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Apple watch keyboard developer put off by app store scammers

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Re: Apple watch keyboard developer put off by app store scammers

#181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry for your experience. Its a very difficult situation. However the issue is if Apple takes a view, they open themselves up to legal risk - they are not the court so its not their place to determine copyright infrigement. Rather, if you get a court order stating infringement, then Apple has to take down the offending app. Whilst yours may be a clear cut case, it is not too difficult to think of examples where it i…

Youtube auto DMCA anyone?

I think the difference there is that they have established copyright - have you done so with your App when there is a potential dispute?

Also a movie or song is a lot easier to determine copyright infringement. But a program might be harder due to its complexities.

But this is just my thoughts, I'm no expert AT ALL.

Re: Apple watch keyboard developer put off by app store scammers

#182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>about 2000€ a month, enough to pay for a students living expenses Just out of pure curiosity, where did you live/study that 2000 Euros are student living expenses? In my neck of the woods in central-western Europe (Austria), 1000 Euros per month is already really good money for most students and 2000 is what you make as a junior full time employee in a good tech company.

I would think 2000 euro in Denmark would be about a student's living expenses.

I lived on student pay alone and used student housing, students today get around 849.79 EUR (before taxes) from the government, it was a bit lower back then (but I don't know about inflation and currency conversion).

Re: Apple watch keyboard developer put off by app store scammers

#183

A scammy subscription of $400+ a year?! And this gets to the top of the charts because Apple makes more money from it! These are the instances where the 30% commission (or even the recently announced 15% commission for those earning less than $1M in revenue a year) seems like extortion. Apple really needs to step up on app reviews in terms of false positives (banning legitimate apps for frivolous reasons and reinstat…

One thing I'd like to see instituted is more extensive review for apps with purchases/subscriptions over a certain value. "If you wanna charge more than $100/year, we're gonna vet it more carefully".

Re: Apple watch keyboard developer put off by app store scammers

#184
post #176
post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the scammers are going to the effort to create apps that can actually pass review, why not just sell those apps unaltered?

Because the scammed version is way more profitable? They can code up some buttons in a layout roughly resembling a keyboard that insert the character when clicked on in like 15 minutes which will probably pass review. The "keyboard" of course will be unusable for practical purpose.

If the "keyboard" wasn't usable for practical purposes then why did it pass review? A stronger review process could refuse such apps.

And if the "keyboard" was usable for practical purposes then why would the scammer waste the chance to monetize those practical, working features which they sunk their own time developing?

Re: Apple watch keyboard developer put off by app store scammers

#185

A scammy subscription of $400+ a year?! And this gets to the top of the charts because Apple makes more money from it! These are the instances where the 30% commission (or even the recently announced 15% commission for those earning less than $1M in revenue a year) seems like extortion. Apple really needs to step up on app reviews in terms of false positives (banning legitimate apps for frivolous reasons and reinstat…

One thing I'd like to see instituted is more extensive review for apps with purchases/subscriptions over a certain value. "If you wanna charge more than $100/year, we're gonna vet it more carefully".

That makes sense. But there would have to be much lower limits even on a weekly and monthly basis. How much lower is a bit subjective (even what seems like a small amount to one person may be a big amount for another). From reviews I’ve seen for some apps, it seems like users don’t even know how to approach Apple for refunds when the app is scammy or doesn’t work as promised. This latter part should also be made easier. All this will require additional staff, which Apple can surely afford without having a big dent in its margins.

Re: Apple watch keyboard developer put off by app store scammers

#186

This might be "old man shaking fist at clouds", but was crapware this bad before centralized app stores? I know it was out there - most famously stuffed into SourceForge downloads - but it didn't seem to be as prevalent. Though perhaps it's more a reflection of increased ROI from doing things like this in 2021 vs 2001.

[flagged]

Re: Apple watch keyboard developer put off by app store scammers

#187
post #162

So then the only recourse is for you to produce 10 cloned apps of YOUR own app-each w a different color, font, and language. Well maybe a hundred clones? each for a different geographical location? Since you own all of them, you would swamp out any competition.

You gotta be as good as the scammers at advertisement-buying and other marketing. That is their real skill-set.

Re: Apple watch keyboard developer put off by app store scammers

#188
post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As the other comment mentioned, 2k/month is a starter salary in the nordics. It is near instagram-lifestyle money in Portugal, Spain and most of the eastern EU for a young single person. A student having their own apartment (and a car??) is already a luxury 99% of the world will never experience.

Most students I knew didn’t have their own apartment and car but a few did if they had small children, had social reasons to live alone, or were married (yes some people get pregnant in high school). They usually had a mix of parental help, loans and part time or coop program work, and scholarships. They weren’t super rich, they were from middle class Canadian families 25 years ago. I even have a friend going to scho…

Where I studied (france) a 2000€/month would leave me with about 1400€ after discouting housing, 3 meals a day and tuition fees. It's a ginormous amount of money for a student.

Dunno about MBA out of school salaries but in tech in most of europe they are quite a lot lower than €90k. In France it's around 38-45k (pre-tax) depending on location (it can go upwards a bit if you are one of the chosen ones coming out of top universities)

Edit: also a source https://www.usinenouvelle.com/comparatif-des-ecoles-d-ingeni...

Re: Apple watch keyboard developer put off by app store scammers

#189
post #184
post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because the scammed version is way more profitable? They can code up some buttons in a layout roughly resembling a keyboard that insert the character when clicked on in like 15 minutes which will probably pass review. The "keyboard" of course will be unusable for practical purpose.

If the "keyboard" wasn't usable for practical purposes then why did it pass review? A stronger review process could refuse such apps. And if the "keyboard" was usable for practical purposes then why would the scammer waste the chance to monetize those practical, working features which they sunk their own time developing?

It’s not the reviewers job to decide if you created a “good” keyboard, just that your app generally does what it says it does.

Doing specific feature testing would not be trivial. Your description may say you have the worlds only AI keyboard driven by machine learning. No way the reviewers will be able to test that, so they will accept it at face value.

A few years ago Apple substantially decreased the App Review time, in direct response to developer complaints. It went from a week to a day. Part of the reduction was the use of more automated tools to detect violations. Some of it was adding more resources.

But that means reviewers only have minutes to review each app, not hours. And they are focused on technical rules violations. They aren’t ever going to build a test plan based on marketing claims to verify every single one.

Re: Apple watch keyboard developer put off by app store scammers

#190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would think 2000 euro in Denmark would be about a student's living expenses.

I lived on student pay alone and used student housing, students today get around 849.79 EUR (before taxes) from the government, it was a bit lower back then (but I don't know about inflation and currency conversion).

I guess I'm one of those folks who grows up and grows out of touch with how much money other people actually have. damn.
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