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Netflix stops paying the ‘Apple tax’ on its $853M in annual iOS revenue

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Re: Netflix stops paying the ‘Apple tax’ on its $853M in annual iOS revenue

#271

Post by kkarakk »

ksec wrote: post #217
mgkimsal wrote: post #199

As long as we're bitching about the 'apple tax'.... I'll toss out an unrelated-yet-perplexing issue I've had with mac/ios/etc since... 2008?: Slow app store speed. It doesn't matter what device I'm on - multiple macbooks, imacs, iphones, ipods, ipads, etc, all running through multiple cable and dsl providers in multiple states over the last decade. Download speed is abysmal. 30meg app update - why does this take 2-3…

They should be fast though? They are on Akamai, LimeStone and their own CDN. It was all very late in 2016 /2017, but things has been much better since then. So to have a slow download speed from Apple, unless it is from iCloud Storage ( which is getting better too) shouldn't have been the case as the likely hood fo slow connection from all three CDN are very small.. Apart from Netflix Servers ( Fast.com, I really wis…

they're not, your claims of their CDN quality are based on what exactly? recently tried to download macos mojave(a 5 gig download) and it was EXCRUCIATINGLY slow. Took 12 hours! For reference i downloaded an 80gig game from steam in 4 hours(i live in india and speeds vary quite a bit but it's still a solid connection)

Re: Netflix stops paying the ‘Apple tax’ on its $853M in annual iOS revenue

#272

Post by jakozaur »

Antitrust laws should be modernized to force oligopolies to charge reasonable fee once you became huge platform.

This happened in many European countries where CC fees are less than 1%, where in USA it is 2-3%.

Same as electricity is natural monopoly with somewhat regulated prices, modern platform distort the economy power. It destroys competition and create winner take all market.

Apple fees should be determine be independent body, but I feel they should not be larger than 10% for one-time purchase and 5% for recurring charges.

Re: Netflix stops paying the ‘Apple tax’ on its $853M in annual iOS revenue

#273

Post by sah2ed »

etse wrote: post #232
lance76 wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This misses the point. It is not equal. I choose Apple's store for one Very Big Reason over almost all other third-party services: I trust them with my financial details. I don't have to 'beg' to later cancel my subscription. I don't have to worry about my credit card being stolen. I don't have to worry about a bunch of sophomoric engineers breaking their own website and creating grief for me. I am in control with Ap…

Am I the only one who is convinced Apple is focused on privacy because its cloud tech is really far behind Google and privacy was a path largely ignored in a data driven world? Don’t get me wrong—I like that they pursue the privacy angle but if the company’s strengths allowed them to compete with modern web/ads services companies, I think they would not have focused on privacy as much.

You'd be hard pressed to find any credible source for your conviction.

Apple's privacy stance is what Steve Jobs believed in, and what Tim Cook has stuck with, because they know that leaving privacy-based decisions up to third-party developers never ends well.

Here are excerpts from Jobs 2010 interview with Walt Mossberg [0]:

“Silicon Valley is not monolithic,” Jobs responded, “We’ve always had a very different view of privacy than some of our colleagues in the Valley.” Apple, for instance, does not leave it up to developers to decide whether to be dutiful about warning users that their apps are tracking their location data, instead forcing pop-ups on users to alert them that an app is tracking them, and to turn off that ability if they don’t want. “We do a lot of things like that, to ensure that people know what these apps are doing,” he added.

"Privacy means people know what they’re signing up for, in plain English, and repeatedly. I’m an optimist; I believe people are smart, and some people want to share more data than other people do. Ask them. Ask them every time. Make them tell you to stop asking them if they get tired of your asking them. Let them know precisely what you’re going to do with their data."

“A lot of people in the Valley think we’re really old-fashioned about this,” Jobs said in the interview, “And maybe we are, but we worry about stuff like this.”

[0]: https://qz.com/1236322/apples-steve-jobs-tried-to-warn-faceb...

Re: Netflix stops paying the ‘Apple tax’ on its $853M in annual iOS revenue

#274

Post by kyriakos »

zerohp wrote: post #190
sjwright wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're complaining about the experience from a developer, which is not what this analogy is about. No, Wal-Mart isn't allowed to run their own business in a company town. As for push notifications—it's not surprising that Apple doesn't allow the HTTP version because it would be chaos for battery life. Besides, any website can offer a totally free native app that simply performs push notifications for your site. You d…

Not only is it chaos for battery life, web push notifications are almost entirely spam. The web should have never added them in the first place. I’m glad that Apple stands against that crap.

Notifications are opt in. I actually find them useful for the news sites and blogs I care about. Forcing someone to make native app just to send notifications is wrong.

Re: Netflix stops paying the ‘Apple tax’ on its $853M in annual iOS revenue

#275

Post by 1123581321 »

mgkimsal wrote: post #199

As long as we're bitching about the 'apple tax'.... I'll toss out an unrelated-yet-perplexing issue I've had with mac/ios/etc since... 2008?: Slow app store speed. It doesn't matter what device I'm on - multiple macbooks, imacs, iphones, ipods, ipads, etc, all running through multiple cable and dsl providers in multiple states over the last decade. Download speed is abysmal. 30meg app update - why does this take 2-3…

Yes, that’s perplexing and unusual-sounding. I’ve had updates take awhile occasionally, but I’ve never seen your issue. Could it be tied to your Apple ID in some way?

