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You’re Paying into a Broken System Whenever You Buy Something on iOS

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51–60 of 230 posts

Re: You’re Paying into a Broken System Whenever You Buy Something on iOS

#51
"For each card processed, a developer will pay an average processing fee of around 2% to 3%"

My understanding is that credit card processors, Stripe for example, charge $0.30 + 2.9% of the transaction amount. So for an $0.99 purchase that is roughly 33 cents. On large purchases your statement is true, but in-app purchases average $0.99.

Re: You’re Paying into a Broken System Whenever You Buy Something on iOS

#52
post #9

>On no other platform would we accept a scenario where the owner of that platform dictated not only the tools developers can use, but restricted the ways they talk about their products and pricing. We would call it unfair, monopolistic, and overbearing. But on our smartphones, it’s just a fact of life. I am pretty sure game consoles have been doing this basically since their existence. None of them allow you to make…

It is an issue on game consoles too, just because it has somehow become accepted it doesn't mean it isn't an issue that you cannot run whatever you want on your own hardware. "Others are doing too" isn't much of an excuse.

Also note that it isn't all game consoles, there are various open game consoles, though since they are not made by huge companies with huge marketing budgets they are not as popular (perhaps Atari's new Linux powered console[1] will change that, but we'll see). However their existence means that games consoles are not synonymous with locked down walled gardens.

[1] https://atarivcs.com/

Re: You’re Paying into a Broken System Whenever You Buy Something on iOS

#53
post #29

I had a while ago calculated the actual download cost with S3's pricing on what each ~100MB Spotify update would cost if it was self hosted. Assuming each paid and free Spotify customer on the iOS platform updated the app was something to the tune of tens of thousands of dollars depending on how you estimate the marketshare of iOS for Spotify versus their other platforms. What the App Store provides is not valueless,…

The value is that Apple allows distribution. Distribution could be handled any number of ways for considerably less. It is only valuable (especially at 30%) because it is the only one allowed.

Re: You’re Paying into a Broken System Whenever You Buy Something on iOS

#54
post #2

I am happy buying stuff from the iOS store. It's convenient, quick and easy. No objection as an end user.

Your views don't change even after learning that most of your purchases that are to support developers are being skimmed by 30% ? (similar situation to Steam but at least their development tools are nearly bug free, and really help development) The problem here is that they also charge 100 or $50 just to start developing on their platform...

So did you buy software from retail when they were taking 60%? Do you buy music when the artist only gets pennies? Do you use Spotify where the artist gets even less?

Do you realize that it costs thousands of dollars to develop for either the Playstation or Nintendo and you have to sign an NDA? Do you buy console games?

Re: You’re Paying into a Broken System Whenever You Buy Something on iOS

#55
post #2

I am happy buying stuff from the iOS store. It's convenient, quick and easy. No objection as an end user.

Great! Let the iOS App Store compete in the free market on its own merits. I suspect it will do quite well—it's installed on all phones by default, and consumers trust it (for good reason). The App Store should not be the only way to get software on an iPhone, sans literally hacking the device.

But it does. There are other phone platforms I could buy. Flagship android hardware is quite nice, and similarly priced. And in the past Apple has outcompeted to death windows phone and WebOS and Palm OS and BlackBerry, all of which had more open app distribution models.

I want to Apple to be the benevolent dictator of what software is on my phone, And I am willing to pay higher up prices, and put up with missing features in order to protect their revenue stream in exchange for that.

Re: You’re Paying into a Broken System Whenever You Buy Something on iOS

#56
post #9

>On no other platform would we accept a scenario where the owner of that platform dictated not only the tools developers can use, but restricted the ways they talk about their products and pricing. We would call it unfair, monopolistic, and overbearing. But on our smartphones, it’s just a fact of life. I am pretty sure game consoles have been doing this basically since their existence. None of them allow you to make…

> I don't want to be forced to trust every company with my credit card information This problem is solved with Paypal.

And modern banks that offer their customers "one time use" credit card numbers that you load up with an exact amount, and expire after a few hours if not collected on by a third party.

Re: You’re Paying into a Broken System Whenever You Buy Something on iOS

#58

Disagree. Every system has problems. Look at what happened with Zoom — unrestricted access to your entire user account on MacOS, for them to do whatever they want. Normal people should not have to even think about a virus or malware scanner on their system. I like where Apple is going and I like the iOS model. Most of all, I know that people like my parents will be better protected from malware and spyware and crypto…

Except this ignores the fact that there has been spyware and malware on Apple's store. Which perhaps gets removed eventually, but what about services that sell your data to the highest bidder without Apple's knowledge? Apple's offered security is relative to their definition of security. All it takes is your parents to install a malicious app that passed the app review. Deferring to Apple as some sort of security baby-sitter is just lazy and blind to the truth.

Re: You’re Paying into a Broken System Whenever You Buy Something on iOS

#59
post #9

>On no other platform would we accept a scenario where the owner of that platform dictated not only the tools developers can use, but restricted the ways they talk about their products and pricing. We would call it unfair, monopolistic, and overbearing. But on our smartphones, it’s just a fact of life. I am pretty sure game consoles have been doing this basically since their existence. None of them allow you to make…

You could label the same of almost any toolset. Look at rechargable tools in construction.

Look at the IP protection around John Deere equipment.

While none of this is especially good, it's hardly a unique problem.

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