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Addressing Spotify’s Claims

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Re: Addressing Spotify’s Claims

#381

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Xcode is now free: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/xcode/id497799835?mt=12 (although you still have to have a mac)

If you want to publish your stuff in the AppStore, or just install it on your own iDevice , you have to pay a yearly subscription fee.

What does that have to do with the price of Xcode?

Re: Addressing Spotify’s Claims

#382
post #371

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Still proprietary though, right? With underlying free libraries and compilers?

Yes, it's gratis, not libre. I understood the parent comment to be referring to the price.

I understood it the other way. Proprietary cables to free tools. ️

Re: Addressing Spotify’s Claims

#383

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are free to buy a smartphone from other manufacturers. No one is forcing you to use an Apple product.

It's either Android or iOS really. I'd love for a decent alternative to exist but if you don't want Google tracking everything you do, Apple is the only option.

As soon as you install some apps, your iPhone is tracking you as well. The recent stories about FourSquare have made me realize that things are much worse than I previously thought.

Re: Addressing Spotify’s Claims

#384

As an app developer, I wouldn't care about the 30% cut if apple's In-App Purchase SDK was up to par with other payment processors. For example - as a developer I can't cancel subscriptions on a user's behalf, even if they've requested us to cancel it multiple times, nor can I refund a user's subscription, give them discounts/free months for their troubles/etc. The thing is, when a user reaches out to Apple to request…

> Apple does not pay out their developers until 30 days after the end of the month

30 days payment terms is fairly standard, no?

I usually don't get paid until 20 days after I issue an invoice.

Re: Addressing Spotify’s Claims

#385
post #361

I love how brazen this letter is. > Apple’s approach has always been to grow the pie. Apple's approach has always been to grow it's own pie. They have never been even remotely interested in playing nicely with other companies. I don't fault them for it, but let's not kid ourselves here; the app store is largely an extremely profitable exercise in rent seeking. It's not like this is new for Apple; they've had propriet…

> they've had proprietary cables and adapters for as long as I can remember. Apart from Lightning, which was created when no better alternative existed, I cannot remember a proprietary Apple connector in at least the past 10 years.

>Apart from Lightning, which was created when no better alternative existed

They could have easily went with USB-C.

Re: Addressing Spotify’s Claims

#386
post #350

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How are Apple trying to prevent people using Spotify or Netflix on smart TVs and Linux desktops?

I suspect spiderfarmer meant that Apple is trying to prevent "[Using] spotify and netflix without going through apple", at least on iOS.

How? I use Netflix on my iPad all the time and not once has Apple tried to stop me.

Re: Addressing Spotify’s Claims

#387

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Xcode is now free: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/xcode/id497799835?mt=12 (although you still have to have a mac)

If you want to publish your stuff in the AppStore, or just install it on your own iDevice , you have to pay a yearly subscription fee.

> install it on your own iDevice, you have to pay a yearly subscription fee.

Not true anymore [1]

[1] https://stackoverflow.com/questions/43932076/how-to-build-ap...

Re: Addressing Spotify’s Claims

#388
post #361

I love how brazen this letter is. > Apple’s approach has always been to grow the pie. Apple's approach has always been to grow it's own pie. They have never been even remotely interested in playing nicely with other companies. I don't fault them for it, but let's not kid ourselves here; the app store is largely an extremely profitable exercise in rent seeking. It's not like this is new for Apple; they've had propriet…

MS tools are not free for commercial as any certification required to sign (was discussed in HN as few weeks ago) apps and installers. 99$/year for that is a better porposal than the one in MS.

Re: Addressing Spotify’s Claims

#389
post #361

I love how brazen this letter is. > Apple’s approach has always been to grow the pie. Apple's approach has always been to grow it's own pie. They have never been even remotely interested in playing nicely with other companies. I don't fault them for it, but let's not kid ourselves here; the app store is largely an extremely profitable exercise in rent seeking. It's not like this is new for Apple; they've had propriet…

There’s a thread of truth in what you’re saying, but it unravels on close inspection.

Proprietary cables are hardly new, and to be fair those cables and connectors are usually way better than the standard stuff. Firewire and thunderbolt were actually released as open standards and saw decent adoption. Lightning is far superior to Micro-USB. Just listen to the wailing and gnashing of teeth by Macbook owners having to give up proprietary MagSafe for USB-C charging on their laptops.

XCode is free and has been for ages. To this day you can develop whatever you like for the Mac and not pay Apple a penny. You don’t even have to use XCode to do it. It’s even free for iPhone development for your own device now, though you have to pay a fee to publish stuff. I’m not sure what you comment about emulators is about to be honest, The iOS emulator for the Mac is free.

Yes they want their cut from Spotify. I don’t understand the Apple exceptionalism about this though. Nobody rages on HN about Sony’s monopoly over games development for the PlayStation, or Microsoft for XBOX, or Nintendo for the Switch, but for some reason Apple which came to this business model two generations late is the root of all evil. It really is kind of weird how that works. Maybe if their iconic image was a cute little plumber instead of a half eaten fruit, everyone would say 'Aww how cute' and give them a pass.

Re: Addressing Spotify’s Claims

#390
post #290

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep. > Spotify’s aim is to make more money off others’ work. And Apple's aim is to make more money off that more money. It's such an obviously, laughably stupid argument they're doing there.

Well, Apple just want to "grow the pie." Although growing on the pie seems a more apt metaphor. Defending 15% fees on second-year subscription is pretty difficult. There's no marketing, very little fraud risk. It's really rent-seeking behaviour – which of course is the commercial point of the walled garden approach. This is Apple exploiting a very lucrative market position, one that they did invest quite a lot of mon…

> This is Apple exploiting a very lucrative market position, one that they did invest quite a lot of money in – and took quite a gamble – to create.

What's wrong with that?

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