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ProtonMail CEO calls Apple's forced in-app purchases 'Mafia extortion'

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Re: ProtonMail CEO calls Apple's forced in-app purchases 'Mafia extortion'

#311

Post by tommyage »

simion314 wrote: post #228
pwinnski wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, Apple's practices are far from ideal, your insults aside, but I'm not sure how much of that is relevant here. On this thread at least, nobody seems to have mentioned percentages but you.

This is false, at the moment I wrote this comment the "Apple tax" was mentioned a lot. IMO the fact that is 3%, 30% or 99% is irrelevant . What is important is that Apple uses it's dominance to remove choice from users. I am sorry if fanboy will hurt someone feeling, but if for example: Google (or Apple) would have a new rule that if you want your website to be opened in Chrome(or Safari) and not marked as malware yo…

This is the reason free software is important. Imagine json beeing licensed to pay per file. I do also expect Mirosft to take the word ```open source``` down, because it will strengthen them- but cuts outliners. Gates was great.

Re: ProtonMail CEO calls Apple's forced in-app purchases 'Mafia extortion'

#312

Post by kinkrtyavimoodh »

iamdbtoo wrote: post #189
kinkrtyavimoodh wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"stop them from banning apps from their stores that aren't breaking any laws" It's unlikely to happen in the US because one primary weapon of Cancel Culture is going for the financial jugular, by getting people they dislike banned from payment processing platforms, who all hide behind "we are a private entity" BS.

How is it BS for a private company to say they don't want to take money from a group like Stormfront?

Well, then don't ask for the EU to legislate that payment processors can't drop customers. You can't have it both ways...

Re: ProtonMail CEO calls Apple's forced in-app purchases 'Mafia extortion'

#313

Post by kolinko »

throw0101a wrote: post #273
dmitryminkovsky wrote: post #270

Guessing this is a hugely unpopular opinion here: A mafia engages in racketeering/extortion. They take a game that’s fair, and make it unfair. Instead of creating value, they steal it. Without the mafia, people would retain more value for themselves. Apple, on the other hand, created and maintains an enormous platform. Without Apple, the App Store would not exist. The rules are posted to a webpage and are applied mor…

> Without Apple, instead of creating an app you would have to create an app and the platform and distribution mechanism etc. And? As Brent Simmons of NetNewsWire et al observed: > We started selling over the web in the mid ’90s. * https://www.forbes.com/sites/robpegoraro/2020/07/29/what-tim... He says they'd give up 5% to a payment processor, not 30%. John Gruber: > To omit the fact that there was — dating back to th…

How old are you? Do you remember first hand how it was?

The market for apps on phones was a disaster before the app store. Both for users and producers. 30% was absurdly low compared to other options (again - on mobile, not web).

Re: ProtonMail CEO calls Apple's forced in-app purchases 'Mafia extortion'

#314

Post by searchableguy »

dpiers wrote: post #182
Barrin92 wrote: post #167

Apple is nothing else but the digital equivalent of a landlord extracting economic rents from everyone in the ecosystem. It's time to put an end to it, and while we're at it the same goes for all the other platform owners. We (in this case the EU) should give it the same treatment we gave credit card companies. Cap their rates at 1% or whatever so they can cover the operational costs of their stores, stop them from b…

What about video game consoles? Early in a generation, they are sold at razor-thin (or negative) margins, with the expectation that the manufacturer will recoup losses from licensing fees over the life of the console and that costs will come down in later revisions. If manufacturers lose their substantial licensing fees, they would be forced to charge more upfront for the consoles which is objectively worse for consu…

I don't know how this myth keep perpetuating but ps4 pro was profitable from day one and ps4 6 months in. Hardware has gotten a lot cheaper.

> The European Commission has fined Qualcomm €242 million for abusing its market dominance in 3G baseband chipsets. Qualcomm sold below cost, with the aim of forcing its competitor Icera out of the market. This is illegal under EU antitrust rules.

https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_19_...

Re: ProtonMail CEO calls Apple's forced in-app purchases 'Mafia extortion'

#315

Post by codelord »

"ProtonMail says that Apple forced it to monetize its app".

I stopped there. I have seen a lot of articles like this misleading the public about the issue. Apple didn't force them to monetize anything. It was monetized. Apple told them to use IAP or don't direct to your own payment system in the app.

Either these journalists aren't capable of doing some basic research to understand the issue or are outright trying to deceive the public. Either way is saddening.