Despite your dismissive last line I have to share my data. Here are my results for my currently updateable apps on residential Comcast in the Midwest from the moment “Update” is hit until “Open” appears:

- Strong 117.6MB 15 seconds

- Waze 100.6MB 20 seconds

- Keyforge 44.6MB 5 seconds

Re: Netflix stops paying the ‘Apple tax’ on its $853M in annual iOS revenue

#276

Post by 1123581321 »

kkarakk wrote: post #271
ksec wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They should be fast though? They are on Akamai, LimeStone and their own CDN. It was all very late in 2016 /2017, but things has been much better since then. So to have a slow download speed from Apple, unless it is from iCloud Storage ( which is getting better too) shouldn't have been the case as the likely hood fo slow connection from all three CDN are very small.. Apart from Netflix Servers ( Fast.com, I really wis…

they're not, your claims of their CDN quality are based on what exactly? recently tried to download macos mojave(a 5 gig download) and it was EXCRUCIATINGLY slow. Took 12 hours! For reference i downloaded an 80gig game from steam in 4 hours(i live in india and speeds vary quite a bit but it's still a solid connection)

That’s probably an India-specific issue, which is still annoying and probably just one more reason Apple is not as successful in your market as they’d like to be. The OS downloads always take under an hour in the US, and several minutes for me for at least the last few versions.

Re: Netflix stops paying the ‘Apple tax’ on its $853M in annual iOS revenue

#277

Post by armadsen »

michaelmrose wrote: post #247
lance76 wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This misses the point. It is not equal. I choose Apple's store for one Very Big Reason over almost all other third-party services: I trust them with my financial details. I don't have to 'beg' to later cancel my subscription. I don't have to worry about my credit card being stolen. I don't have to worry about a bunch of sophomoric engineers breaking their own website and creating grief for me. I am in control with Ap…

Apple now controls aprox 10% of mobile marketshare and I believe most people consume most content on screens bigger than their iPhone which can also be used to sign up for Netflix. Nobody much cares about Apple TV either. Apple is taking a sizable chunk of revenue and they don't have enormous leverage. Taking away Netflix from Apple users would hurt Apple more than Netflix and people will happily sign up on via their…

Fair point, although I would bet that the share of Netflix customers using Apple devices is significantly higher than 10%. For one thing, in the US, iOS has more like a 45% share. For another, wealthier people are more likely to own iOS devices (worldwide), and I’m guessing they’re also likelier to be Netflix customers.

Re: Netflix stops paying the ‘Apple tax’ on its $853M in annual iOS revenue

#278

Post by ryacko »

etse wrote: post #232
lance76 wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This misses the point. It is not equal. I choose Apple's store for one Very Big Reason over almost all other third-party services: I trust them with my financial details. I don't have to 'beg' to later cancel my subscription. I don't have to worry about my credit card being stolen. I don't have to worry about a bunch of sophomoric engineers breaking their own website and creating grief for me. I am in control with Ap…

Am I the only one who is convinced Apple is focused on privacy because its cloud tech is really far behind Google and privacy was a path largely ignored in a data driven world? Don’t get me wrong—I like that they pursue the privacy angle but if the company’s strengths allowed them to compete with modern web/ads services companies, I think they would not have focused on privacy as much.

People learn about new things through two ways: through algorithmic recommendations, and through social media / real life social networks.

From what I can tell from recaptcha requests, Google still hasn’t figured out how to teach something to identify storefronts, bicycles, crosswalks, or traffic lights.

Re: Netflix stops paying the ‘Apple tax’ on its $853M in annual iOS revenue

#279

Post by gaius »

etse wrote: post #232
lance76 wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This misses the point. It is not equal. I choose Apple's store for one Very Big Reason over almost all other third-party services: I trust them with my financial details. I don't have to 'beg' to later cancel my subscription. I don't have to worry about my credit card being stolen. I don't have to worry about a bunch of sophomoric engineers breaking their own website and creating grief for me. I am in control with Ap…

Am I the only one who is convinced Apple is focused on privacy because its cloud tech is really far behind Google and privacy was a path largely ignored in a data driven world? Don’t get me wrong—I like that they pursue the privacy angle but if the company’s strengths allowed them to compete with modern web/ads services companies, I think they would not have focused on privacy as much.

Apple doesn’t offer a consumer cloud, what they refer to as iCloud is just a SaaS similar to Dropbox. For their internal requirements they use both GCP and Azure IIRC.

Re: Netflix stops paying the ‘Apple tax’ on its $853M in annual iOS revenue

#280

Post by stale2002 »

sjwright wrote: post #130
stcredzero wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find it hard to blame anyone for leaving any store when there has been almost nothing of value added in years and things are even regressing. That 30% should have gone a lot further It's not really a market if the seller thinks there's no alternatives, and the buyer has no choice but to put up with anything. Works the other way around, too.

It's not a market. It's like a shopping mall on a cruise ship—you chose to go on this cruise, and if you don't like dealing with the ship as a monopoly vendor, you can get off the ship and buy whatever you like from wherever. Just because this cruise happens to be the nicest, most comfortable vessel in the sea doesn't mean you have a right to expect space to be reserved on the ship for competitor's stores.

Wrong. There are multiple alternatives. Such as, by doing what Netflix is doing, and bypassing the whole thing completely.

Netflix will still continue to work on iOS, so it seems like it is working out for them. They very much have the legal right to do this.

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