so right!!
Apple and Google must allow other in-app payment systems, Korean law declares
361–370 of 627 posts
Re: Apple and Google must allow other in-app payment systems, Korean law declares
#362Good. 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 stand by my position that end users don't actually want competing third-party app stores.
I have 9 chat apps on my phone. I just counted, and that's skipping things like email and basecamp that I might have included to inflate the number. It's not ideal, and the downsides can be exaggerated for the sake of banter, but overall the chat app situation is fine. Similarly, I wouldn't mind having more app stores.
I expect there'd be one all the free software hardcores believe in, one that fills the role Steam does on PC, another with all the "too hot for TV" content that Apple and Google won't touch with a 10 foot pole, a few developer-publishers big enough to get traction, and dozens of also-rans that nobody uses. Yes, slightly more inconvenient like all the chat apps, but in reality it'd also be fine.
I don't think it makes sense to say what consumers do and don't "want," because largely they don't understand the terrain the App Store and Google Play put down. Ask people if they'd like a 2nd store that lets them install apps that contain porn without putting it behind hidden curtains in otherwise general-purpose apps, then we might expect positive responses. Ask people if they want an app store that contains more malware because the app store monopoly provides a chokepoint to enact user protection that on-device sandboxing can't, then we'd expect negative responses.
Re: Apple and Google must allow other in-app payment systems, Korean law declares
#3632 things that surprise me:
- Why did it take so long? This is clearly an abuse of monopoly power
- The App Store is Apple's biggest cash cow, yet despite Apple losing it's ability to charge its 30% racketeering tax their stock is at an ATH.
Re: Apple and Google must allow other in-app payment systems, Korean law declares
#364The Mac App Store gives a hint at what would happen if there was any choice. The amount of software actually available for the Mac is far, far greater than what’s listed in the store. Furthermore, while some quality and notable apps are still in the Mac App Store, many well-known apps are not there. The number of lousy apps is also extremely high every time I go to search or just look at the front page, to the point…
Sometimes I try to imagine what the app store rules would look like if apple had to abide by those same rules for all of their own apps. I imagine the rules would be much more lenient, app review a lot less error prone, and developers would be chafed far less by those golden handcuffs.
Pretty sure apple’s developer documentation would still be bad though.
Re: Apple and Google must allow other in-app payment systems, Korean law declares
#365I really hope they implement this somehow that allows the same processes to exist. e.g., manage all subscriptions from one location, cancel subscriptions without losing time remaining (hello Creative Cloud!), and the entire parental control process.
Managing all subscriptions from one location is great, but Apple already exempts themselves from cancelling subscriptions without losing time remaining. I expect most of these to go away as processors compete for app business.
I just checked my Music and Fitness+ subscriptions and they both say “If you cancel now, you can still access your subscription until X.”
Re: Apple and Google must allow other in-app payment systems, Korean law declares
#366All of these policies coming about are for the benefit of already monied interests and do not help small devs, or consumers. I also take huge umbrage that the framing of this is just as horrible as the framing of paying taxes in the US. People think, wrongly, that they make $100k, and have to pay 35% of that to the gov. Wrong. You always only made $65k. There are studies that show wages have always tracked with taxes…
What?
Google and Apple are giving them devs access to something they built. That is not a tax.
“Taxation is theft” is a very simple concept. If I don’t pay my taxes, people with guns come to my house, even if I don’t use public services. If you don’t want to pay Apple or Google, go develop for other devices.
Re: Apple and Google must allow other in-app payment systems, Korean law declares
#367Good. 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…
Just wow. > Of course this should force them into binding arbitration and otherwise challenging the discount should void that discount. So you want apple and google to act as even more monopolistic bullies ... I see that you're taking this position as what you would do if you were Apple or Google, not what is the best course of action for all stakeholders. But you then opine that this is justified because the status…
> How many other apps or services went under (or were never made in the first instance) because Apple decided that their business needed to pay them a 30% cut of everything.
Probably very few apps fit this. This rule basically only applies to digital goods, which are "free" to manufacture. There is some fixed server/dev costs, but its practically "free" to serve n+1 users.
This applies especially true to games where you buy in-app "coins". They're free to the dev, and giving our more / de-valuating the currency is a not-issue.
Of course, it probably takes a toll on licence-based apps like netflix/spotify and mostly server-heavy apps like Hey (by basecamp)
Re: Apple and Google must allow other in-app payment systems, Korean law declares
#368The Mac App Store gives a hint at what would happen if there was any choice. The amount of software actually available for the Mac is far, far greater than what’s listed in the store. Furthermore, while some quality and notable apps are still in the Mac App Store, many well-known apps are not there. The number of lousy apps is also extremely high every time I go to search or just look at the front page, to the point…
Isn't this mostly due to burdensome requirements which means most apps would have to remove features and the fact that they don't support upgrades? At least those are the arguments I have seen to not put the apps in the mac store.
Re: Apple and Google must allow other in-app payment systems, Korean law declares
#369Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 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?
They didn’t receive updates. Now Windows pushes ads in the OS as a mechanism of recouping the cost of developing and testing updates for old hardware.
Operating systems have been getting automatic updates for over 20 years. And what 3rd party ads are in Windows? I don't have any.
Re: Apple and Google must allow other in-app payment systems, Korean law declares
#370When you have a legislative body and you can yield it, it's that easy...