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A top-grossing scam on the App Store

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Re: A top-grossing scam on the App Store

#181

Post by heavyset_go »

Shivetya wrote: post #57
heavyset_go wrote: post #4

Apple and Google are poor stewards of the mobile app distribution market. It's time that their 13+ year stranglehold on app distribution is disrupted.

Do you even understand the volume of apps they deal with? Apple claims 100k a week[0]. How do you propose to handle that? People are complaining about a small number of bad apps getting through and at the same time we have quite a few stating that not allowing people to load up anything they want is bad. Can you imagine trying to sort through the mess if there was no gate keeper because there is an actual chance if p…

> Do you even understand the volume of apps they deal with? Apple claims 100k a week[0]. How do you propose to handle that?

Since it seems that Apple can't handle the problem they've delegated to themselves exclusively, and they prevent parties that might be better suited to solve it from solving it, they should allow the power of markets and competition to develop better, more efficient solutions. That way, consumers don't have to suffer while Apple insists that they're the only company allowed to serve the app distribution market as their customers are being scammed to the tune of several million dollars, or more, each month.

Re: A top-grossing scam on the App Store

#182

Post by unityByFreedom »

I doubt Apple is "incentivized" to allow this as the poster claims. Clearly it makes them look awful.

Apple is the only company who's been able to convince users to pay for client-side software. Android is mostly full of "free" ad-supported apps. Prior to smart phones, users generally could not be relied upon to buy software. Now, you need to break your banking apps if you want to side-load anything, and it's just easier to buy apps. This has greatly contributed to investment in software development IMO. I do want more freedom to develop on iOS and I also understand why they have limitations. It's because they don't want scam-apps to reach customers.

Re: A top-grossing scam on the App Store

#183

Post by WesolyKubeczek »

socialist_coder wrote: post #107
WesolyKubeczek wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Apple should just remove Subscriptions completely and have app developers turn them into consumable IAPs that you have to buy every X months. With my data going poof each time, I'm afraid that's a no. Even merely having to log in again, compared to the status quo, is way worse.

I think you are saying that if you uninstall/reinstall, you could lose your subscription since it's from a consumable IAP. I agree that is a bad flow and something that Apple could fix by still allowing non-renewing subscriptions, and then changing how the free trial works by not triggering a payment automatically after the free trial. Basically, you should only be charged as a result of a user action, and it would g…

No, I’m talking about the actual data or content I created using the app.

Re: A top-grossing scam on the App Store

#184

Post by dan-robertson »

heavyset_go wrote: post #178
dan-robertson wrote: post #176

I wonder what solutions to scams on the App Store might be? I can think of some: 1. Do nothing more. It doesn’t seem to be going too badly for Apple 2. Have stricter review and allow sideloading. Obviously this is popular on HN but it seems to me that Apple would not do this and it doesn’t obviously help. Maybe users would just be trained to sideload (I vaguely recall that there was a time when many apps in mainland…

The solution is competition. If one App Store has terrible policies like Apple's or Google's, then I can just use another one. By being forced to compete, Apple will have to address consumer and developer needs or be left in the dust by their competition.

I don’t think apple would ever adopt such a solution willingly. And I doubt regulations will require them to

Re: A top-grossing scam on the App Store

#185

Post by tracedddd »

Daho0n wrote: post #110
tracedddd wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it would still poison the “Apple experience” to have many AppStores all competing with their own closed ecosystems. The Apple Experience of not being able to install some apps sucks, but its always been easy for me to help someone with an iOS device. That’s not true with Android or Windows. A walled garden ecosystem isn’t for everyone, but it does have value. Instead, I’d like to see Apple be forced to provid…

How does it matter which policy the app store have in ease of providing support? Providing support in Windows (can't talk for Android) isn't hard at all.

