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

Epic says Apple will reinstate developer account

9to5mac.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

541–550 of 653 posts

Re: Epic says Apple will reinstate developer account

#541

Post by grishka »

Aloisius wrote: post #243
grishka wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not their house. Someone bought an iPhone (not leased, bought, they own it now). Someone else made an app that that person wants to install on their iPhone (solely thanks to app developer's own marketing efforts). But Apple thinks it's appropriate to have their finger in the pie too.

Nobody bought the Apple SDKs or OS though and every app depends on them. I get people are use to free, but plenty of companies license software for royalties that does a lot less.

> Nobody bought the Apple SDKs

That's what the $99/year fee is for. Apple set that price themselves. It can also be argued that some of the cost of the SDKs is included into the price of the Mac that any iOS developer has to have.

> or OS

That's included into the price of every iPhone because you can't even buy an iPhone without an OS or install your own, like you can do with PCs.

Re: Epic says Apple will reinstate developer account

#542

Post by grishka »

its_ethan wrote: post #285
grishka wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not their house. Someone bought an iPhone (not leased, bought, they own it now). Someone else made an app that that person wants to install on their iPhone (solely thanks to app developer's own marketing efforts). But Apple thinks it's appropriate to have their finger in the pie too.

Does apple having designed, developed, and manufactured the phone as well as having built, maintained, and serviced the App store mean nothing? The App store is a highly trusted place to download things on your phone, and that's a value that apple provides and that costs money to maintain. Pretending that it's as isolated as you pretend feels very disingenuous.

I'm an Android developer myself, but the app store is commonly seen by my iOS colleagues just as a stupid hurdle they must clear to get their app out to the world. Not as the godsend that Apple portrays it.

If the app store is truly as immensely useful as Apple wants everyone to believe, why not enable full-on Android-style sideloading on iOS and let the app store compete with that on its own merits? Surely everyone would still prefer it if it's so great?

Re: Epic says Apple will reinstate developer account

#543

Post by btown »

Brian_K_White wrote: post #518
freedomben wrote: post #438

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does it harm trust in Apple's brand? From what I can gather, people who already love and trust Apple want them to do this. They view the status quo as better, and would likely lose trust if Apple didn't fight this as much as possible.

I think there are certainly some people like this, but only some. I think there is these 2 things to consider: Obviously this will change nothing for most people. Baseline, 99.9% people will not be doing anything different today than yesterday. I think the way Apple acts is ridiculous and outrageous, but I already thought that and already don't have an iphone. My wife doesn't even know who Epic is or anything about i…

> will there ever be anyone that goes the other way

I'm sure that some teachers, as well as parents who have seen large credit card bills for Fortnite lootboxes, are grateful that Apple is aggressively targeting one of the banes of their existence. If anything, they'll be disappointed that Apple blinked and let Fortnite continue to exist!

In seriousness, though, I do wonder if some of the sheen of "you need to have blue iMessage bubbles to be one of the cool kids" has been irrevocably damaged by this. Perhaps Apple reversed its decision rapidly enough. I suppose only time will tell, but at minimum it's the type of risky move that seems desperate on Apple's part.

Re: Epic says Apple will reinstate developer account

#544

Post by chii »

mr_toad wrote: post #510
amluto wrote: post #389

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Microsoft simply lacked the network effects MS beat Apple to market by a considerable margin. Windows Mobile substantially predates the iPhone, and it was actually usable. (I had one of their flagship devices.) But MS’s OS concept was incoherent, their UI was laggy, their web browser was unbearably slow despite arguably superior hardware, their form factor was not snazzy. And, unlike Apple, they utterly failed at m…

Microsoft repeatedly tried to put Windows on a phone and it didn’t stick. Apple didn’t bother, they used an entirely different UI from the start, and it was a UI aimed at everyone from kids to grandparents, not just tech people.

> put Windows on a phone and it didn’t stick.

that's because they half assed it.

There's always the risk that mobile phones supersedes the desktop, and thus cannibalize the desktop windows sales. Microsoft also likely not able to force OEM licensing in the same way that they could with windows on PC sellers.

