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How Apple Kills Indie Developers

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Re: How Apple Kills Indie Developers

#101

For some perspective on apple "killing" developers. Apple is FLOODED with copycat crap apps - 10 different names etc etc. Seriously, the play store used to have lots more of these - maybe now cleaned up. But saying that apple needs to encourage this crap is silly. This is what was killing the play store. The guy complaining here has his "privacy policy" as follows: https://github.com/glushchenko/fsnotes When someone…

More to the point, part of publishing on the App Store is fulfilling the requirements. If the requirements include you must send a video to them of you standing on your head and blowing a party whistle, that's what you have to do. If you don't want to, you're free to not develop for Apple devices. That you get away with not doing it for any amount of time is not an excuse. It's Apple's sandbox; play by their rules, o…

People know they're free not to.

Re: How Apple Kills Indie Developers

#102

For some perspective on apple "killing" developers. Apple is FLOODED with copycat crap apps - 10 different names etc etc. Seriously, the play store used to have lots more of these - maybe now cleaned up. But saying that apple needs to encourage this crap is silly. This is what was killing the play store. The guy complaining here has his "privacy policy" as follows: https://github.com/glushchenko/fsnotes When someone…

> Why it this all apple's fault? I don't think it is unreasonable to ask for a privacy policy. Apple didn't say this was a privacy policy issue, why do you think it is? > One fix, developers should be able to pay $500 to [...] So by default if Apple rejects you and refuses to give a reason, you should have the "opportunity" of paying them $500 so Apple tells you what Apple already knows? What a deal!

Apple is dealing with 2 million+ apps. Some of the developers are not reading the guidelines or actively subverting or trying to subvert apples customers.

If you work in this type of space, your time becomes precious and there can be extreme mismatches between what a developer etc thinks is owed to them and what they have paid for.

I'm pointing out that the developer is not following even basic guidelines. It seems possible that either this or another guideline is not being followed?

Re: How Apple Kills Indie Developers

#103
post #84

For some perspective on apple "killing" developers. Apple is FLOODED with copycat crap apps - 10 different names etc etc. Seriously, the play store used to have lots more of these - maybe now cleaned up. But saying that apple needs to encourage this crap is silly. This is what was killing the play store. The guy complaining here has his "privacy policy" as follows: https://github.com/glushchenko/fsnotes When someone…

It's kind of disappointing to see you and others in this thread being so hostile towards the developer of FSNotes and assuming the worst. I guess I'm a bit biased since I use it regularly, and I really like the business model of an open-source application that is available for free, and is purchasable if you wish to support the creator. It seems like you're ignoring the fact that an actual person (and presumably, fel…

It's disappointing seeing a developer claim apple is out to "kill" indie developers.

It follows a pattern of absolutely over the top language around companies like apple.

Apple's approach has resulted in 2 million apps+ in the app store. I'm not sure given their crappy interface I could find or use even a fraction of them.

Re: How Apple Kills Indie Developers

#104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think they have to want to do anything. This is just the reality of a faceless bureaucracy which isn't accountable to anyone or anything. To the dev, their app is their livelihood— to Apple, it's just a ticket in a queue somewhere.

> This is just the reality of a faceless bureaucracy which isn't accountable to anyone or anything. Please. They're accountable to their one billion plus customers who depend on them to keep as much riff raff as possible out of the app store. They're likewise accountable to the developers who created this market. Apple's process is imperfect. They certainly raise a lot of false negatives. The requirements are sometim…

Sure, but 90% of users just want their email, Facebook, and Netflix. Apart from that, they want a search bar to find other stuff. If you're an app developer targeting that "other stuff" market, Apple has no business reason to care about the individual you or your specific app other than in aggregate.

Re: How Apple Kills Indie Developers

#105
post #17

The AppStore experience is miserable. It sucks the life out of you as an independent developer when they reject your app for vague reasons and you know the turn around to get your app reviewed again is going to be another 1-3 days. The quality control is highly variant, sometimes my application goes through intense scrutiny, sometimes it gets rejected purely for user error on their reviewing end and other times it ge…

You just need to learn how to play the game. Expect you’ll be rejected and politely let the reviewers know that you’ll fix it immediately. It’s just the steps you need to take to become a professional app developer.

Re: How Apple Kills Indie Developers

#107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If the local municipality decided to ban a seller, for reasons unknown, the seller can get a judge involved who will quickly say if the seller was legitimately banned. C'mon. A local municipality is a government, which is supposed to (and usually legally obligated to) act for the betterment of its constituents. Apple is a private company and, thus, not bound by any such obligation.

> A local municipality is a government, which is supposed to (and usually legally obligated to) act for the betterment of its constituents Governments are usually not legally bound to act for the betterment of their constituents, and even if they were that would usually be meaningless as they usually are the entity that interprets the collective interest of their constituents. > Apple is a private company and, thus,…

I guess I didn't make my point very well. Which was: of course you can take your municipal government to court over how they dole out stalls at a market they run. An important principle in most modern legal systems is that various entities are treated fairly by the government. But no such principle exists in a private marketplace, which was created by a private entity to further its own ends (with the usual caveats about protected classes and monopolies being exceptions; neither of those exceptions apply here, though).

Re: How Apple Kills Indie Developers

#109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Developers pay money to access. In the ticket, the developer mentions paying the $99 a year. That's not trivial. Apple is literally in the top 10 largest companies in the world for several different measures. If they're achieving those numbers by giving the ole F'you to developers, that is a problem. Getting locked out of a distribution platform for 1~3 months, in today's world can cost thousands or even tens of thou…

> the developer mentions paying the $99 a year. That's not trivial. If you're running a business, that is very much trivial. I just paid my bank $40 to send a wire transfer to a vendor. It costs $39.99 per month to be able to make apps for Amazon sellers. Out here in the real world stuff and services cost money.

> Out here in the real world stuff and services cost money.

... which means the amount of money spent is _not_ trivial. If you are not policing your costs, regardless of how "trivial," then how are you optimizing your profit? A "cost of doing business" is still a cost on your books. $100 is trivial for a larger business but if you're talking someone small or a side hustle, $100 is something that is not trivial.

Re: How Apple Kills Indie Developers

#110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the developer mentions paying the $99 a year. That's not trivial. If you're running a business, that is very much trivial. I just paid my bank $40 to send a wire transfer to a vendor. It costs $39.99 per month to be able to make apps for Amazon sellers. Out here in the real world stuff and services cost money.

> Out here in the real world stuff and services cost money. ... which means the amount of money spent is _not_ trivial. If you are not policing your costs, regardless of how "trivial," then how are you optimizing your profit? A "cost of doing business" is still a cost on your books. $100 is trivial for a larger business but if you're talking someone small or a side hustle, $100 is something that is not trivial.

In the developed world, $100 per year is just not that much money. You can earn that much from strangers by holding a sign at a freeway on-ramp for a couple of hours. It’s ten hours of work for someone working a low skilled job.
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