I don't think there's anything in this article that HN readers won't be aware of, but it's nice to see the issue getting attention in the mainstream press.
I've actually found this situation somewhat difficult to explain to non-techies, and this is a good breakdown for them.
I just want to chime in here to say there are those of us who still defend Apple's right to take a reasonable cut of the proceeds from apps running on a device, firmware, and libraries that Apple has spent probably a million person hours developing. The fact that Apps go to such ridiculous circuitous routes to avoid paying the fee just demonstrates further that if Apple allowed Apps that run due to a financial relationship outside of the Appstore it would immediately be exploited constantly and would massively damage Apple users' experience with all the scams and BS that come with the average desktop experience.
For the overwhelming extreme majority of apps, I don't mind "supporting them" by buying the ad-free IAP or something but with one extremely important thing: I don't want them to have my card info, email, basically like I've handed them their $5 and it ends there. I don't want marketing from them. I don't want them to load ads or analytics of any kind if I've bought it.
If they allowed this I'd expect everything to load some kind of rubbish crashy invasive payments SDK asking for a credit card to circumvent the fee, and nobody to take my existing Apple balance or similar.
Agreed. As a user, I really don’t care that Apple takes their cut. If you’re a developer, either figure out how to make your business work with the Apple taking their cut, or go out of business. The market doesn’t care either way.
I love apples draconian policies against apps: it results in consumer benefit not consumer harm.
I love closed platforms on a phone (not on a Mac). I love Apple for not allowing people to side load, change the font or other useless things that only developers and power users care about. When you look at Apple, I think of my mom and grandparents. They are the people Apple is protecting. They are the customer that can only really use Apple because Apple protects them from nonsense. Go apple. Go App Store. Go 30% cut and all the rest of the policies people constantly complain about. It’s inconvenient? Boo boo! Go into another business then.
Totally agree with this sentiment, this is exactly why I choose the Apple ecosystem time and time again. I think Apple understands their customers very well.
what about cases (think Spotify?) wherein they transfer the 30% burden onto consumers? Is there a trade off between paying 30% tax vs benefit of one platform?
I for one sub to Spotify outside of the app store. But I know the hassle that I've to deal with and I might not be the consumer type Apple wants to "safeguard".
You can have a walled garden but not charge 30% for it. You can have all the protections in place but not charge 30% for it. Also scam apps can and will use Apple's IAP to scam your grandparents still.
That cut makes no sense if you have a generic service that works on any commodity hardware like netflix. Apple does not help or provide your business value. Giving them a cut is stupid and potentially dangerous if they ever launch a competing service.
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[ 2.6 ms ] story [ 40.4 ms ] threadI've actually found this situation somewhat difficult to explain to non-techies, and this is a good breakdown for them.
The app itself isn't broken, but a significant piece of it—the new user pathway—clearly is. I'd say that satisfies the title.
If they allowed this I'd expect everything to load some kind of rubbish crashy invasive payments SDK asking for a credit card to circumvent the fee, and nobody to take my existing Apple balance or similar.
I love apples draconian policies against apps: it results in consumer benefit not consumer harm.
I love closed platforms on a phone (not on a Mac). I love Apple for not allowing people to side load, change the font or other useless things that only developers and power users care about. When you look at Apple, I think of my mom and grandparents. They are the people Apple is protecting. They are the customer that can only really use Apple because Apple protects them from nonsense. Go apple. Go App Store. Go 30% cut and all the rest of the policies people constantly complain about. It’s inconvenient? Boo boo! Go into another business then.