Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Developer account removed by Apple

seraleev.notion.site

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

131–140 of 457 posts

Re: Developer account removed by Apple

#131

Post by lotsofpulp »

RagnarD wrote: post #122

I developed several iPhone apps. While I didn't run into something as serious as this, I have a hard time seeing how any company could invest serious money into developing an app that Apple - in its sole judgement - can capriciously reject. I am greatly in favor of competing app stores and the unequivocal ability to "sideload" any apps (at the user's risk of course.) I suspect Apple themselves don't realize that thei…

>I have a hard time seeing how any company could invest serious money into developing an app that Apple - in its sole judgement - can capriciously reject.

I would bet that bigger companies with an influential base of customers are not capriciously rejected. A major airline or bank or some other business where Apple would catch PR flak is probably going to get personalized treatment.

Re: Developer account removed by Apple

#132

Post by lencastre »

mariopt wrote: post #36
Manuel_D wrote: post #8

If the fake reviews are indeed the reason why the apps were taken off the store, that does strike me as an inappropriate action. Take down the reviews, yes. But closing the developer account creates a big opportunity to eliminate competition by buying fake reviews for your competitors. There's also nothing developers can do to prevent this since they can't curate or reject reviews from what I know. That said, other c…

You can consider, virtually, all reviews fake in any mobile store. Sometimes I read the reviews and wonder: Who on earth wrote this? Honestly, it's up to Apple to moderate the reviews and detect review farms. If posting fake reviews is all it takes to take down my competitors out of the store, it's game on.

I believe you need to own the app to review it, so there is a cost to consider. Maybe it’s freemium or just a dollar but regardless you need to create an account, buy it, review it,…

Re: Developer account removed by Apple

#133

Post by Keyframe »

judge2020 wrote: post #98
echelon wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I guess the App Store fraud prevention team hasn’t necessarily found a good solution yet. The most essential device of the century is owned by two companies. The ability for them to completely control software and business activities on top of something that is almost as essential as public transportation is appalling. The DOJ needs to remove the "app store" racket for essential computing devices. Software needs to…

One of the main draws of iOS is its resistance to malware, adware, and outright scam apps. Requiring third party app stores disproportionately harms those that purchased the device specifically for these purposes (such as people at higher risks of being targeted by nation state actors). And this isn’t something that can be addressed with a new uber-secure product just for these people, because the EU will deem it a g…

One of the main draws of iOS is its resistance to malware, adware, and outright scam apps.

Have we visited the same appstore? Just few days ago I tried to find a puzzle game for my kid and myself to play together. A whole bunch of them, from top results, resulted in games which had shady dark UI initial screens trying to get to $14.99 or similar monthly subscriptions. Eventually I caved in to arcade sub because I couldn't trust any of the results or find a normal paid one (once). Scammy at best.

Re: Developer account removed by Apple

#134

Post by seanvelasco »

madeofpalk wrote: post #28
mortallywounded wrote: post #4

Something feels off... those apps don't seem like 33K/MRR worthy. I suspect some kind of manipulation was being done to... help?

I've never seen these apps before. I have no idea who this company is. But these icons, names, and type of apps I typically associate with trash behaviour I wish was removed from the app store. Like a Video Joiner Pro that lets you concat two videos, has a 1 week free trial and then $20/month subscription. Edit: Ahh yup, that's exactly what this is > A simple and convenient collage maker will help you make cool video…

this is exactly what i feel about most of the apps on the app store over the years, but i was never able to actually articulate it. very eloquently put!

Re: Developer account removed by Apple

#135

Post by freedomben »

moralestapia wrote: post #97
Manuel_D wrote: post #8

If the fake reviews are indeed the reason why the apps were taken off the store, that does strike me as an inappropriate action. Take down the reviews, yes. But closing the developer account creates a big opportunity to eliminate competition by buying fake reviews for your competitors. There's also nothing developers can do to prevent this since they can't curate or reject reviews from what I know. That said, other c…

[flagged]

I'm not GP, but your condescending attitude is not only rude but wrong.

Money laundering through things like app sales is a classic technique. It's the modern version of buying "art" that isn't valuable at insane prices. Laundering through an app store incurs a 30% haircut, but the funds are very clean afterward and every money laundering technique is going to cost that much or more. It is not unusual for the laundered funds to be 40% of what they started with.

Pointing out that money laundering is a possibility is fair. I very much dislike Apple, but if it is a potential money laundering situation then their hands have been tied by the US government.

