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Netflix stops paying the ‘Apple tax’ on its $853M in annual iOS revenue

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Re: Netflix stops paying the ‘Apple tax’ on its $853M in annual iOS revenue

#281
post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have to agree with grandparent. You can't scale down international infrastructure like this. The cost per sale for someone managing a store for you has a certain minimum cost per month plus an amount per sale and per return. Of course they're going to hype the big games. It's opportunity cost. Advertisement leads to sales, but feeding a hype train gets you more. If they stop advertising the hot new game to showcase…

The fallacy there is that their push to promote big Warner is mostly promoting toxic games that milk and dime users because freemium games is where money is at. It's no coincidence that on both stores you cannot filter out apps that have in app purchases

s/Warner/earners/ sorry

Re: Netflix stops paying the ‘Apple tax’ on its $853M in annual iOS revenue

#282

The Apple Tax is especially hard on Spotify since Apple launched Apple Music (previously, Spotify passed the 30% on to customers, but $13 vs $10 for similar services doesn't work). Both services are $10 per month. It's well-publicized that Spotify pays out 70% to labels, leaving nothing to run the service. Full disclosure: I used to work for Spotify. My personal take on the fee was that 2%-3% is the floor (credit car…

Can I ask why you left Spotify? Do you think they're in serious financial trouble?

Re: Netflix stops paying the ‘Apple tax’ on its $853M in annual iOS revenue

#283
post #273
post #232

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Am I the only one who is convinced Apple is focused on privacy because its cloud tech is really far behind Google and privacy was a path largely ignored in a data driven world? Don’t get me wrong—I like that they pursue the privacy angle but if the company’s strengths allowed them to compete with modern web/ads services companies, I think they would not have focused on privacy as much.

You'd be hard pressed to find any credible source for your conviction. Apple's privacy stance is what Steve Jobs believed in, and what Tim Cook has stuck with, because they know that leaving privacy-based decisions up to third-party developers never ends well. Here are excerpts from Jobs 2010 interview with Walt Mossberg [0]: “Silicon Valley is not monolithic,” Jobs responded, “We’ve always had a very different view…

> Apple's privacy stance is what Steve Jobs believed in, and what Tim Cook has stuck with, because they know that leaving privacy-based decisions up to third-party developers never ends well.

As opposed to leaving their API wide open so anyone could access anybodys photos and files? Hence, the fappening.

Apple is a marketing company, not a technology company.

Re: Netflix stops paying the ‘Apple tax’ on its $853M in annual iOS revenue

#284
post #254

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> You are free to make that choice. i do not believe that apple allows you to sideload apps without jailbreaking (which voids warranty iirc). Therefore, the user is not free to make that choice.

Let me be clearer. You are free to make that choice [of running software from more than one retailer] by choosing a different computing platform. Hundreds of models of Android phone are available at every price point, from super-budget to super-premium. It's important to me that I can choose a platform that has a strongly walled ecosystem because I greatly prefer the advantages of it more than I dislike the disadvant…

Sorry but your Argument falls flat....you cannot use android as an option to defend Apple. If apple fails to meet the needs for the user you cannot defend them and say 'but you can choose android' that is not freedom. Freedom within Apple would mean the ability to easily host and run applications as desired. They do not have alveen caught trying to suppress users freedom. Aka jailbreaking and their fight make it illegal

Re: Netflix stops paying the ‘Apple tax’ on its $853M in annual iOS revenue

#285

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple now controls aprox 10% of mobile marketshare and I believe most people consume most content on screens bigger than their iPhone which can also be used to sign up for Netflix. Nobody much cares about Apple TV either. Apple is taking a sizable chunk of revenue and they don't have enormous leverage. Taking away Netflix from Apple users would hurt Apple more than Netflix and people will happily sign up on via their…

Fair point, although I would bet that the share of Netflix customers using Apple devices is significantly higher than 10%. For one thing, in the US, iOS has more like a 45% share. For another, wealthier people are more likely to own iOS devices (worldwide), and I’m guessing they’re also likelier to be Netflix customers.

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Re: Netflix stops paying the ‘Apple tax’ on its $853M in annual iOS revenue

#286

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It is different. When I shop at Costco I know I shop at Costco and that is what I paid for. But when I buy Netflix subscription, I am paying to Netflix, not Apple. Does Apple making Netflix as a service any better? I didn't quite see that. And since this is a recurring fee, which makes it even funnier, that I am constantly paying Apple for to essentially ALLOW me watch Netflix. And don't forget this result in a highe…

When you shop at Costco, you are buying Kirkland, Samsung, Apple, and 100 other brands. Think of it from the perspective of Danone yoghurt. They are paying Costco 5-10-15% right? Because they sell to Costco at a price cheaper than the sale price. How is it different here? There are other arguments to be made about the store fees, but Costco is pretty much like apple store and vendors don't even have the option of say…

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Re: Netflix stops paying the ‘Apple tax’ on its $853M in annual iOS revenue

#288

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This misses the point. It is not equal. I choose Apple's store for one Very Big Reason over almost all other third-party services: I trust them with my financial details. I don't have to 'beg' to later cancel my subscription. I don't have to worry about my credit card being stolen. I don't have to worry about a bunch of sophomoric engineers breaking their own website and creating grief for me. I am in control with Ap…

Not sure what I’m adding here, but I used to feel this way about PayPal and Amazon too. PayPal lost my loyalty years ago, Amazon I now run all products through a review checker and don’t buy clothes from them anymore

What do you use instead of PayPal? Just enter your credit card on every site you buy something from? Definitely curious, because Google Pay and Amazon Payments are the only alternatives I can think of and neither are as widely adopted as PayPall.

Re: Netflix stops paying the ‘Apple tax’ on its $853M in annual iOS revenue

#289
post #273

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You'd be hard pressed to find any credible source for your conviction. Apple's privacy stance is what Steve Jobs believed in, and what Tim Cook has stuck with, because they know that leaving privacy-based decisions up to third-party developers never ends well. Here are excerpts from Jobs 2010 interview with Walt Mossberg [0]: “Silicon Valley is not monolithic,” Jobs responded, “We’ve always had a very different view…

> Apple's privacy stance is what Steve Jobs believed in, and what Tim Cook has stuck with, because they know that leaving privacy-based decisions up to third-party developers never ends well. As opposed to leaving their API wide open so anyone could access anybodys photos and files? Hence, the fappening. Apple is a marketing company, not a technology company.

Did an infinite number of marketing monkeys banging on keyboards produce the A12X design?

Re: Netflix stops paying the ‘Apple tax’ on its $853M in annual iOS revenue

#290
I'm continually surprised by how few apps and services there are for streamlining and automating as much as possible all of the various app store submission processes. As an app developer--especially in the games market--it seems obvious that you'd want to be in as many stores as possible. But there is clearly a lot of overhead in submitting apps to the long tail of all of the apps stores that are available. It's a high labor cost, especially for new entrants.
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