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Every year I fill out this survey from Apple, for Apple developers

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Re: Every year I fill out this survey from Apple, for Apple developers

#151

Post by makecheck »

sixothree wrote: post #12
gonehome wrote: post #2

Even as just an app store user I find the ads for competitors extremely obnoxious. Search "Overcast" -> top ad is some crappy competitor (not even a good real competitor, but usually some sort of near-scam). It makes me think less of the competitor and Apple every time I see it, it also seems completely unnecessary. I obviously want the app I searched for. It seems like a feature entirely designed to trick old people…

I'm sick of this. I'm so, so sick of this. I swear every time this happens, I think "oh, there is no app by that name" and then I have to double check make sure I really used the right search term and that the result is actually a first party app. If I were searching for a genre such as "podcast" or "camera" app, I understand seeing paid ads. But when I search for a specific name, I see absolutely no reason whatsoeve…

Among my feedback was a request to restore real search filters.

If one can click an “exact app name” box or similar, the results should always be as intended.

Of course I asked for more (like “no apps with more than $5 in-app purchases”).

Re: Every year I fill out this survey from Apple, for Apple developers

#152

Post by greysphere »

jonas21 wrote: post #40
frenchie14 wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a model for going free -> paid. There's no model for going App V1 -> V2 with payment.

There's nothing stopping you from shipping V2, but keeping the new features locked behind an in-app purchase.

(1) This is difficult. You have to support multiple versions within the same executable. So there is an economic barrier.

(2) And sometimes, it is impossible. An example is supporting new iphonex+ aspect ratios. There's no way post-launch to 'go back' to the old scheme or go forward to the new.

Re: Every year I fill out this survey from Apple, for Apple developers

#153

Post by electricviolet »

hansvm wrote: post #138
electricviolet wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But this only works if you're releasing a new version every subscription period -- and in that case, it's equivalent to upgrade pricing.

If the developer isn't providing upgrades then they shouldn't keep getting paid for a product someone already bought. If the argument is that developers need _regular_ pay days then we have dedicated financial instruments for smoothing an irregular cash flow. In any case, subscriptions aren't directly equivalent to upgrade pricing even when an upgrade is provided every subscription period because in an upgrade pricin…

Oh yeah, I agree with you. I was replying to the above commenter about the Jetbrains subscription system and trying to understand how it differs from a pay-to-upgrade system.

Re: Every year I fill out this survey from Apple, for Apple developers

#154

Post by jollins »

gonehome wrote: post #36
kortilla wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm also not sure the web apps are really competition, when something isn't native I tend to think it sucks and choose something else if possible. Coming from the android world there is a very high bar for a native app for me. I tend to assume the app is garbage if it could have been done just as easily as a web app.

I find this surprising and it makes me wonder if native android apps are just bad? The difference between a native iOS app and a fake app that's really just a wrapped web page is obvious. Native apps are a lot faster. It's possible there is some selection bias here and you only notice the web apps when they're bad, but I really don't think this is the case. Native apps just seem categorically better. If Facebook pour…

Facebook was pouring resources into their HTML5 mobile apps ten years ago. I’m not saying web apps on mobile feel native now by any means, but I don’t think that’s a good example of a big company trying and failing anymore.

Re: Every year I fill out this survey from Apple, for Apple developers

#155

Post by makecheck »

LudwigNagasena wrote: post #30

>Allow us to charge a nominal fee to for major upgrades to our apps. Right now new versions either have to be made into all-new apps, or we have to give away all new versions for free. There’s no way to charge an upgrade free. If I buy a Mac or iPhone from Apple I can trade it in towards a new one when I upgrade, but users can’t do the same thing for software. All the developers I know are suffering right now because…

How do you find those, though? There are no filters. Only way I can do it is to tap through each search result, scroll down to “In-App Purchases: Yes”, tap it, and (99% of the time) see something like “Bucket of Gems: $99.99”) and “nope” back out.

Re: Every year I fill out this survey from Apple, for Apple developers

#156

Post by chadlavi »

saagarjha wrote: post #136
chadlavi wrote: post #127

I agree with all of this, but isn't it possible to charge for updates via an in app purchase?

Then you’re shipping every version of the app at once, I guess?

No. Let's say I'm on version 9 of my app and I release a new major version 10. I think I could use in-app purchases in a new pushed version 9.1 that allows all the people who already have the app to purchase the upgrade to 10. Everyone who buys the app brand new now gets version 10, without that in-app purchase to upgrade to 10.

Re: Every year I fill out this survey from Apple, for Apple developers

#157

Post by on_and_off »

Strongly agree with most of the points, but not all.

Disagreements :

- App updates. I think that the subscription model would be pretty good for apps actually if you could have a micro transaction system. Great quality apps are constantly maintained and often have recurring costs (API, servers, etc). Selling apps for a one time fee does not fit that well in this model. A nominal fee for app updates kinda solves part of the problem .. you just hope that your users love the new feature enough to buy it. It feels a lot like for a lot of apps that would just lead to feature creep instead of good design. I have been hoping to see a micro-subscription model emerge for a very long time. Unfortunately I don't think customers want that and Apple/Google don't seem super interested in pushing it either (Google kinda has that with Google Play Pass, but in typical Google fashion this is dead on arrival).

- I don't think the web is in a significantly different than it has been for the entirety of iOS/Android existences : it has its place but is not going to replace native anytime soon, especially for the "high quality" apps the author talks about.

Re: Every year I fill out this survey from Apple, for Apple developers

#158

Post by intopieces »

pvg wrote: post #32
intopieces wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple should wind down their ads system (iAd) entirely. Advertisements are antithetical to what Apple stands for - privacy, premium experience, doing the right thing for users. They should lower their cut to 10% (not to 20, as the article states) and start offering curated experience bundles like they do with AppleTV.

iAd was shut down years ago. Tracking ads might not align with some of the values Apple espouses but it seems a bit of a stretch to say a company famous for its ads (and often lowbrow-dismissed as 'just marketing' entirely) and advertising are 'antithetical'.

I'd say ads inside apps is antithetical to Apple's brand. Does anyone like those?

Re: Every year I fill out this survey from Apple, for Apple developers

#159

Post by briandear »

seltzered_ wrote: post #147
gonehome wrote: post #2

Even as just an app store user I find the ads for competitors extremely obnoxious. Search "Overcast" -> top ad is some crappy competitor (not even a good real competitor, but usually some sort of near-scam). It makes me think less of the competitor and Apple every time I see it, it also seems completely unnecessary. I obviously want the app I searched for. It seems like a feature entirely designed to trick old people…

> It seems like a feature entirely designed to trick old people. This. I've experienced this exact problem in helping elders install commonplace apps like Gmail.

Why wouldn’t they just use the native mail app?

Re: Every year I fill out this survey from Apple, for Apple developers

#160

Post by on_and_off »

saagarjha wrote: post #135
jdxcode wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think they released the App Store because people asked for it. It just wasn't ready on launch day (or would've had any apps in it)

No, there were jailbreaks that got native code execution and everyone wanted those kinds of apps.

that's how I remember it as well. The first app store on iOS was third party hacks to be able to install 3rd party apps.
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