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Apple-Developer Relations

marco.org

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Re: Apple-Developer Relations

#101

Post by playpause »

actuator wrote: post #69
AceJohnny2 wrote: post #63

It's a two-way street. Despite selling less than 20% [1] of smartphones across the world, its App Store accounts for over 64% [2] of app revenue. Apple and its developers somehow built an App Store that people are willing to spend more money on. If it's purely thanks to developers, why isn't there more revenue on Google's Play Store? [1] https://www.counterpointresearch.com/global-smartphone-share... [2] https://sens…

This feels like such a disingenuous argument. Most of the countries where Android sells well are countries with way lower purchasing power and this would even reflect in sales of all software, not just Android one. Also, Android phones in China are not necessarily using Play Store. Most of the sales of Android phones are at a lower price bracket which might indicate the purchasing power of customers, so they would na…

It’s not clear how this is relevant to the parent’s point. Android phones are also available in rich countries.

Re: Apple-Developer Relations

#102

Post by npunt »

AceJohnny2 wrote: post #63

It's a two-way street. Despite selling less than 20% [1] of smartphones across the world, its App Store accounts for over 64% [2] of app revenue. Apple and its developers somehow built an App Store that people are willing to spend more money on. If it's purely thanks to developers, why isn't there more revenue on Google's Play Store? [1] https://www.counterpointresearch.com/global-smartphone-share... [2] https://sens…

The simple answer is people with more disposable income buy iPhones. Smart of Apple to position themselves this way in the market and build a product good enough to sustain that position, but I don't think that invalidates Marco's argument.

Re: Apple-Developer Relations

#103

Post by cmckn »

post_break wrote: post #13

I used to love browsing the app store looking for cool apps. Now I can't even trust searching for the app by name because sometimes a completely different app shows up, and then there is the case of appstore ads. It's a joke.

This is another way to extract money from developers -- you have to purchase the search ad for your own app in order to show up first when someone searches for the exact name of your app. Not only does this cost feel a bit silly, it can also be substantial. From the blog's author, Marco Arment, who develops Overcast: https://twitter.com/marcoarment/status/1392089383864393728/p...

CPT (cost for a single tap): $2.18

CPA (cost for a single download): $53.43

Re: Apple-Developer Relations

#104

Post by smoldesu »

leokennis wrote: post #90
smoldesu wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because Apple markets and sells a product to the middle class, who are willing to spend that kind of money. Furthermore, the Indian market is almost entirely ignored by Apple, so it's no wonder that they're able to get Android phones into so many hands. The optics of this check out, are you trying to suggest that Apple's App Store is magically more profitable than Google Play, therefore better?

So Apple’s argument stands… Basically, Apple is a wealthy neighborhood. If you sell nice bags or expensive cars, you want to be near the people who can afford them. So you need to rent store space in the wealthy neighborhood. Where rent is higher than in the outskirts. Sure you could try to sell your goods in the outskirts (the Play Store) but you won’t sell as much. To bring it back to non-metaphors. Apple is the on…

> Apple is the only maker of premium phones

So by your own admission, Apple has a monopoly on the premium market, and is using that power to broker their audience for a premium fee to developers who simply want to sell their code to someone who's willing to pay for it?

That is one of the most dystopian arguments I've ever heard, bravo.

Re: Apple-Developer Relations

#105

Post by deergomoo »

Terretta wrote: post #50

CC processing and CDN is disingenuously reductive of the experience users have been subjected to buying digital software other ways. Users don’t choose an app store based on how good the processor or download is, or even on discovery, but on trust. Some portion of this fee, arguably much of it, is a friction and trust gap between one experience and the experiences they have elsewhere. Just as someone doesn’t choose t…

> Users don’t choose an app store based on how good the processor or download is

> normals buy from the app store because they believe it’s easy and pro user

This is iOS, people don't choose an app store at all. People buy from the Apple App Store because there's literally no alternative that isn't incredibly convoluted and well beyond all but technical users.

Re: Apple-Developer Relations

#106

Post by criddell »

mathgladiator wrote: post #10
anonymouse008 wrote: post #6

I'm wondering if webapps are achieving parity with native apps. My intuition says that most of the use cases today could transfer over if they really wanted to. Does anyone have any insight into the major differences between native and web app in 2021? The biggest disparity between webapp and native used to be Notifications - but with Twilio, it appears trivial to make an arguably better notifications user flow throu…

This is why I'm optimistic about WebAssembly, beyond time and investment, what prohibits it from achieve performance parity with native?

> what prohibits it from achieve performance parity with native?

On what axes are you measuring performance? I care about how quickly and smoothly something runs, but also how much battery, memory, and bandwidth it consumes.

Re: Apple-Developer Relations

#108

Post by shkkmo »

tshaddox wrote: post #92
shkkmo wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If Apple's AppStore is really so good, it should be able to withstand a little healthy competition from 3rd party stores. Who knows, a little competition might even inspire the AppStore to become even better?

One could argue that this is a bit like saying “if McDonald’s burgers are so good, they should be able to withstand putting competing restaurants’ burgers on their menu.”

Then one would be making an argument using an analogy that is quite obviously not actually analagous at all.

The more correct analogy is a McDonald's franchise that actively uses every method at their disposal to prevent other fast food restaurants from opening near where you live.

Re: Apple-Developer Relations

#109

Post by smoldesu »

playpause wrote: post #101
actuator wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This feels like such a disingenuous argument. Most of the countries where Android sells well are countries with way lower purchasing power and this would even reflect in sales of all software, not just Android one. Also, Android phones in China are not necessarily using Play Store. Most of the sales of Android phones are at a lower price bracket which might indicate the purchasing power of customers, so they would na…

It’s not clear how this is relevant to the parent’s point. Android phones are also available in rich countries.

Sure, but we aren't talking about Android phones. We're talking about platforms, since that's what Apple wants to sell. The barrier to entry for this platform is money, and many people cannot afford to use their platform, therefore it stands to reason that only people with a modest expendable income will buy an iPhone. It then also makes sense that those same users will also spend more money on the App Store, since they also had the expendable income to buy a "premium" product.

Re: Apple-Developer Relations

#110

Post by tshaddox »

To me, it’s very evident that many app developers provide substantial value to iOS. But it’s also very evident that many app developers (and I would argue it’s the overwhelming majority) have a hostile relationship with iOS customers.

It sucks that Apple’s App Store restrictions cause so many problems for the legit app developers, but I actually wish Apple was significantly more restrictive with what makes it into the App Store. Maybe this is a crazy opinion since I’m a programmer myself, but I would honestly prefer to use an iOS ecosystem with no App Store that allows self-serve third-party app distribution than to use an iOS ecosystem that allows unrestricted third-party software.

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