And.. How does this effect me in the United States?
Well,
A) not everything has to “effect” you, you’re not the center of Earth.
B) switch your region to South Korea and bam - multiple AppStores while in the US
Apple and Google must allow other in-app payment systems, Korean law declares
301–310 of 627 posts
Re: Apple and Google must allow other in-app payment systems, Korean law declares
#302I'll take the opinion that the "App Store tax" is better for the broader economy. Most people who aren't VCs can't get a piece of startups early on anymore. If I can invest in Google and Apple I get a bit of exposure to pre-IPO and private tech companies.
Re: Apple and Google must allow other in-app payment systems, Korean law declares
#303Re: Apple and Google must allow other in-app payment systems, Korean law declares
#304Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't think he's saying that it'd be good if Apple and Google did that. He's saying they should have done that if they had had their strategic thinking caps on.
That's my take too on what poster is saying. Yet, it's not out of the ordinary to presume apple and google have good strategists among the management ranks... so what gives? What do we not know?
Presumably, that they already do volume discounts/sweetheart deals with certain vendors. Apple allows Microsoft to publish packages through their App Store that install non-sandboxed apps, for example. I’m sure they’re giving them a discount as well. They’re a “strategic partner.” Epic is not.
Re: Apple and Google must allow other in-app payment systems, Korean law declares
#305Earlier quoted context omitted.
> If someone else doesn't want to pay 30% to Apple, then they should have that right That right? Are you saying developers should have the right to all of Apple's stuff for free, no matter what? Is Apple not allowed to distribute their tools and libraries under a license of their choosing? Should we ignore licenses altogether? Perhaps I don't want to pay the "cost" associated with use of a GPL-licensed library in my…
This argument is nonsensical.. I should be able to use my fully-paid-for device how I see fit.
You can (I guess to an extent). But, you cannot use iOS however you see fit - it's probably in that wall of text you agree to every time it updates.
I get all these laws etc, but they are all at the behest of other big business who wants to take the ecosystem apple made and profit MORE off of it.
This whole thing does not help small devs, or consumers. I would argue apples PR stance that it actively basically harms consumers is 100% spot on.
The problem may be that people in ios have grown to not be looking over their shoulders for scams, but all of this will just bring about that exact thing.
The grift as soon as ios/app store opens up will be insane. You can't stop it in an open platform, and again, the average tech user is not at all savvy about tech.
There are probably good solutions to this, but so far nothing out in public is anything but self-serving of already monied interests.
Re: Apple and Google must allow other in-app payment systems, Korean law declares
#306Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sure but the point is that developers should have the option of rolling out their own solution if they don't need all the features Apple provides or agree with the fee. This in turn creates competition which may reduce rates all around.
The common argument against that is that the 30% also goes to actually developing iOS - you could envision the margin Apple makes on every iPhone as one that goes towards the R&D costs of developing the hardware, while the post-sale revenue goes towards the post-sale costs of developing iOS (and all the updates they test/push out for 5+ years after the device is released).
> The common argument against that is that the 30% also goes to actually developing iOS
How were operating systems funded before vendors could take a cut of every transaction?
Re: Apple and Google must allow other in-app payment systems, Korean law declares
#307Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why not compete on merits instead?
There's a Goldilocks zone in which something mostly resembling free market can exist. Beyond that zone, there's some old boys network running the show, where who's married to whom, who plays with whom, and who's chums with whom are the things that matter.
So the small developers are the old boys network? That's funny.
Let me tell you what will happen if that becomes the case, there would be publishers that you pay so that they release your apps in Korea and there would be large companies with enough departments to handle the hops.
The idea that this will benefit anyone but the large companies is ridiculous. Don't you find suspicious that there are no crowds of indie developers but giants like Epic who make the noise about it? Do you believe that Epic is an altruistic organisation?
Re: Apple and Google must allow other in-app payment systems, Korean law declares
#308Earlier quoted context omitted.
I very much agree that this app stores market abuse thing needs to end, and I am also really glad to see that at least one country is responding like this. > a reasonable (single percentage) fee for facilitating payments. I want to point out, though, that the service Apple provides is not merely payment processing. They offer total customer management. Which, when integrated with their entire developer offering (Test…
Apple very pointedly does _not_ offer total customer management. As an iOS developer, I don’t know who my customers are; I can’t contact them; I can’t offer them a refund, demo, or promo code; I can’t have any kind of relationship with them whatsoever. It’s infuriatingly archaic and useless. Whatever that system is, it certainly isn’t “total customer management”.
That sounds like a problem, but as a customer, I see that as a feature. I do not want to be mailbombed by everyone who has ever written an app I used for some time in the past.
Re: Apple and Google must allow other in-app payment systems, Korean law declares
#309Good. I've been saying this awhile, most notably when Apple (of course followed by Google) introduced a discount on commission for smaller developers. This is completely backwards. I know why they did it. They wanted some positive PR that didn't cost them anything. Thing is, it's the larger publishers who are going to lobby regulators and challenge things in court. It's those same publishers who already have their ow…
I'm surprised discounts for big publishers hadn't already been more of a thing. It's certainly happened before from time to time: https://www.cultofmac.com/319040/apple-only-takes-15-cut-on-...