Apple apologizes to WordPress, won’t force the free app to add purchases • Hacker News Board

Re: Apple apologizes to WordPress, won’t force the free app to add purchases

#71

Post by thenewwazoo » Sun, Aug 23, 2020, 1:09 AM UTC

userbinator wrote: post #44

7tsfmCAusrQ wrote: post #36

As an app developer myself, with apps on both the Google Play Store and the App Store with over 250K monthly active users, I have become so frustrated with Apple's arbitrary and capricious enforcement of its App Store regulations, its bullying and coercion of developers, its extortionate fees, and its monopolistic anti-competitive practices, that I have stopped updating my apps on the App Store. I wonder how many oth…

I'd like to see regulation that forces Apple and Google to allow any and all app stores on their devices, and the process of installing apps through those stores must be, by law, equally easy and straightforward as through their own stores (i.e., no security warnings or other jank). I'm pretty sure that will have massive opposition, because they are deathly scared of opening their devices back to the general-purpose…

My “freedom” is mine to trade, thanks. It’s not an excuse, it’s an informed choice.

Re: Apple apologizes to WordPress, won’t force the free app to add purchases

#72

Post by motoboi » Sun, Aug 23, 2020, 1:13 AM UTC

7tsfmCAusrQ wrote: post #36

As an app developer myself, with apps on both the Google Play Store and the App Store with over 250K monthly active users, I have become so frustrated with Apple's arbitrary and capricious enforcement of its App Store regulations, its bullying and coercion of developers, its extortionate fees, and its monopolistic anti-competitive practices, that I have stopped updating my apps on the App Store. I wonder how many oth…

Do people really buy android apps?

Re: Apple apologizes to WordPress, won’t force the free app to add purchases

#73

Post by mortenjorck » Sun, Aug 23, 2020, 1:19 AM UTC

makecheck wrote: post #55

What ultimately made me pull out of the Mac App Store was the fact that publishing with Apple meant “app with customizations to accommodate stupid rules”, and $EVERYWHERE_ELSE meant “upload and be done with it”. If you haven’t checked lately, the Mac App Store is a pathetic ghost town for the most part. On iOS I guarantee that if the App Store had even one alternative, many apps would do the same and bail on Apple, a…

I have an allergy to tech analogies in general, but Apple's brick-and-mortar retail analogy is one of the worst.

In any locality other than rural towns served by a single Dollar General, consumers have a choice between multiple retail outlets. If they don't like the choices at one store, they're free to shop at another.

"But Android!" one might say, and once again, the analogy falls completely flat. The switching costs of going between iOS and Android are obviously not remotely comparable from the switching costs of going between Walmart and Target. When you move into iOS town, the only store within a thousand miles is the App Store.

Re: Apple apologizes to WordPress, won’t force the free app to add purchases

#74

Post by bloblaw » Sun, Aug 23, 2020, 1:20 AM UTC

userbinator wrote: post #44

7tsfmCAusrQ wrote: post #36

As an app developer myself, with apps on both the Google Play Store and the App Store with over 250K monthly active users, I have become so frustrated with Apple's arbitrary and capricious enforcement of its App Store regulations, its bullying and coercion of developers, its extortionate fees, and its monopolistic anti-competitive practices, that I have stopped updating my apps on the App Store. I wonder how many oth…

I'd like to see regulation that forces Apple and Google to allow any and all app stores on their devices, and the process of installing apps through those stores must be, by law, equally easy and straightforward as through their own stores (i.e., no security warnings or other jank). I'm pretty sure that will have massive opposition, because they are deathly scared of opening their devices back to the general-purpose…

I'm a libertarian. I believe in personal choice and freedom. But you have tons of freedom here.

Instead of using an OS (iOS in this case) with 25% market share that forces you to go through their AppStore, you can choose to use Android (which has 75% market share) and side load apps to your hearts content.

reference: https://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/mobile/worldwide

Re: Apple apologizes to WordPress, won’t force the free app to add purchases

#75

Post by chromedev » Sun, Aug 23, 2020, 1:23 AM UTC

Google234 wrote: post #58

chromedev wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google allows you to install apps outside the app store and Android is open source

People can use google then. The vast majority of people around the world use android

So people don't need to be freed from Google then, they need to be freed from Apple.

Re: Apple apologizes to WordPress, won’t force the free app to add purchases

#76

Post by xenospn » Sun, Aug 23, 2020, 1:26 AM UTC

edoceo wrote: post #2

I was worried about this. I'm small potatoes but we make an open source app that can connect to self-hosted or paid-hosted services. So if they could have forced WP, they could have easily forced me too, now there is a baseline set. To even get approved we had to make sure the App doesn't offer any sign-up or even billing info at all. And still went round and round for approval explaining how paid services, if any, a…

This is so weird. I've removed and added in-app subscriptions to my app multiple times and never had any problems getting it approved. Even now my app is redirecting users to my website to purchase subscriptions, and never had an issue getting past the review process.