Another deceiving post: https://www.theverge.com/2020/10/8/21506995/apple-forced-in-...

Edit: I see a lot of downvotes. Don't downvote! explain how is this "forcing to monetize". Webster dictionary: monetize - to utilize as a source of profit. Forcing to monetize means the app wasn't selling anything and Apple forced them to sell something. This is not the case! Apple forced them to choose between using IAP for payment system instead of their own system OR don't direct users to external payment system from within the app.

Re: ProtonMail CEO calls Apple's forced in-app purchases 'Mafia extortion'

#316

Post by [deleted] »

forty wrote: post #276
dmitryminkovsky wrote: post #270

Guessing this is a hugely unpopular opinion here: A mafia engages in racketeering/extortion. They take a game that’s fair, and make it unfair. Instead of creating value, they steal it. Without the mafia, people would retain more value for themselves. Apple, on the other hand, created and maintains an enormous platform. Without Apple, the App Store would not exist. The rules are posted to a webpage and are applied mor…

> They’re not even close to being a monopoly. They’re a huge company, but there is plenty of competition out there What's the competition for iOS app distribution? There might be competition on the customer side, but as far as I know there are none for the software/app vendors, which is why they can dictate their rules and choose the price (and it's not like customers have each a bunch of smartphones with different O…

[deleted]

Re: ProtonMail CEO calls Apple's forced in-app purchases 'Mafia extortion'

#317

Post by [deleted] »

Drew_ wrote: post #275
dmitryminkovsky wrote: post #270

Guessing this is a hugely unpopular opinion here: A mafia engages in racketeering/extortion. They take a game that’s fair, and make it unfair. Instead of creating value, they steal it. Without the mafia, people would retain more value for themselves. Apple, on the other hand, created and maintains an enormous platform. Without Apple, the App Store would not exist. The rules are posted to a webpage and are applied mor…

Apple has 100% market share of iOS application distribution and therefore has a monopoly on this market. In this position they can freely and arbitrarily govern what is and is not acceptable iOS software as well as how much it costs to produce and distribute iOS software with absolutely no competition that could benefit participants in this market. Allowing Apple to continue exercising absolute power over iOS softwar…

[deleted]

Re: ProtonMail CEO calls Apple's forced in-app purchases 'Mafia extortion'

#318

Post by dmitryminkovsky »

karpierz wrote: post #303
Drew_ wrote: post #275

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple has 100% market share of iOS application distribution and therefore has a monopoly on this market. In this position they can freely and arbitrarily govern what is and is not acceptable iOS software as well as how much it costs to produce and distribute iOS software with absolutely no competition that could benefit participants in this market. Allowing Apple to continue exercising absolute power over iOS softwar…

Walmart has 100% market share of distribution inside Walmart stores, alert the DoJ.

They're driving up costs and hurting the consumer by not letting people into their stores to sell their own warez.

Re: ProtonMail CEO calls Apple's forced in-app purchases 'Mafia extortion'

#319

Post by im3w1l »

reaperducer wrote: post #161
wycy wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> ex: NYT NYT is a great example of this. It took me multiple attempts over a span of 2 days to cancel my NYT subscription. There have been a few times since then when I've been tempted to re-subscribe (their election results tools are great), but remembering how hard it was to unsubscribe, I don't think I'll go back.

It took me multiple attempts over a span of 2 days to cancel my NYT subscription I've had to cancel the Times a couple of times over the years. Telling them that I lost my job only got one offer to extend at a discounted rate. But what really worked well was this: NYT: "Can I ask why you want to cancel your subscription?" Me: "No." It's not on their script, so the operator just took care of it immediately. On the plu…

Wouldn't surprise if it IS on their script. If they do too overtly scummy things bad things will start happening to them. The kind of guy who says "No." is the kind of guy who will chargeback or write a letter to his representative.

Re: ProtonMail CEO calls Apple's forced in-app purchases 'Mafia extortion'

#320

Post by intricatedetail »

codelord wrote: post #315

"ProtonMail says that Apple forced it to monetize its app". I stopped there. I have seen a lot of articles like this misleading the public about the issue. Apple didn't force them to monetize anything. It was monetized. Apple told them to use IAP or don't direct to your own payment system in the app. Either these journalists aren't capable of doing some basic research to understand the issue or are outright trying to…

Care to explain why do you think these articles are deceptive?
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