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Apple sends a letter to Hey: Change your app or get out of the App Store

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Re: Apple sends a letter to Hey: Change your app or get out of the App Store

#181

Post by fierarul »

qeternity wrote: post #83
fierarul wrote: post #13

Maybe the pandemic finally offers enough motivation for EU and US to make a strong decision about this. The (smart)phone market, for many people the only computing device they own, is utterly dominated by 2 monopolies under Apple and Google. The CEOs should get a medal and all the honours for providing society this good platforms then promptly forced to allow separate AppStores on equal footing.

> 2 monopolies Uh... Also, monopoly has a very specific definition. It does not mean "company with large marketshare".

You are trying hard not to understand the message. The laws change to fit what people consider right.

What Apple is doing might be almost legal but it is not right and laws can be written to spell this out for them and others.

Computing should be declared a human right and selling mass produced general purpose computers without allowing anybody to deploy any desired software on that computer should be illegal.

Re: Apple sends a letter to Hey: Change your app or get out of the App Store

#182

Post by [deleted] »

rydre wrote: post #118
philistine wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Be honest. Have you read articles about the subject thoroughly? Hey is implemented exactly like Netflix. This is exactly why it’s making such a ruckus. Because big streaming giants get Better treatment than the little guy trying to reinvent email.

This. Many of the commentators on this issue are really lazy people. Please before making suggestions, get background information.

[deleted]

Re: Apple sends a letter to Hey: Change your app or get out of the App Store

#183

Post by jmisavage »

horsawlarway wrote: post #109
jw1224 wrote: post #60

Honestly, Apple's response is actually pretty reasonable, all things considered. Read the full letter — it was clear, fair, and professional — despite coming off the back of a lot of bad press. I see plenty of comments are focussing on this quote, re their Basecamp apps: > These apps do not offer in-app purchase — and, consequently, have not contributed any revenue to the App Store over the last eight years Apple hav…

Some people are going to quibble with you over the costs paid for developers licenses, but I think that's missing the real problem. Apple is welcome to provide a platform for developers to distribute apps on, on that platform I believe they should be able to charge whatever they determine is reasonable. Apple SHOULD NOT be allowed to have a legal monopoly on making that platform. It's not really a fair price (doesn't…

My Smart TV doesn't let just anyone deploy apps on it, is that an unfair monopoly? I can always buy a different TV or in this a different phone.

Re: Apple sends a letter to Hey: Change your app or get out of the App Store

#184

Post by jaclaz »

Generically speaking, I thought that the promise of the Internet was to have more (and more direct) access to resources.

When it comes to e-commerce or e-subscriptions that should have meant the end of the middlemen, the products or contents/whatever are delivered directly from the author/producer/supplier to the end user, cutting costs.

Re: Apple sends a letter to Hey: Change your app or get out of the App Store

#185

Post by Razengan »

rydre wrote: post #98
snarf21 wrote: post #16

It seems like we soon see movement on this issue given the EU antitrust and other social unrest. People are tired of things being not only unfair but not even remotely reasonable. It is laughable that Apple Music on Android doesn't use the built in IAP but forces you to pay via Apple. This will come back to haunt them. It doesn't matter that the ToS don't forbid this but in civil suits, it doesn't give them a leg to…

The ego is going to kill future growth of the company. Investors, beware.

Apple Becomes First U.S. Company to Hit $1.5 Trillion in Market Value: https://www.macrumors.com/2020/06/10/apple-1-5-trillion-mark...

Investors have nothing to worry about, certainly not a company trying to make more money for them. :)

Re: Apple sends a letter to Hey: Change your app or get out of the App Store

#186

Post by jmisavage »

Hamuko wrote: post #177
jmisavage wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Xcode comes with an iOS simulator so you don't need hardware, but it would be a bad idea not to test on an actual device.

Xcode only runs on Apple hardware. (a) a. Well, if Apple got their way when it came to Hackintoshes.

You got me there.

Re: Apple sends a letter to Hey: Change your app or get out of the App Store

#187

Post by koheripbal »

gambiting wrote: post #122

While obviously what Apple is doing is crap, why not just increase their in-app prices only on iOS? That's what Marvel have been doing with their comics. A comic that through their website costs £3, on the Android reader costs £3.29 and on their iOS reader costs £3.49. I always just buy them online and immediately download to my ipad without paying the Apple premium. Yes, it sucks - but it seems like a relatively eas…

...because raising the price also reduces demand. This is the nature of the supply-demand curve. So you still end up with less revenues.

Imagine that Hey found the ideal price point on the supply-demand curve. When you factor in Apple's fee - the new optimal price point on the curve may shift higher, but your net revenues will still be lower.

Re: Apple sends a letter to Hey: Change your app or get out of the App Store

#188

Post by projektfu »

garyrichardson wrote: post #149
empath75 wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I were basecamp I’d be tempted to pull my apps over that passive aggressive bullshit.

I was thinking the cheeky thing to do is charge $100,000 for the in app version. It’s technically there but even if someone clicked it almost no cc would allow the charge through.

If apple’s store provides value they should be able to capture some at a higher price point. Charge $149 for it on the store, $99 on Android and web subscriptions. Get some of that sweet “apple tax”

Re: Apple sends a letter to Hey: Change your app or get out of the App Store

#189

Post by stephenr »

Hamuko wrote: post #105
kristianc wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Isn't that a little like comcast charging websites for access to their customers? Not exactly, as Comcast don’t provide the infrastructure to Basecamp to host and deliver the binary of its app. Basecamp can’t be said to be ‘freeloading’ on Comcast. Basecamp would come back and say ‘well, we pay our developer fees’ but developer fees don’t differentiate whether Apple has to maintain app updates for hundreds of downl…

> Not exactly, as Comcast don’t provide the infrastructure to Basecamp to host and deliver it’s service. Neither Comcast or Apple provide any infrastructure to Basecamp for hosting. They are just in charge of delivering the ways and means of accessing their platform.

They provide all the infrastructure to deliver the iOS app binary, receive notifications, etc.

Re: Apple sends a letter to Hey: Change your app or get out of the App Store

#190

Post by spartas »

davidg109 wrote: post #137

I’m on Apple’s side on this one. They’ve made Hey’s choice simple: change it so it’s compatible for people to use their mainstream email services (no $ involved), or make it subscription out of the box. Currently you need some dumb invite-only code. I actually feel misled by Hey’s comments pointing out that Netflix, etc. require a subscription to make the app useful. It wasn’t until I little additional digging reveal…

I'm with HEY on this issue.

As of a few months ago, Netflix abandoned in-app purchases entirely on Apple platforms. Try it yourself: sign out of your Netflix account on iOS and try and create a new account. There is no option to pay for a Netflix subscription within the app on iOS. It just isn't there.

Fastmail is another app already on the App store that requires an account (but has no option to sign up within the app itself). Salesforce Inbox and GMail are two other email apps currently on the App store that do not allow the user to sign up within the app itself.

(An aside about Gmail: I'm now receiving almost-daily emails from Google

> Your Gmail is full. Get more storage now with a Google One membership. Plans start at $1.99 a month.

How much of that money do you think Apple would like to get? How much of that money goes to Apple? None. That is not implemented as an in-app purchase. )

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