Apps in the Apple App Store must meet usability and standardization guidelines, and are deeply integrated into the OS. As a simple example that came up recently, all the payments on the phone go through Apple, so the payment process is the same cross ecosystem. While that is a point of discussion in the monopoly debate, it’s undeniably a simpler experience on the user side - and that translates to easy support. I don’t have to consider it it’s stripe or PayPal or freedompay or anything else when mom calls and wants help buying premium, payments just work.

With an open app ecosystem all guarantees of standardization or not using private APIs or (ideally) the app has been somewhat vetted are out the window.

Re: A top-grossing scam on the App Store

#186

Post by tracedddd »

Apocryphon wrote: post #113
tracedddd wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it would still poison the “Apple experience” to have many AppStores all competing with their own closed ecosystems. The Apple Experience of not being able to install some apps sucks, but its always been easy for me to help someone with an iOS device. That’s not true with Android or Windows. A walled garden ecosystem isn’t for everyone, but it does have value. Instead, I’d like to see Apple be forced to provid…

> I think it would still poison the “Apple experience” to have many AppStores all competing with their own closed ecosystems. I actually think Apple could find a way to navigate it. They already allow one prominent alternative choice on iOS: non-iMessage SMS. If Apple allowed third-party stores, I could see them using their product, UX, and branding mastery to create the equivalent of the blue-bubble and green-bubble…

That’s a good point, I could see it happening, even if it wasn’t social - merely an association with “green” apps being more buggy and annoying to use.

I don’t care for iMessage particularly but I do know when it’s blue bubbles I have a lot more capabilities.

Re: A top-grossing scam on the App Store

#187

Post by dvhh »

haecceity wrote: post #162

What app are they talking about? Am I the only one confused??

Previous thread : https://mobile.twitter.com/keleftheriou/status/1381463196280...

ELI5 :

Application that are using fake review, fake company profile, giving misleading medical information seems to thrive on the App Store.

And it seems that not only there is little a customer can do to warn others ( 1 star reviews that are mentioning the deceptive nature of the application are not immediately visible and are still overwhelmed by the amount of allegedly fake 5 stars review, and Apple or the subsidiary they are using to manage the store seem to have removed a mean for the user to report an issue with the application )

This is aggravated by the appearance that the App Store should be trusted and is free from scam ( even if the amount is relatively small, 0.00N% is still more than 0% ), where it seem that review process only protect the user from security and potential privacy issue.

Most of people would believe Apple press communication and most Apple user would believe that their iPhone is safer than the other phone brand, thanks to Apple keeping an eye for quality and security.

Re: A top-grossing scam on the App Store

#188

Post by orangecat »

cronix wrote: post #35
phreack wrote: post #5

So it's not just a scam, it's a scam pretending to be a medical app? The walled garden method has been proven a failure and needs to go urgently.

I often wonder what it would be like if the iPhone followed Steve Jobs original announcement and stated vision. There was no mention of an app store, at all. Apps were to be, basically, PWA's using html and javascript with api's to hardware. They called it "web 2.0 + ajax" and claimed if you knew how to write apps using the "latest web standards," you could write apps just as good as apples native apps. If you wanted…

claimed if you knew how to write apps using the "latest web standards," you could write apps just as good as apples native apps

Which was preposterously false then and still mostly false today.

Re: A top-grossing scam on the App Store

#189

Post by [deleted] »

pranau wrote: post #129
coldtea wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If side-loading or alternative ways of getting apps onto the iPhone existed, then they could implement far stricter controls knowing that, worst case scenario, you can still get an app onto the iPhone. This is how it works on the Mac. Tor isn't on the Mac App Store, but that of course doesn't mean Tor can't be used on the Mac. And if side-loading was alowed then every big player whose app users "have to have", e.g.…

>And if side-loading was alowed then every big player whose app users "have to have", e.g. Google, Facebook, Abobe, Zoom, Epic, would start their own independent app store (or distribution just for their apps). >Users would have no recourse than to install the app for there (or do without Facebook or Zoom etc). We are already aware of a platform that allows easy sideloading - Android. And most apps on Android are dis…

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