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

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

techcrunch.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

321–330 of 398 posts

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

#321

Post by JustSomeNobody »

gnicholas wrote: post #264
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…

> But Netflix is still YAFS (Yet Another Friggin Subscription) that I have to manage on some other platform. I prefer to have Apple be the "overseer" of even Netflix. Would you pay 30% more via the App Store if given the choice?

I would pay more for that service. Not 30% more. 5-10 is more reasonable.

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

#322

Post by addicted »

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.

Even if that’s the case, rewarding Apple for that decision is still the right thing to do because in a free market, companies will make decisions where they earn the most money. If the company that out of selfish reasons is promoting privacy makes the most money, other companies will also shift to a more privacy oriented business model rather than business models which rely on selling people’s information.

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

#323

Post by zaphar »

kderbyma wrote: post #284
sjwright wrote: post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let me be clearer. You are free to make that choice [of running software from more than one retailer] by choosing a different computing platform. Hundreds of models of Android phone are available at every price point, from super-budget to super-premium. It's important to me that I can choose a platform that has a strongly walled ecosystem because I greatly prefer the advantages of it more than I dislike the disadvant…

Sorry but your Argument falls flat....you cannot use android as an option to defend Apple. If apple fails to meet the needs for the user you cannot defend them and say 'but you can choose android' that is not freedom. Freedom within Apple would mean the ability to easily host and run applications as desired. They do not have alveen caught trying to suppress users freedom. Aka jailbreaking and their fight make it ille…

His entire point is that Apple does in fact meet his needs as a user. It meets those needs precisely because of the choices they have made. This may mean that Apple doesn't meet your needs as a user. However, asking Apple to be all things to all users is an impossible requirement.

The market has your back though, because Android gives you a very different experience from Apple.

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

#324

Post by mgkimsal »

1123581321 wrote: post #275
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 sec…

different apple IDs (my wife's and mine). but... wth? there's absolutely nothing I can do about it, and apple hasn't noticed this issue with my id-level accounts (if it's just me, can I be literally the only one on the planet with this issue?)

I just did an install last night of a 100meg app which took 'only' 1 minute - maybe things are improving in to 2019?

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

#325

Post by dkersten »

MrMember wrote: post #5
toufiqbarhamov wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For many things I’d agree, but to their credit Netflix has always made it trivially easy to cancel. They’re one of the few modern IT companies that seem to go out of the way to make joining and leaving fair and easily comprehensible. Now if they’d just make that autoplaying a goddamned option!

I was kind of surprised when I canceled my Netflix account. I had a laundry list of complaints I was going to put in the "why are you canceling" box but they never gave me one. Making it easy and painless to cancel is one of the few things they're still doing right.

After I cancelled last time they offered me a free month, with no obligation of staying beyond the free month. They make it easy to leave and easy to come back.

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

#326

Post by usrusr »

pentae wrote: post #226
paulie_a wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly, I am sick of websites asking me to enable notifications. Apps asking me to allow notifications. At the end of the day, rarely is the app worthy of that sort of interruption. I've absolutely never seen a website that can justify. But they will still somehow notify you about enabling notifications. Companies have a delusional vision that their particular product is that important to their users. It isn't.

For many social media, dating, discussion forum apps where users want to be notified of DM's or replies to their threads push notifications is essential. Just because you don't think its valuable for you doesn't mean users shouldn't have the choice.

Straight forward use case example: any web based messenger. But browser UI for the notification enable request has to be good. The one I know (Firefox) is terrible.

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

#327

Post by beerlord »

tomp wrote: post #36
notatoad wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple's next move is to compete by charging reasonable rates, instead of completely unreasonable ones. Netflix is a low chargeback risk, high volume customer and should expect to be paying 1.5-2% for an initial charge and even less for continued payments on the same card. Apple is charging 30% for the first year of payments and 15% after that. 30% is reasonable for an app from an unknown dev where the platform might…

What do you mean, “refund”? Is there a way to request a refund for an app you bought? AFAIK there’s no way to “trial” an app...

I just get 'This purchase is not eligible for a refund.' This is why people don't purchase games on iOS. I bought Kingdom Rush: Vengenace for $4.99, it turned out to be full of pay2win microtransactions, and I quit playing after 20 minutes. No way to refund, money down the drain. Steam provides a much better service.

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

#328

Post by beerlord »

CamelCaseName wrote: post #21

Was it a mistake for Apply to set the precedent that they will not take action against large tech firms that do this? Regardless of what is a 'fair' fee, what happens when the handful of apps that generate the vast majority of revenue move their transactions away from the marketplace? What is Apple/Google's next move?

Match Epic Games:

12/88 split for all revenue going through the store.

Maintain annual fee to have a developer account.

Charge a $500 'listing fee' to list your app, with a $100 annual payment per app unless certain revenue tiers are met (app is de-listed if not paid).

Allow for easier refund procedures (like Steam) and reduce the minimum price down to $0.50.

Its a mature platform now, time to go for a higher quality level with fewer, more professional apps.

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

#329

Post by sjwright »

dirkgently wrote: post #298
sjwright wrote: post #259

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And people who cannot afford the greens fees can't participate in the Golf economy. The world isn't fair, and Apple isn't obliged to give away their stuff for free. If you can't afford $99/year, then you can't afford the substantial time investment required to learn Objective C / Swift, write an app, submit it, support it, and maintain it.

> The world isn't fair, and Apple isn't obliged to give away their stuff for free. True, and you are not obliged to give pass to Apple either.

Correct. That's our choice to make.

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

#330

Post by sjwright »

zaphar wrote: post #323
kderbyma wrote: post #284

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry but your Argument falls flat....you cannot use android as an option to defend Apple. If apple fails to meet the needs for the user you cannot defend them and say 'but you can choose android' that is not freedom. Freedom within Apple would mean the ability to easily host and run applications as desired. They do not have alveen caught trying to suppress users freedom. Aka jailbreaking and their fight make it ille…

His entire point is that Apple does in fact meet his needs as a user. It meets those needs precisely because of the choices they have made. This may mean that Apple doesn't meet your needs as a user. However, asking Apple to be all things to all users is an impossible requirement. The market has your back though, because Android gives you a very different experience from Apple.

Exactly right, thank you.
Post reply on HN