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WordPressiOS Locked by App Store

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Re: WordPressiOS Locked by App Store

#191

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They are betting on the fact that arent a majority in any space. Its the best situation for them, then dont have majority market share but make the most revenue. They see Google being split up and therefore being the only game in town.

It bugs me how this is an argument in "app store is not a monopoly". App stores (both Google and Apple) have a huge profit margin which is based on abusing it's position and they are milking the fact that creating competition would cost billions of dollars - this is exactly the situation where a pure market situation ends up being sub-optimal and hurting the consumers. Consider what would happen if Mastercard and Vis…

People have a habit of looking through the wrong end of a telescope when it comes to anti-trust stuff. From a consumer perspective, as someone who already has a phone in-hand and a bunch of vendor lock-in going on, does Apple not have unilateral control over the software market that user has access to?

Saying "Android exists" is kind of like saying "you don't have to deal with Standard Oil or the railroads...you can just use coal instead and haul it by ship." Fat lot of good that does you when you have a bunch of oil-burning machinery you've invested in.

Re: WordPressiOS Locked by App Store

#192

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interesting neither did I. Globally its still 25% however.

IPhone is expensive, who can spend 1000 euro on a damn phone? Not many even here in Europe. Americans have tons of disposable money, see wealthier and in general like ti consume.

My iPhone (SE) cost $400. The iPhone 11 is $699. Competitive hardware on the Android side is trending more expensive from brands like Samsung.

Re: WordPressiOS Locked by App Store

#193
post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would be willing to buy these to attempt to kickstart this market. But maybe I'm confused, these seem only to be ROMs that are installed on existing hardware? This can't be right. Where can I go to buy these? I typed "buy PinePhone" and got a wikipedia page with supported hardware made by other companies.

1st Result - https://store.pine64.org/product-category/pinephone/ [Out of Stock] Librem5 - https://shop.puri.sm/

Thank you, I really appreciate that!

Re: WordPressiOS Locked by App Store

#195
post #98

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Even if it was, that’s definitely not significant. Each engineer is probably paid more per day than that. (I’m not a fan of the flat 30% charge, but developer program fees are not a challenge for any group with a revenue stream if any kind.)

> Each engineer is probably paid more per day than that. Except for parts of the world where that's closer to a week or months worth of pay...

In those parts developers ain't paid local salaries..

Re: WordPressiOS Locked by App Store

#196
post #144

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Twitch does this blatantly. I think they’re able to skirt the rules because of being an Amazon company. A subscription on the web is 4.99 and the same subscription via the official twitch iOS app is 5.99.

Any discount is enticing, but I wonder how many really go through the effort of - 1. Searching, Opening the web page in Safari. 2. Signing-in. 3. Updating personal details. 4. Updating credit card details. 5. Making the payment. Instead of clicking a button to save $1? P.S. I would.

I believe a lot of people would, because of the psychology of "it's not just $1, it's 16%, what if I save 16% on everything, I would be rich", the feeling of "sticking it to the man (Apple)" and "I don't want to be an idiot that pays too much".

Most people are not rational about money, me included.

Re: WordPressiOS Locked by App Store

#197
post #5

I know I really don't matter to Apple, but this walled garden and app store dictatorship is what finally made me move away from iOS to Android last year. I had used Android in the past, but it was with Samsung Galaxy's which where very bloated and awful when compared to Apple. But when a friend told me that Samsung just ruin Android [1] and I should try an actual Google phone, I bought a Pixel and it's honestly great…

Just so you know, your Pixel also has a bunch of binary blobs that track you. Google Play services track nearly everything on the device with system level access. I switched to an iPhone a few years ago to get further from Google, but the crap with the App Store is getting so out of hand now. My next device will probably be a Pine Phone.

> My next device will probably be a Pine Phone.

As a long time iPhone user I'm on the same boat. I do hope there will be a somewhat beta level Pine Phone soon. I'm already thinking should I get my old Nokia n900 from the storage box and start using that. Not comfortable with Androids and the latest Apple actions are making me feel a bit unsure on the direction they are taking.

Re: WordPressiOS Locked by App Store

#198

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> Each engineer is probably paid more per day than that. Except for parts of the world where that's closer to a week or months worth of pay...

It looks like you may be out of touch with the global market

There are substantial portions of the world where median income per household is 10000USD or less: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Median_income

Re: WordPressiOS Locked by App Store

#199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It bugs me how this is an argument in "app store is not a monopoly". App stores (both Google and Apple) have a huge profit margin which is based on abusing it's position and they are milking the fact that creating competition would cost billions of dollars - this is exactly the situation where a pure market situation ends up being sub-optimal and hurting the consumers. Consider what would happen if Mastercard and Vis…

Credit card companies.... already have those rules. No store can just offer a cheaper cash price. It’s in the agreements.

I've seen many gas stations offer cheaper cash prices.

Here's an article which claims credit card surcharges are disallowed but cash discounts are not. https://www.cardfellow.com/blog/cash-discount-eliminate-proc...

Re: WordPressiOS Locked by App Store

#200
post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How much are credit card fees? Chargebacks? Fraud? Server costs to host your app and updates? The shopping cart/private infrastructure? You actually get some value from those percentages, but few people actually run the numbers.

2.9% is the highest you'll pay to accept cards unless you're in a high risk category. And even cheaper with volume Fraud happens with any payment provider including Apple. You don't have to pay extra for shopping cart infrastructure if you use Stripe or similar

Where do you host your shopping cart? Your download server? “Using Stripe” doesn’t build your system. Stripe isn’t a standalone product. You have to have a developer to run and maintain your system. You have to pay server costs as well. And customer support costs dealing with payments and download and install issues.

And with fraud on Apple, you are never affected directly. For example, a chargeback on Stripe costs you $20, unless you win. If you are doing any sort of volume, that is not only expensive, but time consuming — you have to defend your case. You never touch any of that with Apple. At the very least, you need a developer to both build and “run” your store and all of its associated infrastructure.

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