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Apple's bad faith 27% tax on web purchases

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Re: Apple's bad faith 27% tax on web purchases

#251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

a) They always require your password for in-app purchases unless you disable it. b) People have been conditioned over 15 years to treat all app purchases as being managed by Apple. So they expect refunds, disputes etc to be done in the App Store. This is changing. And so it's completely reasonable to clearly inform users about this. Because we have a long history of IAP being a major addiction vector.

>They always require your password for in-app purchases unless you disable it. No they don’t. Biometric only is the default for all IAP/in app subs. Android is the only one who makes you enter a password to subscribe, because Google is incompetent.

That is only for the first purchase via Google Play on a device, as there is a checkbox to skip the password and use biometrics for future purchases.

Re: Apple's bad faith 27% tax on web purchases

#252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They do have competition. Most phones aren't iPhones.

Just because most consumers outside the US use android instead of apple doesn't mean we shouldn't try to help protect hundreds of millions of users. There is a large enough portion of market along with all the businesses built around catering to this market that are unfairly being taken advantage of.

> we shouldn't try to help protect hundreds of millions of users

No need. Market is functioning reasonably well, as Android, PineOS, FirefoxOS, and similar alternatives exist.

Just because someone purchased a product doesn't mean they were coerced into the purchase. Apple products still function fine and legally, if not ongoing service isn't exactly ethically run by the company management.

Re: Apple's bad faith 27% tax on web purchases

#253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Personally, Android's ecosystem has never been compelling because of Google. Even barring their unrelenting focus on gobbling more of your data, they can't even keep their services on. Their graveyard is massive. Who cares? If you're developing for Android, you don't need to care about Google killing off Stadia. > How many times has their default messages app changed? It's nuts. Being an Android developer seems lik…

> Again, who cares? I'm using the same messaging apps that I was using 10 years ago. One of my best friends who was using Allo. Or Duo. Or Hangouts. Or Meet. Or whatever. He really loved one of those apps and it got removed/changed/or something. My point was that as a developer, I'd want to ensure users like the platform they're on enough to buy my app. This same friend? He moved to some launcher and just uses Discor…

> He moved to some launcher [...]. As I understand it, using a launcher prevents you from using the Google Play Store, so you're not buying apps.

I'm going to chalk it up to you not knowing about Android, but swapping launchers is basically changing your home menu, it doesn't affect Play Store access and you'll likely need it to buy the Pro version of certain launchers, the most common one being Nova Launcher Prime[0]. And if he did something more drastic, like changing to custom ROMs (akin to OS images), then Play Store access is up to him.

And honestly, I don't think Google free apps and services coming and going will impact app ownership numbers. Android being more popular in low income, developing countries (with big population numbers) will have a bigger impact overall.

[0] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.teslacoils...

Re: Apple's bad faith 27% tax on web purchases

#254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It also benefits developers and users that tweaking apps to cheat in games is as good as impossible. This would be just as impossible in a well-designed version of iOS that allowed arbitrary app installation - iOS could do client-side attestation, and app developers could choose to prevent users from playing online matches with app versions that aren't attested by Apple (or a hypothetical Steam for iOS, for instanc…

And yet, desktop anti-cheat is a continual cat and mouse game more than any iOS anti-cheat conflict I've seen. One can argue that macOS, Linux and Windows are not sufficiently "well-designed" OSes for this purpose, but at that point you'd have to start distinguishing what features are missing from those OSes that would be present in this hypothetical iOS version that isn't highly dependent on the degree to which Appl…

Anyone remotely familiar with operating system design can tell you that desktop and mobile operating systems have massive differences with respect to security. "macOS, Linux and Windows are not sufficiently "well-designed" OSes for this purpose" is exactly the case.

Re: Apple's bad faith 27% tax on web purchases

#255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

False equivalency. Most people like living in America and tons of people want to move there, while only religious fanatics would be okay living in a country built and controlled by Al-qaeda

Our religious fanatics have put an insurrectionist who stole classified documents as their top choice for leader. Hopefully the trend of being a desirable place to live continues, but I don't know if it's yet safe to point fingers at the awful governments built by other sets of religious fanatics.

[deleted]

Re: Apple's bad faith 27% tax on web purchases

#256

A law requiring hardware manufacturers to allow owners to run any software on their device would solve a lot of these Apple problems over time. Thats the root of the problem. Apple has a monopoly on the social status associated with their devices, and leverages the monopoly in many unscrupulous and toxic ways. I consider Apple the most cynical and toxic of all the tech giants.

It is already legal to run whatever software on whatever device you want, what you actually want is to force Apple to make it easy for you.

Re: Apple's bad faith 27% tax on web purchases

#257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would the iPhone be as successful if it wasn't reasonable?

Well the iPhone is a worse device than a flagship android already, so I think it would still remain popular because of the fashion aspect of being an apple user

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Re: Apple's bad faith 27% tax on web purchases

#258
post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple isn't forced to host anything. Console manufacturers shouldn't be allowed to extract those fees either.

No one is forced to sell on Apple either, if that's your logic.

The point is obviously that the app developer should be able to host the app themselves, or have some other third party do it who charges lower fees, not that Apple should have to do it for free.

"Use Apple's store or those customers can't buy your app" is forcing people to sell on Apple.

Re: Apple's bad faith 27% tax on web purchases

#259

A law requiring hardware manufacturers to allow owners to run any software on their device would solve a lot of these Apple problems over time. Thats the root of the problem. Apple has a monopoly on the social status associated with their devices, and leverages the monopoly in many unscrupulous and toxic ways. I consider Apple the most cynical and toxic of all the tech giants.

> Apple has a monopoly on the social status associated with their devices, and leverages the monopoly in many unscrupulous and toxic ways.

Status-signaling consumer products are always overpriced. It's what makes them useful as status signals. You used to buy expensive impractical clothes to show you could afford to buy expensive impractical clothes. Now you buy Apple devices to show that you can afford to buy overpriced tech.

If you bring the price of the status symbol down to a more natural level it ceases to be a status symbol.

Apple's defense of their control over the platform (and the higher-than-necessary prices they charge) isn't destructive to consumer welfare, it's the very thing consumers are paying for.

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