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

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

#321

Post by hatchnyc »

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.

Yes. Unless you want to use Google Maps. My SO just asked me to fix her phone to give her biking directions again. She uses the "Google" app to look up stuff, as far as I can tell the OS is now intercepting calls to https://maps.google.com and opening them in Apple Maps instead?!

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

#322

Post by fiddlerwoaroof »

tommymachine wrote: post #319
Barrin92 wrote: post #295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

And arguably far more necessary. We have our phones turned on and with us almost 100% of the time we are alive. They can track our locations and hear everything we say. It's more important to control what apps can have access to with smartphones than it was on any prior platform.

Yeah, a difference between my phone and my laptop is that my phone needs to basically be an appliance: it needs to work consistently in all sorts of situations so I don’t get stranded somewhere in an emergency. For this purpose, having a really strict gatekeeper that limits what apps can do is a feature, not a bug.

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

#323

Post by Teknoman117 »

BeefySwain wrote: post #316
vbezhenar wrote: post #291

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What if Spotify would make their app using JavaScript (something like React Native or Cordova) with ability to update bypassing AppStore?

They would reject the update that attempted to roll out that system.

Except that bunches of apps with that model are being accepted now.

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

#324

Post by mcphage »

ApolloFortyNine wrote: post #300
shady-lady wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Had they made Android a walled garden like Apple, they wouldn't have been fined....Android is free, which unequivocally is a net positive for consumers It's unequivocally a positive if they play by the rules. They fell foul of Europe(who was protecting it's consumers). Google's not a charity and made the choices they made to get to where they are. Making Android free ensured they quickly became relevant in the emer…

On Android, I can install whatever I want, replace whatever I want. Hell, I can even install another App store if I wanted. On iOS, you can't do any of that. How is that not infinitely more anti-competitive? Somehow licensing software to other manufacturers makes you more anti-competitive then owning the entire pipeline?

> Somehow licensing software to other manufacturers makes you more anti-competitive then owning the entire pipeline?

Yes, giving out a product for free to kill off existing competitors and prevent potential competitors from gaining a foothold is anti-competitive.

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

#325

Post by [deleted] »

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.

[deleted]

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

#326

Post by mcphage »

donarb wrote: post #184
sxp62000 wrote: post #35

I'd like to see some sort of a breakdown of how Apple uses the 30% to improve the app store. Even if they were spending 15% of that cut on improving iTunes Connect etc. it would've shown.

This is a list of some of the benefits of the App Store. The idea is not that every developer may want/need every feature, but think how much it would cost a developer to implement each one by themselves. - 24/7 worldwide availability, instant payment/download - Easy re-install after deletion, you still own the app even if deleted - Region restriction - Separate app pricing by region - Revenues paid to developer from…

> Easy re-install after deletion, you still own the app even if deleted

It’s not universal. I’ve lost access to several apps that I had paid for—and that’s not even getting into iOS 11 incompatibility.

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

#327

Post by danShumway »

Donzo wrote: post #252
threeseed wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you're being a bit disingenuous here. The point of republishing old programs is to make sure they are running against the latest SDK. This is an important aspect for the ecosystem. It forces apps to work properly on the latest OS as well as support technologies like App Thinning. It's not just to mess you around for compliance reasons.

A website from 1996 will look much the same in a modern version of Chrome. Good luck with your SDKs.

To be fair, browsers aren't always perfect about preserving backwards compatibility for every API.

Miles ahead of native, and hundreds of miles ahead of mobile. For the most part, the web is one of the most future-proof platforms you can develop for, if not the most future-proof platform you can develop for.

But there's still room to improve.

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

#328

Post by scarface74 »

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…

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 in the category did this, they decided that policy was going to change and we were just going to be the first people to deal with it. Since having an email-based account was core to the architecture and the UX, I went through a week of refactor hell to make emails/passwords optional to meet our launch date.

Are you sure that’s the only reason? I can do in app purchases with Udemy that required an account to be used everywhere.

I also know that Hulu, Pluralsight, Netflix, and Evernote all work this way.

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

#329

Post by mcphage »

renjimen wrote: post #155
butterfi wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We already have gatekeepers for books. The publisher who decides what to publish, the book store owner who decides what to stock, and the librarian who selects what book stays or goes. Gatekeeping doesn't seem like much of an argument.

There are thankfully many publishers and booksellers, each with their own ideas of how to do business. If you buy an iPhone you only have one place to "shop"

> There are thankfully many publishers and booksellers, each with their own ideas of how to do business.

There are also thankfully many phone manufacturers, each with their own ideas of how to do business.

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

#330

Post by scarface74 »

Donzo wrote: post #262
Donzo wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A website from 1996 will look much the same in a modern version of Chrome. Good luck with your SDKs.

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…

And then you end up with Windows. Hack upon hack upon hack to keep old software running. It increases the surfaces of bugs and security vulnerabilities.
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