Where is the user value in censoring web sites?

What if apple agrees to censorship in order to do business with communist china or a future even more authoritarian US.

Hard to control billions of users that own machines easy to strong arm a few vendors that don't want to be excluded from lucrative markets.

Re: Netflix is the latest company to try bypassing Apple’s app store

#305

Post by michaelmrose »

s73v3r_ wrote: post #231
michaelmrose wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since apple management is 0.000001% of the population why can't we just abrogate the trade off by making them do what we prefer in the name of consumer choice.

By an Android phone. There, you've now exercised consumer choice.

I do have an android phone. I don't think there is any value in having only some workplaces be safe, only some restaurants clean, or only some computers actually owned by their owners.

Re: Netflix is the latest company to try bypassing Apple’s app store

#306

Post by michaelmrose »

xeromal wrote: post #111
s73v3r_ wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just because you aren't having all your desires perfectly catered to does not mean that there is not real choice. It means that, like everything else in life, you have to make tradeoffs.

Exactly. That's what grownups do.

Since we the users are 99.999999% of the populace why do we have to make trade offs in user freedom?

You say grownups I hear that some are too weak willed to stand up for their rights.

Re: Netflix is the latest company to try bypassing Apple’s app store

#307

Post by paulie_a »

dperfect wrote: post #174

> They are being redirected to the mobile web version of the app and asked to enter payment details with Netflix directly. Sorry, but if Apple's policies are applied consistently (I know they often aren't), this won't fly. I have an app with a basic email/password sign-in screen (the app represents a small part of a larger web-based SaaS product). Apple has rejected my app for including anything in the app that even…

I personally wouldn't bother with ios in that case.

Re: Netflix is the latest company to try bypassing Apple’s app store

#308

Post by jjeaff »

briandear wrote: post #280
8ytecoder wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Searching for Netflix on Google, the App Store link is the second link with reviews and a button to install. Right after the main website. Which one do you think a user is likely to click? Is that App store marketing? In an App centric world there are countless other ways where users discovers apps first or even developers/businesses/website want the users to download the app first.

Yes, if you already know Netflix. For pretty much every non-Netflix level app, people are unlikely to be googling for your specific app. The little game TinyWings has made millions and they wouldn’t have made anything of it weren’t for App Store discovery. People overestimate their own importance in the marketplace — discovery matters. If you sell an app for $2 and you have an acquisition cost of $0.60 through, for e…

At the same time, there is a large contingent of apps in the app store that have 0 interest in discovery through the app store.

There are lots of b2b apps that are fully sold on the Enterprise level and the app is simply an add on. It is very frustrating to have to work within the walked garden when this is the case.

Re: Netflix is the latest company to try bypassing Apple’s app store

#309

Post by ec109685 »

dhruvarora013 wrote: post #287
ec109685 wrote: post #260

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You aren’t allowed to charge extra for a subscription in an app in the App Store.

I don't think that's true $11.99 if you sign up on web - https://www.youtube.com/premium $15.99 if you sign up through in-app - https://itunes.apple.com/app/youtube/id544007664 (Click on In-App Purchases under Information to see the price)

You’re right. That is what Spotify is doing too. I really thought they prohibited that, but can’t find evidence of that. Perhaps that was around their bookstore.

Re: Netflix is the latest company to try bypassing Apple’s app store

#310

Post by ripdog »

dmead wrote: post #302
madrox wrote: post #214

I worked on an app that is in the same category as Netflix. A week before launch, Apple chose to reject us in spite of months of meetings and reviews with their app teams and assurances we were in-bounds since we were working with them for launch featuring. It came down to the fact we required an email address and password for IAP so you could bring your subscription to the web or other platforms. While everyone else…

Isn't that illegal? Didn't Microsoft lose a huge case about IE just like this?

Only because Microsoft was in a monopoly position in it's market. Apple isn't, and thus is not subject to the same oversight.

Not that the current administration is going to be performing any anti-trust litigation anyway.

Post reply on HN