Re: Developer account removed by Apple

#136

Post by RajT88 »

namanyayg wrote: post #17
mortallywounded wrote: post #4

Something feels off... those apps don't seem like 33K/MRR worthy. I suspect some kind of manipulation was being done to... help?

One way apps get high MRR is by offering free trial for a small period, then charging for subscriptions later The user forgets about the subscriptions and ends up paying for a while before cancelling This is probably what apple means by "bait and switch" Of course I can't say if these app did this or not, I am just saying this is a common practice

> I am just saying this is a common practice

This is how AppleTV works. I assume Apple does this with other services too.

Re: Developer account removed by Apple

#137

Post by [deleted] »

moralestapia wrote: post #126
quickthrowman wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Could you enlighten us? How does one launder money through some iOS apps? It’s super obvious, but here you go: Step one: Trick old people into sending you iTunes gift cards or buy iTunes gift cards with stolen credit cards Step two: Get an app in the App Store and use the iTunes gift cards to buy it many many times Step three: Receive 70% of the money you laundered through the App Store from Apple. Pay taxes on it,…

Funny how a "super obvious" thing is out of your reach, though ... That is not money laundering. Come on guys, read a bit, don't just parrot back what you see on Netflix.

[deleted]

Re: Developer account removed by Apple

#138

Post by lapcat »

judge2020 wrote: post #98
echelon wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I guess the App Store fraud prevention team hasn’t necessarily found a good solution yet. The most essential device of the century is owned by two companies. The ability for them to completely control software and business activities on top of something that is almost as essential as public transportation is appalling. The DOJ needs to remove the "app store" racket for essential computing devices. Software needs to…

One of the main draws of iOS is its resistance to malware, adware, and outright scam apps. Requiring third party app stores disproportionately harms those that purchased the device specifically for these purposes (such as people at higher risks of being targeted by nation state actors). And this isn’t something that can be addressed with a new uber-secure product just for these people, because the EU will deem it a g…

> One of the main draws of iOS is its resistance to malware, adware, and outright scam apps.

The crApp Store is full of scams. https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/06/06/apple-a...

https://www.wired.com/story/chatgpt-scams-apple-app-store-go...

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2023/02/pig-b...

https://www.forbes.com/sites/gordonkelly/2021/05/15/apple-ip...

https://9to5mac.com/2022/01/11/developer-exposes-another-mul...

There's practically endless proof and documentation for this.

The App Store is actually a honeypot for scammers. It's a single point of failure, because once you get past app review, which is easy, you're home free, and it's also relatively easy to manipulate App Store search, App Store ratings and reviews, and App Store Search Ads.

As a non-scam App Store developer, my biggest problem is discovery, i.e., getting my app in front of the eyeballs of potential customers. It's vastly easier to do that in the App Store than it is via so-called sideloading, especially if you have no ethics. (Unfortunately, I do have ethics, which significantly limits my options for discovery.)

Re: Developer account removed by Apple

#139

Post by waihtis »

echelon wrote: post #80
judge2020 wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This was talked about by Phillip Shoemaker (head of App Store Review 2009-2016) in this talk[0], where some developers figured out that if they hired marketing firms to commit review fraud on a competitor’s app, their competitor would get terminated because there’s no clear way to actually attribute the fraud to the developer. I guess the App Store fraud prevention team hasn’t necessarily found a good solution yet. 0…

> I guess the App Store fraud prevention team hasn’t necessarily found a good solution yet. The most essential device of the century is owned by two companies. The ability for them to completely control software and business activities on top of something that is almost as essential as public transportation is appalling. The DOJ needs to remove the "app store" racket for essential computing devices. Software needs to…

It's not in the interest of the DOJ to do so - 95% of people are technologically completely inept and it would expose them to fraud, malware and such at unprecedented scale

Re: Developer account removed by Apple

#140

Post by madeofpalk »

slezyr wrote: post #81
the_af wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Russian guy saying that he is in Chile in the first sentence? Absolutely nothing suspicious. Being Russian doesn't make you suspicious of anything. There are lots of young Russian people coming to Latin America recently, presumably (if I had to guess) to escape the war. Source: seen this with my own eyes.

It is strange to mention that he is in Chile and not mention that he is a Russian citizen, and the apps come from a Russian company that was recently re-registered(??? or not) somewhere else. It could be sanctions, and it is not related to reviews at all.

I'm not sure - is it strange? I moved countries 7 years ago and I probably wouldnt mention my complete immigration history...
Post reply on HN