Rethinking the App Store
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Rethinking the App Store
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Re: Rethinking the App Store
#2In other news, i wonder why ios app developers aren't considered apple's employees? In fact someone could sue apple to force them to do so. Their developer guidelines are so strict and hands-on that they don't justify them being used as "gig workers". And apple's statements in this document make the emphatic point that they use those developers to deliver an excellent experience. They even provide their paycheck (and get to keep 30%)
Re: Rethinking the App Store
#3In other news, i wonder why ios app developers aren't considered apple's employees? In fact someone could sue apple to force them to do so. Their developer guidelines are so strict and hands-on that they don't justify them being used as "gig workers". And apple's statements in this document make the emphatic point that they use those developers to deliver an excellent experience. They even provide their paycheck (and…
What about cross platform solutions? web pages? or apps that are interfaces to seperate solutions.
What about apps that are written once that developers still receive royalties from without any updates?
Apple enforce a base level quality that mostly isn't that hard to conform to, some developers do not like this, but most apple consumers do, otherwise, they would be free to buy android phones and sideload everything
Re: Rethinking the App Store
#4I love Stratechery, but I think this one gets it wrong.
Think of App Store as three products:
1. App quality screening
2. App promotion/distribution
3. In app purchasing
Ask any reasonable dev if they are willing to foot a fixed cost to get their app screened, a fixed cost per app download (bandwidth), and variable cost to get their app promoted in the store (not everyone needs this) and they would agree. What pisses people off is Apple’s entitlement to the revenue of a company when there is no value add from Apple after the customer has gotten the app. So Apple is using their monopoly to force #3 on developers at no less than 30% of revenue.
Re: Rethinking the App Store
#5In short, what is needed are new laws built for the Internet, which is why it was encouraging that Congress is holding hearings about these issues, and also frustrating that Apple received relatively little attention.
That's because the Google and FB monopolies are a much bigger problem. If you don't like Apple then there are plenty of other choices. It's much harder to avoid Google or Facebook.
Re: Rethinking the App Store
#6I think Apple have no incentive right now to change anything, although the PR and perception of them is shifting slightly against them. I think there are two things that can happen here:
1. There are more and more cases like wordpress, Hey and Fortnite, and after a while the PR gets so bad that they have to change something, or it becomes so costly to be in the app store that developers will stop developing for it, making the iphone less valuable to users. Of course this will take years if not decades to happen, it would be a really slow process. Fortnite is a really big deal, because I think it does start to chisel away at the iphone market for 12-18 year olds.
2. Government steps in and forces them to do something. But as Ben said, the legal grounds are very shaky. They don't have a monopoly on the phone market, or apps, or anything. Almost all other app stores have fees around 30%. It's very hard to make a strong case to say they're guilty.
Re: Rethinking the App Store
#7I love Stratechery, but I think this one gets it wrong. Think of App Store as three products: 1. App quality screening 2. App promotion/distribution 3. In app purchasing Ask any reasonable dev if they are willing to foot a fixed cost to get their app screened, a fixed cost per app download (bandwidth), and variable cost to get their app promoted in the store (not everyone needs this) and they would agree. What pisses…
I am considering building some paid apps for the App Store.
If I had to deal with payment processors, handling subscriptions, etc. myself there is zero chances I'd do that.
Re: Rethinking the App Store
#8I love Stratechery, but I think this one gets it wrong. Think of App Store as three products: 1. App quality screening 2. App promotion/distribution 3. In app purchasing Ask any reasonable dev if they are willing to foot a fixed cost to get their app screened, a fixed cost per app download (bandwidth), and variable cost to get their app promoted in the store (not everyone needs this) and they would agree. What pisses…
I think you have totally wrong expectation about developers.
- Ask any reasonable dev if they are willing to foot a fixed cost to get their app screened
I don’t think most devs will support this, considering the constant arguments about IOS development requiring yearly $100 fee.
Re: Rethinking the App Store
#9In other news, i wonder why ios app developers aren't considered apple's employees? In fact someone could sue apple to force them to do so. Their developer guidelines are so strict and hands-on that they don't justify them being used as "gig workers". And apple's statements in this document make the emphatic point that they use those developers to deliver an excellent experience. They even provide their paycheck (and…
What about cross platform solutions? web pages? or apps that are interfaces to seperate solutions. What about apps that are written once that developers still receive royalties from without any updates? Apple enforce a base level quality that mostly isn't that hard to conform to, some developers do not like this, but most apple consumers do, otherwise, they would be free to buy android phones and sideload everything
I'd be fine with this argument if they didn't purposely block modern browser features in safari mobile. Push notifications have worked in Safari on OSX for years. They also force any third party browser listed in the app store to use the same crippled safari engine.
They prevent it on mobile because they want app store money. Seems like a clear legal case that no one has bothered to fight or enforce.
Re: Rethinking the App Store
#10In short, what is needed are new laws built for the Internet, which is why it was encouraging that Congress is holding hearings about these issues, and also frustrating that Apple received relatively little attention. That's because the Google and FB monopolies are a much bigger problem. If you don't like Apple then there are plenty of other choices. It's much harder to avoid Google or Facebook.
Avoiding Facebook and Google is trivial; the reason people use their services is they get value from their services.