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

What happens when you dump the App Store?

techcrunch.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 127 posts

Re: What happens when you dump the App Store?

#71

Post by paulkafasis »

astrodust wrote: post #58
dirtae wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Piezo, Rogue Amoeba's app, was removed from the Mac App Store with "minimal publicity", according to their blog post: https://weblog.rogueamoeba.com/2017/02/10/piezos-life-outsid...

They're also a very savvy company that has their own store. They didn't have to do any work other than turn off the App Store listing. Smaller developers may have to go through considerable pain and anguish in setting up their own store, or they can suffer through even more angusih and pain when the store they entrusted to do their sales goes down in flames, as with Kagi. https://tidbits.com/article/16665 Being self-…

We started small and with no obvious path for going from the app we'd made, to running a company. Nevertheless, we were able to figure it out back in 2002, and it's gotten easier since.

It's slightly more work to sell outside the App Store, yes, but it's really just not that difficult. If a developer plans to make a living, or even just side income, from app sales, it's work that's worth doing.

Re: What happens when you dump the App Store?

#73

Post by js2 »

spott wrote: post #4

The value-add of the mac store is just not very good anymore. There are only three reasons people might buy something from the mac store vs. from the developer directly: 1. To keep it getting updates through the app store vs. having to download from the developer when a new update comes out. 2. They found it in the mac store, and thus purchased it in the mac store. 3. They trust apple to reduce the risk of malware wh…

4. Minor but: if you have more than one machine, the app installs across machines for you.

Re: What happens when you dump the App Store?

#74

Post by abrowne »

codys wrote: post #41
milankragujevic wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe on windows 7 or 8/8.1, but on 10 I see no download, how can I download an ISO without downloading a program? Plus let's say I have a metered connection (that I often do, when I'm away from home) and my windows 10 broke by itself as it often does? I can't go to a library or something and download the iso because I don't have admin permissions and microsoft's tool requires admin permissions. I'm not trying to cri…

If you browse from windows, that page only shows Microsoft's special "Download Program". If you browse from linux, it shows links to directly download the ISO files. I'm not sure what it does if you browse from MacOS. Maybe try changing your browser's useragent? Frankly, it is a bit annoying that Microsoft tries to push their download tool.

> I'm not sure what it does if you browse from MacOS.

ISO

Re: What happens when you dump the App Store?

#75

Post by kalleboo »

cstejerean wrote: post #16
jedberg wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But if an app is not available on the app store, does that stop you from getting it? That's a consumer benefit but it has no corresponding benefit to the developer, so it's unlikely to be a good argument for a developer to stick with the app store.

If it's a well known application I will go out of my way and buy it outside the store if that's the only way to get it. But for some random app that I just found I have to wonder if it's worth getting it from outside the store (and frequently the answer is no). I need to a) give my credit card to a random website that will probably get hacked in the next 12 months, b) start getting unsolicited email campaigns in abou…

> give my credit card to a random website that will probably get hacked in the next 12 months

Pretty much everyone takes PayPal which shields you from this

Re: What happens when you dump the App Store?

#76

Post by comex »

jedberg wrote: post #20
vkou wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a developer benefit if consumers feel averse to buying software that they can't re-download/update from a centralized software store (App Store, Steam, etc).

Right but that is my point. I don't think anyone would be averse to buying an app outside the app store just because it doesn't have that feature. That could explain why someone chooses to buy it in the store if it is available both on and off the app store, but it's unlikely that there is many (any?) people out there who refuse to install an app that isn't in the app store.

I think you're looking at it the wrong way. It's not about refusal. It's not (primarily) a red line where crossing the line means you get no sales at all from the X% of people that care. It just incrementally raises the bar that customers' varying levels of desire/motivation to buy the app have to clear before they decide to go ahead. There are many other factors that probably have a greater influence on that bar, including price, convenience of the purchasing process, perceived quality of the product, etc. But that doesn't mean smaller factors don't matter at all. To get a sense of how much they matter, you'd have to measure it, but I doubt that things like license management convenience are completely irrelevant.

Re: What happens when you dump the App Store?

#77

Post by CharlesW »

astrodust wrote: post #70
CharlesW wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even if you're not the mighty Rogue Amoeba, services like FastSpring[1] seem to make it pretty easy. [1] http://christiantietze.de/books/make-money-outside-mac-app-s... #noaffiliation

This is why I mention Kagi. When you go all-in on a third party service it might tank and then where are you?

I know you know the answer to this (i.e. move to another vendor, as you would for any vendor that goes away), so my apologies in advance for not understanding the point you're trying to lead me to.

I guess I don't understand the alternative. Go out of business?

Re: What happens when you dump the App Store?

#78

Post by Karunamon »

spott wrote: post #4

The value-add of the mac store is just not very good anymore. There are only three reasons people might buy something from the mac store vs. from the developer directly: 1. To keep it getting updates through the app store vs. having to download from the developer when a new update comes out. 2. They found it in the mac store, and thus purchased it in the mac store. 3. They trust apple to reduce the risk of malware wh…

I'm not too sure 1 is a problem in the real world. Most popular outside-of-app-store apps I'm aware of have built in updating mechanisms. Think Sparkle and the like.

If you use iTerm, you know what I'm talking about.

Re: What happens when you dump the App Store?

#79

Post by astrodust »

CharlesW wrote: post #77
astrodust wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is why I mention Kagi. When you go all-in on a third party service it might tank and then where are you?

I know you know the answer to this (i.e. move to another vendor, as you would for any vendor that goes away), so my apologies in advance for not understanding the point you're trying to lead me to. I guess I don't understand the alternative. Go out of business?

I think the choice is between using a solid platform like the App Store or something like it, or building your own using tools that won't go away either. Stripe, PayPal, things like that.

It takes a lot of effort to build out your own store and get it right, this is no small task, which is why the 30% fee charged by these stores is not necessarily the biggest obstacle.

These intermediaries add considerable risk.

Re: What happens when you dump the App Store?

#80

Post by i336_ »

i336_ wrote: post #46

To mods: I flagged this to bring attention to the clickbait title: this is NOT referring to iOS. The post title here is the same as the article title but I would still recommend changing it, even if just to " macOS App Store".

Small edit - I just realized "Mac App Store" could work as well, that's what I understand it's usually called.
Post reply on HN