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

iOS Kindle app now has a ‘get book’ button after changes to App Store rules

theverge.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 189 posts

Re: iOS Kindle app now has a ‘get book’ button after changes to App Store rules

#51

Post by threeseed »

digianarchist wrote: post #41
paxys wrote: post #8

Smart that developers are quickly updating their apps while Apple is still appealing the decision. Once users get used to the added purchase options and cheaper pricing there's no going back, regardless of what the final ruling is.

Is anyone confident that Apple will win on appeal? By the effort developers putting into payment-flows I would say they aren't, but depending on the volume it could be purely for short-term gain.

Courts don't care about the amount of effort developers are spending to take advantage of the window before an appeal has been ruled on.

Re: iOS Kindle app now has a ‘get book’ button after changes to App Store rules

#52

Post by mvdtnz »

gjsman-1000 wrote: post #38
paxys wrote: post #8

Smart that developers are quickly updating their apps while Apple is still appealing the decision. Once users get used to the added purchase options and cheaper pricing there's no going back, regardless of what the final ruling is.

This also, long term, could kill the 30% commission. Why, as a developer, would you be stupid enough to launch your app as a paid product on the App Store? Your discoverability is massively impaired, we already knew that. You also give Apple 30% of your cash. Free app + external web purchase = maximum discoverability at 0% tax. When things get more advanced, that web purchase link will be an authenticated URL - meani…

If Apple and their payments system offers as much value as they think then the market will make the determination, now that that's possible.

Re: iOS Kindle app now has a ‘get book’ button after changes to App Store rules

#53

Post by makeitdouble »

wmf wrote: post #48
paxys wrote: post #8

Smart that developers are quickly updating their apps while Apple is still appealing the decision. Once users get used to the added purchase options and cheaper pricing there's no going back, regardless of what the final ruling is.

Apple will change the rules back in seconds if the court decision is stayed. Literally billions are at stake here.

They might, but they'll have lost the "it's for consumer's good" battle through and through.

4 years ago some people were still swallowing the security or privacy argument, and users didn't understand what they were missing. This time any of these facades will be broken to death.

Re: iOS Kindle app now has a ‘get book’ button after changes to App Store rules

#54

Post by burnte »

isodev wrote: post #44
digianarchist wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The likely outcome is that Apple will reduce the 30% to something at least marginally competitive with alternative payment systems.

The entire “store” model needs to go away. Phones are computers now, just let people download and install whatever they want or need.

Apple will never do this voluntarily.

Re: iOS Kindle app now has a ‘get book’ button after changes to App Store rules

#55

Post by no_wizard »

granzymes wrote: post #7
havaloc wrote: post #2

If Apple eventually wins their appeal think among how hard it will be to put the genie back in the bottle.

If this significantly cannibalizes Apple’s App Store revenue I would actually expect that they come up with a different way to monetize (maybe based on installs or number of users). They could also implement that independent of the injunction, which applies to steering rules.

I'm surprised they haven't simply forced tiered pricing for their developer program.

You still need that to get on the platform. They could charge based on the relative size of the business. Why not charge Netflix 50K? They won't give up the platform and the consumer - even for Netflix - likely wouldn't enjoy going to the web browser exclusively.

Perhaps that pushes more PWA's but really, I doubt the big corps would balk at this.

Their scale would need to be exceedingly reasonable to keep the smaller shops from rioting though.

Re: iOS Kindle app now has a ‘get book’ button after changes to App Store rules

#56

Post by int_19h »

dmitrygr wrote: post #14

App Store revenue was a significant source of income for Apple. Money that paid for development of iPhone and iOS. I don’t know what sort of idiotic thinking it takes to imagine that they won’t need to find another way to recapture that money. It will probably come in the form of higher costs for development licenses, or hardware. For example, absolutely nothing stops them from charging you for using the SDK. No one…

Apple platforms are already kind of notorious for having the highest price sticker to develop/publish apps for.

Re: iOS Kindle app now has a ‘get book’ button after changes to App Store rules

#57

Post by threeseed »

gjsman-1000 wrote: post #38
paxys wrote: post #8

Smart that developers are quickly updating their apps while Apple is still appealing the decision. Once users get used to the added purchase options and cheaper pricing there's no going back, regardless of what the final ruling is.

This also, long term, could kill the 30% commission. Why, as a developer, would you be stupid enough to launch your app as a paid product on the App Store? Your discoverability is massively impaired, we already knew that. You also give Apple 30% of your cash. Free app + external web purchase = maximum discoverability at 0% tax. When things get more advanced, that web purchase link will be an authenticated URL - meani…

a) It's 15% for most developers.

b) Buying a product through IAP is one click. Versus having to go to a signup page, provide details, enter credit card details, wait for credit card verification flows etc. The drop off in conversions during this can be often greater than 15%.

c) Apple's centralised subscription management has been extremely useful and consumer friendly. Versus having to now deal with NY Times style scam tactics for every subscription again.

Re: iOS Kindle app now has a ‘get book’ button after changes to App Store rules

#58

Post by lilyball »

gjsman-1000 wrote: post #38
paxys wrote: post #8

Smart that developers are quickly updating their apps while Apple is still appealing the decision. Once users get used to the added purchase options and cheaper pricing there's no going back, regardless of what the final ruling is.

This also, long term, could kill the 30% commission. Why, as a developer, would you be stupid enough to launch your app as a paid product on the App Store? Your discoverability is massively impaired, we already knew that. You also give Apple 30% of your cash. Free app + external web purchase = maximum discoverability at 0% tax. When things get more advanced, that web purchase link will be an authenticated URL - meani…

That sounds like an awful user experience. There's no way I'm ever buying a mobile app that requires me to go enter my credit card into a website to pay for it. Cross-platform services can justify this sort of thing (because you're buying a subscription to the service across all platforms), but doing it for what otherwise would be a paid app purchase is incredibly user-hostile.

Re: iOS Kindle app now has a ‘get book’ button after changes to App Store rules

#59

Post by paxys »

wmf wrote: post #48
paxys wrote: post #8

Smart that developers are quickly updating their apps while Apple is still appealing the decision. Once users get used to the added purchase options and cheaper pricing there's no going back, regardless of what the final ruling is.

Apple will change the rules back in seconds if the court decision is stayed. Literally billions are at stake here.

Sure, but customers aren't going to be defending their decision after that like they always do.
Post reply on HN