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Apple rejecting applications which use Dropbox

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Re: Apple rejecting applications which use Dropbox

#331

To get a sense of Apple's power: Via Amazon, download any sample chapter to Kindle on iPad/iPhone. Scroll to the end and click "Buy Now" this is what you'll see: http://i.imgur.com/Flqfp.png This power is good when it comes to muscling user-friendly dataplans from carriers, but with other stuff they are really playing hardball

Apple cares so much about user experience that they encourage/pressure other services to break theirs.

Re: Apple rejecting applications which use Dropbox

#332
post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The 30% "apple tax" on their App Store is not a major way that Apple makes money (more on this in paragraph 2). This leads to the conclusion that Apple is not attempting to hobble stores that undercut them: they simply like using their control of the store ecosystem to maintain the quality, simplicity, and consistency of the experience that allows them to provide to their customers, with the nice side effect of givin…

The point is not whether Apple makes money on its "apple tax", but how that affects us developers. In fact it is a pure transaction fee, and if you compare that to paypal or credit card, or even affiliate commission payments, it's way too high. In the long run where does the App developer get to make any money? On app sales alone? You cannot survive by making a one off sale to your customers, and apps that seek to ge…

It's also a subsidy for delivery of all the free apps.

Re: Apple rejecting applications which use Dropbox

#333
post #313

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No one in their right mind would punish their customers/users for making a particular product purchase decision. They would be cutting their own nose off to spite their face.

You mean like how Apple punishes its customers that want Dropbox apps?

Touché

Re: Apple rejecting applications which use Dropbox

#335

I don't understand why people think this is new. I created a website that announced the launch of a small mobile app for both iOS and Android platforms. I was told by Apple that my app would not be approved as long as I had links to competitors (i.e. Android) on the web site .

How’s that possible? There’re a lot of (thousands?) multi-platform apps for iOS, Android, Blackberry etc. For instance, Angry Birds has versions for “iPhone/iPad/OS X,” “Nokia Devices,” and “Android (Amazon/Google Play)” on their website: http://shop.angrybirds.com/us/games/mobile-games.html Needless to say, the full list of platforms Angry Birds runs on is (according to Wikipedia) much bigger.

I don't know, we were a really small shop?

It was the first app launch, and we prominently showed an iPhone and a Nexus side by side with our app. Whoever reviewed our app didn't like that, so we took the Nexus image down.

We probably could have just posted the old design back up after the app got approved, but the company didn't last very long past that.

Re: Apple rejecting applications which use Dropbox

#336
For me, the new controlled platforms make me laugh about previous Microsoft monopoly accusations. It seems like in the mobile and cloud space people do not have any voice or are brainwashed because the major part of the people, including HNers are accepting these rules.

Re: Apple rejecting applications which use Dropbox

#337

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Apple rejects alternative web browsers on iOS outright, Except for Opera Mini - http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/opera-mini-web-browser/id3637...

They didn't classify Opera Mini as a browser since it doesn't interpret HTML or Javascript on the phone, that's done on a server. Opera Mobile is still banned. Also, this also shows you can't change the http link association in iOS.

So what you mean is alternative HTML renderers. This is a security decision since each browser is a large attack surface.

Re: Apple rejecting applications which use Dropbox

#339

I must be old; if Microsoft had even suggested taking a 30% cut of every PC application or purchase via the internet they'd have been lynched. Have most developers gone conformist/apologist?

No, the difference is that in the days of yore, Microsoft wasn't the market maker for your applications. Now, with the Apple App Store(s), you are being put before a large potential customer base. Considering how easy it is to pirate applications on the Android platform and how many apps are pirated, the Apple way is the most pragmatic for software developers who want to get paid for their work.

It isn't all that different than what you see elsewhere in the economy. Now that there are just a few large corporations who effectively control the food supply, they increasingly get a larger share of the profits at the expense of the many supplying farms.

If there were 10 different Apple App Stores you could sell your applications through that were all of equal quality, then the cut Apple requires would drop off significantly.

Re: Apple rejecting applications which use Dropbox

#340

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How about one that you adjust your prices by whatever so that 70% is the old 100%? If your competitors can offer lower prices and still give away 70%, then you're not competitive enough.

You clearly haven't read about the clauses apple put in about payments. You can't charge more in the app via apple than you charge outside the app via whatever other payment system you use. They've rigged the game.

>You clearly haven't read about the clauses apple put in about payments. You can't charge more in the app via apple than you charge outside the app via whatever other payment system you use.

No, I know of that rule. Just jack the price everywhere --if the iPhone is an important market to you, that 30% is a factor you have to take into account in your overall pricing strategy.

The same holds true for all of your competitors, after all. Either they give up the iOS market, or they have to do the same. So it's not like someone has an advantage over you.

( And, I'd say, if it IS an important market to you, well, you don't get to both have all those customers with their credit cards at the ready in a system someone else built out of thin air AND complain that you have to give him a cut).

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