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You’re Paying into a Broken System Whenever You Buy Something on iOS

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Re: You’re Paying into a Broken System Whenever You Buy Something on iOS

#21

Post by jordanpg »

Wowfunhappy wrote: post #17
gchokov wrote: post #2

I am happy buying stuff from the iOS store. It's convenient, quick and easy. No objection as an end user.

Great! Let the iOS App Store compete in the free market on its own merits. I suspect it will do quite well—it's installed on all phones by default, and consumers trust it (for good reason). The App Store should not be the only way to get software on an iPhone, sans literally hacking the device.

They are competing in the free market. Users are free to not use their software and there are many other choices.

You seem to be objecting to the manner in which they compete.

Re: You’re Paying into a Broken System Whenever You Buy Something on iOS

#23

Post by nothis »

Wowfunhappy wrote: post #5

> Here’s the thing: If you’re a developer for iOS or macOS and want to charge customers money, the Apple-provided payment tools, which demand a 30% cut, are the only ones you’re allowed to use. It’s not even a discussion. Why does macOS keep getting offhandedly roped into these discussions? Not only is the Mac App Store not a requirement, it's rarely used. Maybe Apple intends to change that some day, but that's specu…

>Maybe Apple intends to change that some day, but that's speculation, not reality.

I'd say it's pretty obvious that this is a desired outcome on Apple's part. You can either wait until it's too late or bring it up before it's happening.

Re: You’re Paying into a Broken System Whenever You Buy Something on iOS

#25

Post by CaptainMarvel »

gchokov wrote: post #2

I am happy buying stuff from the iOS store. It's convenient, quick and easy. No objection as an end user.

I’m unhappy because Apple has prevented me from using my phone how I want to. I recognised Spotify’s published complaints against Apple 2-3 years before they spoke out. I vowed to never use or buy Apple Music, Apple Watch, HomePod, and even a new iPhone because Apple were degrading my experience with Spotify compared to their own services. They deliberately created an unfair playing field on their platform in order to make more money.

This problem is the same. How can Spotify compete with Apple in a completely separate industry like Music when Apple takes a 15-30% cut? How can Netflix compete? Apple is using their position to expand into other areas of business.

This is bad for competition, and what is bad for competition is generally bad for people.

Sure, Apple has a great, safe experience with the store and in-app purchases, but that is no reason to prevent other flows. Why can I not decide for myself whether to use an App’s “alternative” payment system?

Re: You’re Paying into a Broken System Whenever You Buy Something on iOS

#27

Post by ctrl-j »

jmuguy wrote: post #22

I know its snarky but complaining about Apple's walled garden via a post on Medium makes me chuckle.

It's especially funny to me, since I apparently have exceeded my monthly premium medium article limit - and would need to pay to actually read this.

Re: You’re Paying into a Broken System Whenever You Buy Something on iOS

#28

Post by nerdjon »

nothis wrote: post #23
Wowfunhappy wrote: post #5

> Here’s the thing: If you’re a developer for iOS or macOS and want to charge customers money, the Apple-provided payment tools, which demand a 30% cut, are the only ones you’re allowed to use. It’s not even a discussion. Why does macOS keep getting offhandedly roped into these discussions? Not only is the Mac App Store not a requirement, it's rarely used. Maybe Apple intends to change that some day, but that's specu…

>Maybe Apple intends to change that some day, but that's speculation, not reality. I'd say it's pretty obvious that this is a desired outcome on Apple's part. You can either wait until it's too late or bring it up before it's happening.

I don't think they ever will do that with Mac, and will be a key reason the platforms remain separate. They have to realize how popular Mac is for developers, going down this path would completely remove that market for them.

Re: You’re Paying into a Broken System Whenever You Buy Something on iOS

#29

Post by dangus »

I had a while ago calculated the actual download cost with S3's pricing on what each ~100MB Spotify update would cost if it was self hosted. Assuming each paid and free Spotify customer on the iOS platform updated the app was something to the tune of tens of thousands of dollars depending on how you estimate the marketshare of iOS for Spotify versus their other platforms.

What the App Store provides is not valueless, quite the opposite in fact. It's an entire system of distribution management.

Is it monopolistic? By definition, no, because Android is the #1 smartphone platform in the world.

Is it great that Apple has provided no alternative way of downloading software to the iPhone and iPad? No, that's not great either, but users knew that from day one (when the iPhone had no App Store at all).

In reality, iOS is no different than a game console like the PlayStation 4 or Xbox One, and yet we consider those closed marketplaces completely functional and normal.

If Apple was the only company making smartphones or if they even made a plurality of them, perhaps this would be a problem.

Re: You’re Paying into a Broken System Whenever You Buy Something on iOS

#30

Post by post_break »

gchokov wrote: post #2

I am happy buying stuff from the iOS store. It's convenient, quick and easy. No objection as an end user.

Imagine if they had a refund process like Android. I'd buy way more stuff. But because I can't try an app and make sure it's not fake or advertises it does x but really only does y I'm scrooge mcduck. I've bought way more apps on Android because of this.
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