Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Apple, Amazon, and Common Enemies

stratechery.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–47 of 47 posts

Re: Apple, Amazon, and Common Enemies

#41

Post by freepor »

yazaddaruvala wrote: post #21
three_seagrass wrote: post #17

It's still baffling that Apple is allowed to have such strict controls over their platform while still competing with the products they're charging rent to to be on it (i.e. iTunes & Spotify). I get why some make the analogy with Grocery Stores and stocking their in-house brands (e.g. Safeway with Signature, Apple with iTunes), but with Apple, it's like the customer has already bought the grocery store and Apple is s…

This might be an unpopular opinion on HN, but I don't only pay Apple for the smartphone's hardware. I'm also paying Apple to curate my experience. As a developer, I understand wanting to get access to a large user base. I understand wanting to keep costs down, especially as an indie dev. And I definitely understand wanting to keep my margins high, to fund better development but also retire early! As a customer, I'd p…

But shit like not allowing seeking from the lock screen for Spotify but allowing it for Apple Music is not “curation,” it’s anticompetitive behavior which should be illegal.

Re: Apple, Amazon, and Common Enemies

#42

Post by codeisawesome »

yazaddaruvala wrote: post #21
three_seagrass wrote: post #17

It's still baffling that Apple is allowed to have such strict controls over their platform while still competing with the products they're charging rent to to be on it (i.e. iTunes & Spotify). I get why some make the analogy with Grocery Stores and stocking their in-house brands (e.g. Safeway with Signature, Apple with iTunes), but with Apple, it's like the customer has already bought the grocery store and Apple is s…

This might be an unpopular opinion on HN, but I don't only pay Apple for the smartphone's hardware. I'm also paying Apple to curate my experience. As a developer, I understand wanting to get access to a large user base. I understand wanting to keep costs down, especially as an indie dev. And I definitely understand wanting to keep my margins high, to fund better development but also retire early! As a customer, I'd p…

Would your opinion change if the EARN IT bill passes? You’d now have the App Store forced to ban apps that won’t share encryption keys with US Govt. if I understand it correctly. That complete lack of choice to side load apps with strong encryption is grating to me. I don’t know if I can trust Android either (proprietary code that calls home to Google or Samsung) so I have no idea how to choose at this point.

Re: Apple, Amazon, and Common Enemies

#43

Post by ralfd »

three_seagrass wrote: post #17

It's still baffling that Apple is allowed to have such strict controls over their platform while still competing with the products they're charging rent to to be on it (i.e. iTunes & Spotify). I get why some make the analogy with Grocery Stores and stocking their in-house brands (e.g. Safeway with Signature, Apple with iTunes), but with Apple, it's like the customer has already bought the grocery store and Apple is s…

The real analogy is video game consoles.

Re: Apple, Amazon, and Common Enemies

#44

Post by xorcist »

askafriend wrote: post #23
yazaddaruvala wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This might be an unpopular opinion on HN, but I don't only pay Apple for the smartphone's hardware. I'm also paying Apple to curate my experience. As a developer, I understand wanting to get access to a large user base. I understand wanting to keep costs down, especially as an indie dev. And I definitely understand wanting to keep my margins high, to fund better development but also retire early! As a customer, I'd p…

> I'm also paying Apple to curate my experience 100% agree. I pay the premium because of the walled garden. I prefer it. I want Apple to have a tight grip over suppliers. I want Apple to have a tight grip over the experience on their platforms. I want Apple to have a tight grip over their 3rd party developers. In fact, I say this as an engineer myself; I even develop for Apple's platform so I'm impacted by their dev-…

> I pay the premium because of the walled garden. I prefer it.

As a Debian user, I can mostly relate to this.

The problem is when Apple's incentives are not aligned with the consumer.

That they do not allow a real Firefox on the iPhone to keep their browser engine relevant might be a small price to pay for some people, but certainly not for everyone.

Re: Apple, Amazon, and Common Enemies

#45

Post by tomhoward »

modsRapple wrote: post #20
xkjkls wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They own basically all consumers making six figure salaries. That is the high end customer base Ben is talking about.

I've seen the opposite, but I'm in embedded engineering. I imagine lawyers and physicians are less tech savvy and more susceptible to Marketing.

I have no dog in the fight but HN users who are generally reputed as being authorities on security seem to recommend iOS as being more secure than Android.

Re: Apple, Amazon, and Common Enemies

#46

Post by yazaddaruvala »

wstrange wrote: post #30
yazaddaruvala wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This might be an unpopular opinion on HN, but I don't only pay Apple for the smartphone's hardware. I'm also paying Apple to curate my experience. As a developer, I understand wanting to get access to a large user base. I understand wanting to keep costs down, especially as an indie dev. And I definitely understand wanting to keep my margins high, to fund better development but also retire early! As a customer, I'd p…

> I'm also paying Apple to curate my experience. Which is totally fine. But why not allow customers to make that decision? If the Apple App store truly delivers an experience that warrants a 30% uplift, consumers will pay for it.

I do make that decision. I install very few apps. I use a browser for the majority of my non-messaging phone time.

I explicitly don’t want the non-walled-garden stuff to be installable on my phone (by me or my friends or my kids). I don’t want 3rd-party stuff to have the same experience/performance as a native app, which I grant more trust. I like the visual cues, permissions management and temporality while using the browser for low trust or low value add content.

Re: Apple, Amazon, and Common Enemies

#47

Post by three_seagrass »

TrainedMonkey wrote: post #31
three_seagrass wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I don't agree with their analysis of Disney+ either. It's as you say, these big corps are trying to claw back revenue that Netflix has been enjoying. I doubt the reason Disney really went into Disney+ was to enhance the Disney magic experience or whatever. Maybe if Walt were still alive. It seems more likely that Disney did the cost/benefit analysis and decided that Netflix subscriptions were not zero sum and t…

Disney+ is more than just a revenue stream. It is a sales channel for their brand. If you have Disney+ you are going to watch more Disney content... and if you watch more content you are going to buy more merchandise (0). Modern Disney is a brand company making money from selling merchandise (1). Even more importantly Disney+ is a platform. Most little girls in western countries (3) already dream of being a princess.…

Until you can purchase merchandise inside Disney+ it's as much a sales channel as HBO Go is for Game of Thrones.
Post reply on HN