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WordPressiOS Locked by App Store

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Re: WordPressiOS Locked by App Store

#221

Post by distances »

turblety wrote: post #162
eblanshey wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I haven't even needed to sign up for a Google account since using it (although I have to use an alternative app store). This means you can't use any Google apps like Maps, Photos, etc, right? What Google alternatives do you use?

Yup. I try to use as little Google as possible. Maps does work without an account, and is preinstalled, so I can use it if I want. But I try to use duckduckgo maps as much as possible. Photos works just fine without an account too.

There are many other maps apps, such as HereWeGo for HERE maps, and MAPS.ME for OpenStreetMaps. Both work well and have very good coverage, OSM generally a lot better than Google at least in Europe.

Downsides are that they don't contain such a wealth of place info as Google Maps does, and surely do some tracking too (from which you should be able to opt out thanks to GDPR).

Re: WordPressiOS Locked by App Store

#223

Post by distances »

redwall_hp wrote: post #192
9HZZRfNlpR wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IPhone is expensive, who can spend 1000 euro on a damn phone? Not many even here in Europe. Americans have tons of disposable money, see wealthier and in general like ti consume.

My iPhone (SE) cost $400. The iPhone 11 is $699. Competitive hardware on the Android side is trending more expensive from brands like Samsung.

Competition for SE is the Pixel A line, $350.

Re: WordPressiOS Locked by App Store

#224

Post by JimDabell »

dylan-m wrote: post #99
wwright wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even if it was, that’s definitely not significant. Each engineer is probably paid more per day than that. (I’m not a fan of the flat 30% charge, but developer program fees are not a challenge for any group with a revenue stream if any kind.)

Yeah, I meant per developer. Wires crossed. But it certainly doesn't matter what each engineer is paid. Apple has 20 million registered developers. [Edit: And let's say a third of them pay that fee, which is admittedly probably a stretch. The finer details are not my point here other than to say here's a bunch of money that comes in no matter what] I don't care what those developers are making: that's serious income…

It still seems like you’re confused about what’s being paid here.

There is no per seat / per developer / per engineer fee. "A developer" in this context means an individual person, not an entire organisation.

An organisation pays $99/yr to publish on the App Store. That covers all their developers, whether they have one or a hundred.

In addition to that, you don’t have to pay anything to be a registered developer. It’s free to register as a developer. You pay the fee to publish on the App Store.

Apple having "20 million registered developers" doesn’t translate into the vast sum of money you seem to think it does. The income comes from the number of organisations publishing on the App Store, which is surely far lower than 20 million considering there’s an order of magnitude fewer apps in the App Store than that and publishers can publish many more than a single app with their account.

Re: WordPressiOS Locked by App Store

#225

Post by wp381640 »

giancarlostoro wrote: post #3
mmastrac wrote: post #2

Tweet thread - it looks like Apple is requiring in-app purchases to sign-up for wordpress.com accounts, despite it being an open-source app for any WordPress site: > Heads up on why @WordPressiOS updates have been absent... we were locked by App Store. To be able to ship updates and bug fixes again we had to commit to support in-app purchases for .com plans. I know why this is problematic, open to suggestions. Allow…

This is really sad. On the one hand, sure Apple should be able to make a cut on their app store, on the other hand, they shouldn't be allowed to force apps to do this sort of thing. This will only drive domain prices higher on iOS in order to compensate (in the case of Automattic). If I were in a position where Apple is forcing me to pay a 30% tax, I would literally add "30% Apple Tax" to the check out screen on top…

Counter argument: what would you think of vendors who list products on eBay or Amazon to only drive customers to their own website via the descriptions to avoid listing fees and commissions?

Re: WordPressiOS Locked by App Store

#226

Post by nurettin »

anticensor wrote: post #214
nurettin wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So we have this equation for what the customer sees: dev price + apple comm. + VAT

Did you mean: dev price + apple VAT + real VAT

no, I mean whatever apple takes as commission, plus whatever apple thinks the regional VAT/cost is.

Re: WordPressiOS Locked by App Store

#227

Post by emsy »

mindslight wrote: post #142
kuzimoto wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I am very privacy, open-source, freedom orientated I like to think I am as well. How do you balance this when moving from Apple to Android, where Apple (seems) to be much more privacy-focused and basically at zero for open-source/freedom, where Android is basically the reverse? I think there are ways to make it better (custom ROM, alternative app stores), but you give up a lot of functionality (Play Store, Google P…

You can eliminate all Google concerns by installing a Free ROM (eg LineageOS) with F-Droid instead of GApps. I'm not saying that this is what most people are going to do, and I'm certainly not trying to openwash Android-as-marketed-by-Google. Just pointing out the path exists if you'd like to go down it. It helps to have an extra device, to be less tempted to compromise [with] your main one.

I did this some years ago. The problem nowadays is that I don’t have much time to fiddle with my phone OS. My second issue is that Google systematically designed Play services so that Google free devices are basically neutered. You’ll miss out on a lot of features.

Re: WordPressiOS Locked by App Store

#228

Post by [deleted] »

danShumway wrote: post #149

I've commented this elsewhere, but Apple encouraging users to only upgrade and purchase subscriptions through Apple's payment systems and hiding in-app alternatives and links to other options isn't just about the 30% fee. It also increases consumer lock-in to the Apple ecosystem. If the only thing you're using your phone for is calling, browsing, and buying apps, it's not that hard to switch to Android. You lose all…

[deleted]

Re: WordPressiOS Locked by App Store

#229

Post by donatzsky »

DaiPlusPlus wrote: post #157
gsich wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/guidelines 3.1.3b >your general communications about other purchasing methods must not discourage use of in-app purchase It's vague (probably intentionally) but having a higher price in the app is certainly discouraging compared to the "normal" way.

I wonder if Apple did start requiring the IAP price to be the same as the price everyone else pays - would that definitely be illegal? I have a B2B app in the app-store which only has a login-screen on the app - so hopefully that won't attract Apple's attention, but if they do I was thinking about making our service-fee an Apple Pay ("real-life") purchase with lower fees where we'd mail the customer a brick with an a…

I'm pretty sure they used to require uniform pricing. I remember Spotify getting in trouble for having different prices in the app. But that was several years ago.

B2B apps are exempt from the the IAP requirements.

Re: WordPressiOS Locked by App Store

#230

Post by jariel »

snapetom wrote: post #26
Hamuko wrote: post #4

It's quite amazing how hard Apple is pushing this now with all of the extra regulatory eyes on the subject. I guess they're fairly confident that they're untouchable.

It might be more because Epic is forcing their hand. Up to this point, Apple either just nudged smaller players or secretly negotiated deals with larger ones. With Epic shining a light on this, Apple has to more blatantly enforce this across the board. Now, in a legal setting, Epic can't point out how inconsistent Apple is with this policy.

This is a very good point. If they are not seen to be applying their own rules consistently, it could actually give them legal trouble.
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