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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

#51

Post by TheTon »

jimhi wrote: post #29
gjsman-1000 wrote: post #14

I don't understand why the App Store, this small "side business" in the grand scheme of things, is something Apple is worth fighting and dying over. It's literally, a small fraction of their revenue, and yet it grabs 80% of the bad PR and is now under investigation and proposed legislation in the US, UK, EU, Korea, and I think Australia. If I'm Apple, shouldn't it be obvious at this point that losing the App Store mo…

Some quick googling told me a lot of things Apple hides how much it makes in the app store by combining it into their iPhone product segment. "Apple doesn’t disclose how much revenue its App Store makes per year. Instead, since 2013, it has released data points in January that include the total that Apple has paid to developers since the beginning of the App Store in 2008." The low estimates for the app store are $64…

I’m pretty sure the App Store is accounted under “Services” not “iPhone.” $64B sounds about right, but even if services had a 70% margin and hardware had only a 30% margin, hardware would still be the more profitable side of the business at the moment.

https://sixcolors.com/post/2021/04/apples-record-second-quar...

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

#53

Post by routerl »

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.

Your reasoning is only sensible if both parties were on equal footing. They are not. The settlers will offer as little as they can get away with, and the settled will take whatever they can get.

This situation is not symmetrical.

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

#54

Post by mynegation »

jrockway wrote: post #48

> 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_NAT…

Lol, few things trigger my OCD more than misspelled words in identifiers. I legit missed important use case while amending legacy system just because someone decided to have “priveleges” in the variable name. I hope all those ways to spell number 90 are part of the joke.

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

#55

Post by ianlevesque »

jrockway wrote: post #48

> 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_NAT…

You kid but they are a list of “tiers” that get localized.

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

#56

Post by slumdev »

jrockway wrote: post #48

> 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_NAT…

Complete with spelling errors, semicolons in place of commas, shouting snake case, and unnecessary explicit numbering. Definitely enterprise-grade.

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

#57

Post by routerl »

6gvONxR4sf7o wrote: post #35
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.

If you can assume one side thought a settlement is better than an outcome via trial, can you also assume the other side thought so too? > Let's be clear about this: this settlement means that the developers got more than they believe Apple would be forced to provide by law. There is never any other business logic behind these settlements. Im inclined to agree without other commenters that this line of thinking doesn’…

> If you can assume one side thought a settlement is better than an outcome via trial, can you also assume the other side thought so too?

No. The cost factor has higher weight on one side of that equation. Apple is one of the largest companies on earth, with an expert and carefully curated legal team. The other side is a loose association of individual interests.

Unless you believe that the legal process is absolutely fair, and that its outcomes are in no way related to the opposing parties' "legal burn rate". In that case, your reasoning is correct.

But that is not the case.

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

#58

Post by wombatmobile »

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…

> There is never any other business logic behind these settlements.

Never? That assumes hostility or bad faith by at least one of the parties.

On the contrary, when both parties negotiate in good faith, there is often other business logic to be discovered.

By talking through points of difference, the parties have the opportunity to learn about each others strengths and weaknesses, which are the necessary ingredients for better design.

You never know with this. Apple might learn something from smaller devs that their executives didn't know before. The art is in translating that knowledge into a business advantage for both parties that doesn't cost Apple something in its business relationship with bigger shops, such as Epic.

How? The devil is in the details.

Apple executives naturally have more exposure to big shops than small devs. This exercise at least gets small devs on their radar, and vice versa.

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

#59

Post by alfalfasprout »

mynegation wrote: post #54
jrockway wrote: post #48

> 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_NAT…

Lol, few things trigger my OCD more than misspelled words in identifiers. I legit missed important use case while amending legacy system just because someone decided to have “priveleges” in the variable name. I hope all those ways to spell number 90 are part of the joke.

Oh yeah it's especially wonderful if it's too late to fix the spelling mistake lol.

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

#60

Post by vxNsr »

cgearhart wrote: post #36
mortenjorck wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 It really says something that "allowing" businesses to communicate certain information with their own customers via an independent channel was considered a concession in this settlement. I'm still wrapping my head around it.

I can feel your frustration, but it also strikes me as tone-deaf to those very same customers. The most common kind of email I send these days—by orders of magnitude—is “unsubscribe”. I don’t want your emails unless I actively asked for them. (And, no, passively being opted in or being forced to opt in by a user agreement or whatever doesn’t count.) I would happily pay middle men a lot extra to get fewer unwanted ema…

> I would happily pay middle men a lot extra to get fewer unwanted emails, phone calls, or just generally more privacy.

My life has changed significantly for the better ever since I signed up for this: http://33mail.com/AQwZJR3

The real trick is using a custom domain so

A) They’re very unlikely to add it to their disposable email list (and thus block it)

B) If this service ever goes under you can still get the emails you want because you own the domain they’re being sent to.

Yes you could theoretically implement this yourself in gWorkspace or O365 but that sounds like a ton of work and $12/yr is 1000x worth it.

(Disclaimer: that’s my referral link, if enough ppl sign up with it I get a free year of service)

I’ve been using it since March of this year and it’s been wonderful, there was like 30 min of downtime once where the dashboard didn’t work but emails were still getting delivered, and I they answered any questions I had when I reached out to them. So I highly recommend it and tell everyone about it.

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