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Avoid the Apple App Store

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141–150 of 271 posts

Re: Avoid the Apple App Store

#141
There are two funnels: one for apps that get approved the first time, one for rejected apps trying to get approved after doing some changes. If you're in the second funnel, it's much much harder to get approved then if you would submit the app anew.

So you could simply take the app as is, submit it under a different developer account and see if it sails through this time.

Re: Avoid the Apple App Store

#142
post #139

Make web apps. It’s that simple. People complain about the play store and the Apple App Store yet continue to submit apps there that don’t even require native functionality. Wordle went from web app to sold in what, two months? Native apps aren’t required. Make web apps and we need to unite and figure out a common distribution method. When a critical mass is reached - Google in particular - is incentivized to help ga…

The ops app actually does use native features. You can’t set timer reminders in a web app.

Right, yet the core functionality doesn’t really need native functionality.

Re: Avoid the Apple App Store

#143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Comments like these are needlessly cynical. Corporations care about money else they would not have a reason to exist and apple is no exception. What apple sell is something that is accessible to the majority and usable by most. Their sales are testament to this as is the fact that several ios apps are generally higher quality than their android equivalents. This is a natural consequence of the average ios user spendi…

Excuses. Please understand that these are excuses. You are accepting lower quality products and accepting nothing in return, even accepting higher prices. Apple doesn't make the iOS apps that people use and love. They just provide an increasingly crappier platform to put them on. That's what people make for Apple every single time they get burned. Apple lowers the quality of their manufacturing, people don't care. Th…

My main computer is a MacBook from 2013. The battery is a bit flaky now, so I keep it plugged in, but that's some pretty heroic performance.

Re: Avoid the Apple App Store

#144

Make web apps. It’s that simple. People complain about the play store and the Apple App Store yet continue to submit apps there that don’t even require native functionality. Wordle went from web app to sold in what, two months? Native apps aren’t required. Make web apps and we need to unite and figure out a common distribution method. When a critical mass is reached - Google in particular - is incentivized to help ga…

A game where I pop in for 2 minutes once per day and type a few letters is not my standard usecase for computing. In fact it's quite unique compared to anything else I do on my phone.

There's a lot of tradeoffs given up when writing a webapp over a native app. It's not just "it's accessed through the browser"

Re: Avoid the Apple App Store

#145

Make web apps. It’s that simple. People complain about the play store and the Apple App Store yet continue to submit apps there that don’t even require native functionality. Wordle went from web app to sold in what, two months? Native apps aren’t required. Make web apps and we need to unite and figure out a common distribution method. When a critical mass is reached - Google in particular - is incentivized to help ga…

Like the article writer mentioned, this is a very important lesson, but if you're in the 10% of cases where you do require native functionality (like a chat app for example) you're screwed with Apple.

Re: Avoid the Apple App Store

#146
post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I mostly agree with you, I think there are some reasonable arguments for why allowing alternative app stores could degrade the iOS experience, for example: - Security, no matter how many warnings you throw up/hoops you make users jump through some number will be convinced to install scammy app stores and apps and then will blame Apple for it. And I imagine the App store has some deep hooks into the rest of iOS…

That concern of Facebook or Google launching their own third party app stores and being successful at it are probably overblown. At the very least, even if they did do that, they would be unlikely to take their apps off of the existing App Store. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30280457

The points in that post make sense to me, I'm not too worried about the major players breaking away from the app store (although if it's anything like streaming/TV some may try it). I think the more likely scenario is that some smaller App developers break away from the store for one reason or another, and then users are asked to install yet more app stores/use yet more payment providers when it provides no benefit to them, or risk losing their Apps/data.

For all the problems with Apple's rules I do believe some of them at least prevent some of the shenanigans that go on in other platforms and reduce the cognitive overhead of managing software on user devices (which may partly explain why iOS users are happier to spend more money on their devices/apps)

Re: Avoid the Apple App Store

#147
post #35

Every time I read something like this I see it as a clue there's a "secret" cult of AppStore reviewers getting paid by scammer to skip validation and just approve everything they're paid for. Prove me wrong, Tim Cook. If I make a clone app I'm banned. If a bunch of people do the very same app they get approved.

That's not how logic works. The burden of proof that there's a secret cult is on you.

Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof.

Re: Avoid the Apple App Store

#148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, it's not a clear case. That's what the discussion is about. It's overemphasizing the differing features, and Apple seems to also think so. What you and OP think is evidently not what Apple and many other thinks. Please at least attempt to understand another perspective.

But there’s nothing illegal per se about duplicating the gameplay of Wordle. It should only be an issue when, say, assets are stolen, or if the developers use the similarity to Wordle to trick users into making in-app purchases.

Copying apps isn't illegal, but it's annoying and banning the practice seems like a good policy. I think the problem boils down to two things:

1. Apple doesn't actually have a "no copycat apps" policy, instead its an unwritten and inconsistently enforced rule

2. In this case, providing a Swedish version of the game is actually good for users and arguably should be encouraged

Re: Avoid the Apple App Store

#149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, it's not a clear case. That's what the discussion is about. It's overemphasizing the differing features, and Apple seems to also think so. What you and OP think is evidently not what Apple and many other thinks. Please at least attempt to understand another perspective.

But there’s nothing illegal per se about duplicating the gameplay of Wordle. It should only be an issue when, say, assets are stolen, or if the developers use the similarity to Wordle to trick users into making in-app purchases.

Apple cited rejection by copycat, not rejection by copycat due to legality. I don't think the legality argument has any relevance here. I for sure would agree with that if so.

Re: Avoid the Apple App Store

#150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reigning in copycat developers is not a bad thing for the consumer base. Have an original idea and one with more effort than what could be summarized in a youtube tutorial and I don't see why they would reject. I don't want to discredit OP's 'hackathon' night of coding, but making a blog post because you paid the annual $100 and Apple rejects your mud that you threw at the wall hoping it would stick is why I like bei…

I don’t mind the App Store removing shameless copies. But games with distinct features (eg offering Swedish) and which don’t use anyone else’s intellectual property should probably not face such an uphill battle. Further, they only pay such attention to Wordle clones because they were publicly called out on it. Other clones, even ones that violate IP laws, still get a free pass. And it’s not as if they’ve stopped all…

I'm not sure there's an easy solution here. I don't like copycats for more than one reason, but I don't think it's clear what criteria Apple should apply to determine whether an app is sufficiently distinct.

If we considered language differences as sufficiently distinct, would that also mean allowing companies that watch for any new interesting idea and replicate it in language X?

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