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Every year I fill out this survey from Apple, for Apple developers

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Re: Every year I fill out this survey from Apple, for Apple developers

#61

Post by saagarjha »

dangus wrote: post #59
twhb wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can make a bad native app, but you can’t make a good Electron app. Edit to add: Lots of people are mentioning Visual Studio Code. I agree it’s a good app in many dimensions; I didn’t mean to say that an Electron app can’t be good in some ways, even in the most important ways, but rather that Electron introduces flaws that prevent the app from being good in all ways. In particular, while faster than most Electron…

Only takes one counter-example to dismantle this method of thought. ...........VSCode

Is there another?

Re: Every year I fill out this survey from Apple, for Apple developers

#62

Post by reeddavid »

I'm not an app developer, but I am equally frustrated as a user on several of Wil Shipley's key points:

1. Ads for competitors. Sure, show me ads. But don't replace my exact match with an ad that takes up the whole screen. As a user who searches for apps, I find this outrageous. If the App Store was solely an advertising network I would understand. But Apple takes a 30% commission! Get out of my way and let me find what I'm looking for, then take your commission.

2. Upgrade pricing. I'm tired of abandoned apps, especially those I paid for initially. I don't expect developers to work for free (nor do I want to have 100+ subscriptions). Let me upgrade to major new versions.

3. Subscriptions for everything. Ugh. Sometimes it makes a lot of sense to buy something outright and use it for its useful life. There are many apps I never use because I don't want yet another subscription, but I would have happily purchased.

4. Trials. Not on Wil Shipley's list, but how on earth do we not get trials? I don't want in-app purchases to "unlock" the app. I just want to try it out for a couple weeks before I buy. I have foregone many possibly great apps because I couldn't be confident they would work for me. And I've wasted money on apps that looked like they would work for me, but didn't.

EDIT: I see trials have been possible for 2 years! I had no idea. I guess I haven't encountered any, which seems odd.

As a user, I feel that Apple has created a race to the bottom and they've made the app ecosystem way less valuable to me. I would be happier if upgrades and trials allowed me to spend more money to get more valuable iOS apps. Instead I regret some purchases, avoid some purchases, can't tell how much apps actually cost, have to find new apps when old ones are abandoned, and don't trust that I'm able to discover and buy the best apps.

Re: Every year I fill out this survey from Apple, for Apple developers

#64

Post by josephg »

MintelIE wrote: post #20

I have simply stopped buying "apps" even though I am still an iOS user. Quite a few of my purchases have just disappeared over time. I moved to a newer device and they couldn't be installed. I'm not happy with Apple and I got rid of my modern Macs (still have 1/2 dozen SE/30s) completely, now I use Debian or OpenBSD. Apple is extremely tight lipped on what they're doing and where they're going, they will support and…

They bailed on zfs when oracle bought sun. The semi opensource license sun distributed zfs under wasn’t good enough for Apple, so (I assume) they wanted an explicit license. I assume Oracle tried to milk as much as they could from Apple and apple walked.

From what I understand, a lot of apple engineers were really disappointed about dropping zfs. It’s sucks they can’t talk about it.

Re: Every year I fill out this survey from Apple, for Apple developers

#65

Post by chadcmulligan »

josephg wrote: post #58
twhb wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can make a bad native app, but you can’t make a good Electron app. Edit to add: Lots of people are mentioning Visual Studio Code. I agree it’s a good app in many dimensions; I didn’t mean to say that an Electron app can’t be good in some ways, even in the most important ways, but rather that Electron introduces flaws that prevent the app from being good in all ways. In particular, while faster than most Electron…

VS code is really good. Somehow it feels way better to program in than Xcode does. But I don’t know any other electron apps that feel responsive. Slack, discord, Notion... all super simple apps which respond like molasses.

There are better choices than both of these imho - Appcode and Jetbrains for example.

Re: Every year I fill out this survey from Apple, for Apple developers

#66

Post by arexxbifs »

alexashka wrote: post #28

One day it'll dawn on people that we should provide infrastructure that guarantees safety and freedom, not walled gardens that provide safety and freedom only if it also happens to be profitable for somebody. There seem to be enough people who don't see this as self evident and are motivated to try and create their own walled gardens in the hopes of becoming the next rent seeker overlord. These types of posts never e…

Every time Google/Apple/Microsoft/Whatever behave like the revenue-driven megacorp thugs they are, a substantial amount of HN readers act surprised and I'm surprised by the constant surprise. The track records of those companies clearly tell us, time and time again, about their true intentions and loyalties.

> an iota of dignity

That's a bit harsh, man.

Re: Every year I fill out this survey from Apple, for Apple developers

#67

Post by sneakymichael »

dangus wrote: post #59
twhb wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can make a bad native app, but you can’t make a good Electron app. Edit to add: Lots of people are mentioning Visual Studio Code. I agree it’s a good app in many dimensions; I didn’t mean to say that an Electron app can’t be good in some ways, even in the most important ways, but rather that Electron introduces flaws that prevent the app from being good in all ways. In particular, while faster than most Electron…

Only takes one counter-example to dismantle this method of thought. ...........VSCode

VSCode is the most sluggish app I use on my 2019 Mac, by far. I genuinely don't understand how people can say that it feels responsive and like-native, unless they have much more performant equipment than I.

I use it because it's packed with useful functionality, but …I resent using it– I think I'd adore it if it were native.

Re: Every year I fill out this survey from Apple, for Apple developers

#69

Post by api »

The App Store sharecropping model is bad enough, but it adds insult to injury that app stores (ALL of them!) are so absolutely horrible. The search functionality is terrible. Discovery is terrible. The developer experience is terrible. They're just total amateur hour. For something Apple and others want to push it really seems like they're not putting any resources into making them not suck.

Re: Every year I fill out this survey from Apple, for Apple developers

#70

Post by jennyyang »

The only way we effect change is by ORGANIZING.

Right now, Apple can do whatever they want because they pick us off one by one, and ignore us. Google does exactly the same thing. If we organize as a large enough group, they have to listen. I firmly believe what Apple does is anti-competitive and they need to be regulated firmly by the government. I also think Google and Facebook need to be firmly regulated by the government as well.

Apple needs to allow other people to create their own App Store or they should be regulated by the government. We need to organize as a group of software developers and sue Apple and lobby our politicians, because that seems to be the only way Apple will listen.

I also agree that subscriptions are NOT the way to go, and having paid upgrades are the best way to go. Driving down the costs such that things are freemium has ruined our industry as far as I'm concerned. I want to pay good money for a good piece of software, but even $0.99 is "expensive" for most people these days. This needs to stop otherwise iOS app development will become the sweatshop of the 2020s.

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