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Apple agrees to settle potential class action suit by U.S. developers

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Re: Apple agrees to settle potential class action suit by U.S. developers

#41

Post by JimTheMan »

wombatmobile wrote: post #27
routerl wrote: post #13

Let's be clear about this: this settlement means that Apple is offering developers less than what they believe they would be forced to provide by law. There is never any other business logic behind these settlements. This is just another brick on the "benevolent monopoly" road.

> Let's be clear about this: this settlement means that Apple is offering developers less than what they believe they would be forced to provide by law. Not necessarily. You haven't taken account of costs, or the possibility that the parties both felt this was the best outcome regardless of what (unpredictable) quantum a court may have awarded. Litigation is a poor use of time for both parties and is best avoided for…

Completely agree, especially due to the incredible expenses involved with going to court.

Re: Apple agrees to settle potential class action suit by U.S. developers

#42

Post by wvenable »

gjsman-1000 wrote: post #2

This is the same judge that is doing the Apple vs Epic ruling. I would expect the final ruling on Apple vs Epic to, ultimately, have very similar results to this settlement (or would have). If you've been following Hoeg Law's hours long legal commentary on Apple vs Epic, they believed the most likely resolution would be Apple being forced to remove the "anti-steering rule" which gags developers from talking about alt…

> This settlement has that already.

It sounds like an extremely limited version of that. Email? How magnanimous of them. I'm surprised it was registered mail or carrier pigeon.

Re: Apple agrees to settle potential class action suit by U.S. developers

#43

Post by [deleted] »

wombatmobile wrote: post #27
routerl wrote: post #13

Let's be clear about this: this settlement means that Apple is offering developers less than what they believe they would be forced to provide by law. There is never any other business logic behind these settlements. This is just another brick on the "benevolent monopoly" road.

> Let's be clear about this: this settlement means that Apple is offering developers less than what they believe they would be forced to provide by law. Not necessarily. You haven't taken account of costs, or the possibility that the parties both felt this was the best outcome regardless of what (unpredictable) quantum a court may have awarded. Litigation is a poor use of time for both parties and is best avoided for…

[deleted]

Re: Apple agrees to settle potential class action suit by U.S. developers

#44

Post by jsnell »

liquidise wrote: post #39

> Developers can communicate directly with customers about alternative payment options. Customers have to consent and be given the right to opt-out. This is a huge step forward (though it falls well short of the ideal case) for iOS development. Having the ability to tell customers about other, often cheaper, payment methods removes a substantial barrier for some apps that have high-priced subscriptions. Positive as t…

What do you think the step forward is here?

The developers are still not allowed to communicate about alternate purchase options in the app, they would need to have some other form of communication with the user. Such advertising via side-channels was never forbidden, it's just that it's impractical for most developers to establish that side-channel.

I really have to congratulate whoever wrote that press release. They gave away nothing, and even stated that the policy did not change, but still appear to have convinced a ton of people that there was some kind of a concession here.

Re: Apple agrees to settle potential class action suit by U.S. developers

#45

Post by alanlammiman »

gjsman-1000 wrote: post #8
saurik wrote: post #7

I don't understand... did anything even really change? Like, "more price points"... but that seems like a non-sequitur :/. A big change would be letting developers make it clear to users how to use alternative payment options, but Apple's press release only says via e-mail... which I guess they insist wasn't allowed before?

I don't think the list of price points was the problem as much as it would be nice to have versioned upgrades. (I.e. FileMaker 2, FileMaker 3, FileMaker 4, and so on under the same listing and with access to old versions). Or, you know, a lower developer cut. Or competitive app stores. I'm just in the same boat... how did you make that your issue worth agreeing over? That's something Apple might have fixed on a Frida…

I believe one of the arguments used in the suit was along the lines of "Apple, by making the minimum price (other than 'free') for apps and IAPs 99c, prevents us from charging, say, 37c and this harms consumers and is anticompetitive". I believe it was just to provide a clear, verifiable argument that customers were being charged more than they would be in a free market (whereas other things Apple does are infinitely more serious, but also harder to prove and quantify). I'd guess the agreement addresses that to be consistent, even though I don't think anybody truly cares about the granularity of the price tiers.

Re: Apple agrees to settle potential class action suit by U.S. developers

#47

Post by [deleted] »

microtherion wrote: post #38
routerl wrote: post #13

Let's be clear about this: this settlement means that Apple is offering developers less than what they believe they would be forced to provide by law. There is never any other business logic behind these settlements. This is just another brick on the "benevolent monopoly" road.

Applying the same logic to the plaintiffs, you would conclude that Apple is offering developers MORE than what the developers could hope to obtain through the legal process. In reality, for both sides there is a benefit in reducing the risk of an uncertain outcome and avoiding protracted litigation.

[deleted]

Re: Apple agrees to settle potential class action suit by U.S. developers

#48

Post by jrockway »

> Apple will offer more price points for apps. Today there are less than 100, but the company is committing to increase that to more than 500 options.

I really hope they implemented this as an enum, so someone has to wade through:

    enum PricePoint {
       UNKNOWN = 0;
       NINTEY_NINE_CENTS = 1;
       ONE_DOLLAR = 2;
       TWENTY_DOLLARS = 3;
       NINETEY_EIGHT_CENTS = 4;
       DEPRECATED_NINETY_SEVEN_CENTS = 5;
       TEN_DOLLARS_PER_MONTH = 6;
       PORTUGAL_NATIONAL_BALLOON_DAY_2019_SPECIAL_NINTEY_NINE_CENTS = 7;
       // 500 lines follow.
    }

Re: Apple agrees to settle potential class action suit by U.S. developers

#49

Post by adrr »

routerl wrote: post #13

Let's be clear about this: this settlement means that Apple is offering developers less than what they believe they would be forced to provide by law. There is never any other business logic behind these settlements. This is just another brick on the "benevolent monopoly" road.

Greatest risk is alternative app stores which provides apple with no revenue.
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