Re: Apple apologizes to WordPress, won’t force the free app to add purchases

#77

Post by rangoon626 » Sun, Aug 23, 2020, 1:27 AM UTC

metalgearsolid3 wrote: post #46

This should be an unpopular opinion but I kind of respected Apple's previous stance, and I'm in a way a bit disappointed they've backed down, but I think they've needed to because they are moving too quickly. 5 years from now we'll likely see Apple Silicon powering Apple's entire new product lineup, and Swift developers will be deploying software across the entire product lineup with minimal effort. Swift is both qui…

The native Facebook app is 250 MB.

Re: Apple apologizes to WordPress, won’t force the free app to add purchases

#78

Post by bloblaw » Sun, Aug 23, 2020, 1:28 AM UTC

7tsfmCAusrQ wrote: post #36

As an app developer myself, with apps on both the Google Play Store and the App Store with over 250K monthly active users, I have become so frustrated with Apple's arbitrary and capricious enforcement of its App Store regulations, its bullying and coercion of developers, its extortionate fees, and its monopolistic anti-competitive practices, that I have stopped updating my apps on the App Store. I wonder how many oth…

> [..] and its monopolistic anti-competitive practices,

iOS owns 25% of the market. How is that a monopoly? You might not like their policies, but as you mention, you have a choice to move to a competitor with a vastly larger market share.

> I'm better off turning to the Play Store or one of the many other app stores that can be used on Android devices.

Doesn't this demonstrate that the Apple AppStore isn't a monopoly? That you have a clear alternative with 74% market share.

> I'd like to see regulation that forces Apple and Google to allow any and all app stores on their devices,

...but why would they do that? There is healthy market competition between Apple and Google. I'm old, so I remember when Windows dominated everything. That was 2007 (or '98 if you wanna talk IE anti-trust case). 13 years later and Microsoft has 0 market share in mobile devices. In another 13 years it is likely a new competitor could supplant the Google and Apple dominance.

reference: https://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/mobile/worldwide

Re: Apple apologizes to WordPress, won’t force the free app to add purchases

#79

Post by partiallypro » Sun, Aug 23, 2020, 1:31 AM UTC

bloblaw wrote: post #78

7tsfmCAusrQ wrote: post #36

As an app developer myself, with apps on both the Google Play Store and the App Store with over 250K monthly active users, I have become so frustrated with Apple's arbitrary and capricious enforcement of its App Store regulations, its bullying and coercion of developers, its extortionate fees, and its monopolistic anti-competitive practices, that I have stopped updating my apps on the App Store. I wonder how many oth…

> [..] and its monopolistic anti-competitive practices, iOS owns 25% of the market. How is that a monopoly? You might not like their policies, but as you mention, you have a choice to move to a competitor with a vastly larger market share. > I'm better off turning to the Play Store or one of the many other app stores that can be used on Android devices. Doesn't this demonstrate that the Apple AppStore isn't a monopol…

a) Global market share is irrelevant, show US share, which is about 51/49

b) Apple makes up the plurality of all store revenues, despite having a smaller install base both globally and in the US.

c) You can display monopolistic/duopoly behavior without having 100% of the market.

Re: Apple apologizes to WordPress, won’t force the free app to add purchases

#80

Post by klyrs » Sun, Aug 23, 2020, 1:31 AM UTC

userbinator wrote: post #44

7tsfmCAusrQ wrote: post #36

As an app developer myself, with apps on both the Google Play Store and the App Store with over 250K monthly active users, I have become so frustrated with Apple's arbitrary and capricious enforcement of its App Store regulations, its bullying and coercion of developers, its extortionate fees, and its monopolistic anti-competitive practices, that I have stopped updating my apps on the App Store. I wonder how many oth…

I'd like to see regulation that forces Apple and Google to allow any and all app stores on their devices, and the process of installing apps through those stores must be, by law, equally easy and straightforward as through their own stores (i.e., no security warnings or other jank). I'm pretty sure that will have massive opposition, because they are deathly scared of opening their devices back to the general-purpose…

> I'm pretty sure that will have massive opposition, because they are deathly scared of opening their devices back to the general-purpose computers they actually are.

Who's the opposition coming from? Apple? They can fart around and waste time and money on appeals, but if they get hit with an antitrust ruling there isn't much they'll be able to do about it.