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Decreasing service fees on subscriptions to 15%

android-developers.googleblog.com

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Re: Decreasing service fees on subscriptions to 15%

#111

Can someone explain the subscription on Google Play and Apple App Store today? I launched an app for a B2B SAAS service that clients paid ten of thousands of dollars a year for. We put the app which was secondary to the web dashboard which the clients used mostly during business hours in the Apple App Store and on Google Play without mentioning any payment in the product description which both allowed. When I first s…

Apple allows B2B to bill outside of the app store. Can't speak for Google's Play Store.

Re: Decreasing service fees on subscriptions to 15%

#112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not all app stores are centralized, Linux has had this figured out for years.

And yet, year of Linux on the desktop never happened. Geeks are very different audience from general public.

I'd argue that these days, the majority of kids' interactions with any desktop computer comes in the form of using school-issued Chromebooks. Those are certainly Linux desktops.

Re: Decreasing service fees on subscriptions to 15%

#113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd really love to know his mindset, because it's completely unfathomable to me. The idea of applications on the phone was something blindingly obvious to me ever since my first Nokia 3410 I had as a kid. The phone had a bunch of distinct functionalities other than making calls, which you could invoke through a menu. Why shouldn't I be able to add new ones? Write new ones myself? Installing custom software was later…

> I'd really love to know his mindset, because it's completely unfathomable to me. He was fixated on having complete control.

[deleted]

Re: Decreasing service fees on subscriptions to 15%

#114
post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'd really love to know his mindset, because it's completely unfathomable to me. He was fixated on having complete control.

And why would webapps give Apple complete control? Someone develops a webapp, I can make my own phone and anyone who wants to continue using all the webapps they were using in Safari on their iPhone can come over and do that in the browser on my phone. People develop native apps for the iPhone, and suddenly leaving the iPhone means leaving behind all those apps.

Locking others out gave him complete control over the phone's native interface and performance, he couldn't do anything about the web, and it was a convenient way to placate those who wanted to develop apps.

Re: Decreasing service fees on subscriptions to 15%

#116
post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And Apple likes to pretend that there are no better payment options. I would prefer to subscribe via PayPal, because it's easier to cancel via them than via Apple's iTunes corpse.

The reason I vastly prefer paying via Apple over other methods is precisely because of how easy it is for me to see my subscriptions in one place and cancel with a click.

I guess one can have subscriptions outside of iOS?

Re: Decreasing service fees on subscriptions to 15%

#117

The google play subscription API is probably the worst I ever had to integrate with. For example * Response leaves out historic data (i.e. a subscription doesn't show it was paused, had a trial, etc. once they're over) * Fetching the subscription state frequently returns data inconsistent with previous results (e.g. the start date of the subscription keeps changing, the expiry date keeps jumping around), so piecing t…

And the API has a huge omission: you can't get a list of all subscriptions! That's something every other subscription API provides and important for many reasons - planning, accounting, marketing, etc. There's no way to export a dump, feed, etc.

I still think I'm missing something, but my StackOverflow question on it remains unanswered (https://stackoverflow.com/questions/48606203/list-all-play-s...).

Re: Decreasing service fees on subscriptions to 15%

#118

I think people are focused on the wrong issue. The fee % is not the problem. The problem is the restriction against using other types of payment processors. I am 100% OK with Google, Apple, or whoever charging whatever price they want to charge for using their app store services. They are, after all, providing all of the infrastucture for software delivery, updates, payments, etc. Not to mention giving you access to…

Devils Advocate: if I’m a widget manufacturer selling my product on Walmart.com or even the brick & mortar store - do I have a say in what payment method can be used to buy my product?

Re: Decreasing service fees on subscriptions to 15%

#119

I think people are focused on the wrong issue. The fee % is not the problem. The problem is the restriction against using other types of payment processors. I am 100% OK with Google, Apple, or whoever charging whatever price they want to charge for using their app store services. They are, after all, providing all of the infrastucture for software delivery, updates, payments, etc. Not to mention giving you access to…

Devils Advocate: if I’m a widget manufacturer selling my product on Walmart.com or even the brick & mortar store - do I have a say in what payment method can be used to buy my product?

You can sell it in other stores as well, can't you?

Re: Decreasing service fees on subscriptions to 15%

#120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Devils Advocate: if I’m a widget manufacturer selling my product on Walmart.com or even the brick & mortar store - do I have a say in what payment method can be used to buy my product?

You can sell it in other stores as well, can't you?

Yep, I can sell it on myWidget.com or at another store.

So how is this different than App Store policies?

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