Really at this point Apple control over app store is anti-competitive (and Google over play store), having to rely on community outrage to get stuff like this turned is ridiculous. They should create legislation to control access to all app stores to prevent this rent seeking - force app stores to treat all apps equally according to store defined guidelines (including store owners apps) - any submissions have to be r…
> They should create legislation to control access to all app stores to prevent this rent seeking
You have a lot of faith in 60+ year old (mostly tech-illiterate men) to fix technology they don't understand. Government isn't the solution to this problem. Developers leaving the app store is probably only what will get Apple to change.
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…
He/she meant monopoly over iOS software market, not over the entire smart phone market.
The problem I have is that you make it sound like you have a right to release software for their platform. They opened their platform for devs to make apps. You accepted that offer, read their terms, agreed to those terms, and are now complaining about those terms? I get it that you want to make 100% of the price made from each sell, but that's not realistic. If you sell your product at a brick&mortar store, you don'…
But in the brick & mortar scenario, the negotiation happens on more of a level playing field. Both parties have a reasonable alternative if an agreement isn't reached -- the manufacturer can find another retailer, and the retailer can find another supplier. In this case there's no such competitive market. Granted, 30% would be low for retail, but surely digital marketplaces would charge less if competition was allowe…
Ever tried to negotiate to get your product sold on a shelf? It is very much not a level playing field. WalMart is infamous for beating sellers down to such a low per unit price with the promise of making it up on quantity. Target, BestBuy, and any other big box retailer only follow WalMart's lead. Then there's the fact that if your product doesn't sell well according to their metrics, you are forced to buy it back from them. Now you're hoping Ross will buy it from you!
There are costs of doing business. They can all be negotiated or at least attempted, but at the end of they day you want your product where the consumers are, so you have to ultimately play within their terms. You can make 70% or make 0%.
> [..] 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.
a) It's an opinion that global market share is irrelevant, but I will report the fact that Apple has 58% USA market share.
b) source?
c) But can Apple be a monopoly with 58% of the market and a trillion dollar competitor with 41% of that market...and 75% control of the global market?
A question for the courts, for sure, but it certainly isn't obvious to me.
Makes me think that at some point showing a restaurant menu with prices is soon going to get the ire of Apple for suggesting an offline monetization that they aren’t a part of.
Apple doesn’t monetize physical goods sold in apps. It’s how an Amazon or Costco app is possible
Lots of people don't think "digital" things are real, which lets Apple get away with putting 30% tax on an increasingly large part of the economy.
You can sell a paper book, but an e-book gets 30% Apple tax. You can sell a CD, but an MP3 gets Apple tax. You can sell Carcasone game on cardboard pieces, but an app version must give Apple a cut.
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…
This is off-topic, but your comment on your user base caught my attention. Do you think Android app development can be monetarily worth the time investment for individual developers who would be just starting out? I made two apps years ago and greatly enjoyed it, much more than any development I've done since. At that time, the markets were dominated by the big players. Only the big apps made any $$. Is that still th…
Absolutely, yes, but if you are writing your own apps rather than being paid to write apps for other people, there's a strong luck element as with any entrepreneurial activity. I have six apps out right now, of which just one accounts for 90% of my revenue. Rather than setting out to write apps, I think it's better to think about an app as merely a vehicle to deliver a service, a product, some unit of customer value, from you to your customers. If you have something to offer that is of high value, you can definitely make a lot of money from an app. If you don't, no matter how well designed and built the app is, it is likely to fail.
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.
But others' freedoms aren't. Apple shouldn't be allowed to have this much control.
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…
Getting out of iOS dev was the best career decision I’ve ever made. My baseline level of stress and frustration has plummeted. I also enjoy using my Samsung Note much more than I ever did any iPhone. It feels like the training wheels have been taken off my phone. As developers I think we should all do what we can to nurture the open web. It’s the last truly developer friendly platform.
I agree. There really is nothing more frustrating than spending months working on an app, to get it either rejected on some really minor issue or have to go back and forth with Apple for weeks explaining how things work from a customer and business perspective, constantly on tenterhooks as to whether they will give it the OK nod.
Then you go through the same thing each time you push an update, even for a minor bugfix like amending some foreign language strings, get a different reviewer who hasn't read the case notes (I'm guessing these must exist) and decides to do a deep-dive, or maybe a quick rubberstamp in a matter of hours. It seems like a total lottery from my experience. Maybe they just suddenly added a new clause that requires something being done differently and you aren't up on the latest app store guidelines... It really is so frustrating from a developers mental health perspective.
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…
Getting out of iOS dev was the best career decision I’ve ever made. My baseline level of stress and frustration has plummeted. I also enjoy using my Samsung Note much more than I ever did any iPhone. It feels like the training wheels have been taken off my phone. As developers I think we should all do what we can to nurture the open web. It’s the last truly developer friendly platform.
How does developing for iOS impacts your personal choice of phone hardware? I develop windows and MacOS software, but I am running Fedora.
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.
So tell me again when an “antitrust” ruling has ever been applied to a company with less than 50%?