If you could literally run windows apps on a phone back then, i reckon the MS phones would've at least grabbed some marketshare. Of course, the mobile hardware back then isn't as powerful, so there's the excuse that win32 cannot run there.

Re: Epic says Apple will reinstate developer account

#545

Post by Moldoteck »

roamerz wrote: post #533
Moldoteck wrote: post #529

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple should follow eu laws if it wants to do business withe eu. I know, sounds crazy right?

My suggestion would give consumers an additional choice. Sounds like that is something you are against? I thought that this was what this was all about.

Dma offers exactly that. Consumers can (or will be able to) choose to use apple defaults or not at any time of owning the device

Re: Epic says Apple will reinstate developer account

#546

Post by dwaite »

blibble wrote: post #310
PlutoIsAPlanet wrote: post #279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't really see it as prioritising your own browser. It's a system level feature and uses the system provided web engine. Microsoft doesn't let you swap out EdgeHTML or Trident for applications that use the native OS web frame. But apps shouldn't be forced to use that web frame is the issue the commission had and the DMA attempts to resolve.

> Microsoft doesn't let you swap out EdgeHTML or Trident for applications that use the native OS web frame. I remember quite clearly a gecko (firefox) implementation of the trident COM interface

However, there wasn't a flag by Microsoft to give applications this implementation rather than the one they requested.

Re: Epic says Apple will reinstate developer account

#547

Post by dwaite »

Brian_K_White wrote: post #519

Clown car. They were a threat yesterday, but they're not a threat today? They weren't a threat yesterday either but, what, an automated process or a rogue intern wrote those pr statements? You leave the keys to those accounts just lying around for any flunky to post from like that? There is no non-clown-car way to explain it away.

We won't know, because just one side is releasing selective communications as part of their PR.

There was communication before Apple approved Epic's Swedish subsidiary to get an account, and there could very well have been other omitted communication as part of this exchange and after as part of the resolution.

Re: Epic says Apple will reinstate developer account

#548

Post by dwaite »

turquoisevar wrote: post #500
j_maffe wrote: post #246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Their stock took a major hit.

What are you on about? Today they were in the green and on the day this played out, March 6, the needle barely moved. The dip started 2 days prior on March 4, the day the EC announced their ~$2B fine based on TFEU, which has nothing to do with the DMA. One the appeal is filed it’ll go back up, as it’s already almost back to before that news. And then a week later when Cook farts, it’ll dip again. Such is the nature o…

Apple's stock dip is mostly unrelated to the EU - it is primarily related to Apple losing double digit percentages of sales to Huawei in China, after they had disappointing numbers in the prior fiscal quarter reporting.

2 bil € is a fair bit of change but also something that will be in appeals for years.

Re: Epic says Apple will reinstate developer account

#549

Post by dwaite »

Aldo_MX wrote: post #501
wolfendin wrote: post #406

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why does Epic get the privilege to force me to buy things through their store?

Because everyone else basically said "the new conditions are bad, I won't risk my business", but in the particular case of Epic they're banned from Apple's walled garden, so even the terrible terms are better than nothing.

They aren't banned from the App Store. The agreement that Epic's Swedish subsidiary is the standard developer agreement, and they can publish whatever they like in the App Store as long as they follow Apple's guidelines.

Apple has said as much for the main developer account in the past.

It is highly unlikely Epic would publish anything in the App Store, however, even ignoring the bad blood.

Part of operating an App Marketplace is that you are agreeing to the EU rules which include a core technology fee. So even an app with no in-app purchasing on the Apple App Store would cost them a substantial amount to publish.

Re: Epic says Apple will reinstate developer account

#550

Post by isodev »

astlouis44 wrote: post #41

Amazing how fast this decision was reversed. It's truly awesome to see regulators standing up to walled gardens. This will greatly benefit both developers and consumers.

Apple really didn’t make this easy for themselves. In addition to all the legal stuff, they literally gave “the finger” to every EU developer and customer of theirs.
Post reply on HN