> But now that the iPhone is ubiquitous, the App Store has become part of the basic infrastructure of the internet.
I spend tens of hours every week online and not even a minute of it on Apple's App Store. So no, it's not "a part of the basic infrastructure of the Internet", rather a service that exists thanks to the Internet.
I don't get this article. The author claims that enormous control and suffocating fees stunt the work of creatives, while at the same time not acknowledging the existence of a myriad other options. Don't like Apple? Don't use its services, and that's it.
> Apple’s gatekeeper status is holding back the growth of the creator economy.
Then move to something else?
> But now the App Store is not one small outpost for developers and creators to make a living. It is an unavoidable, ubiquitous forum for commerce.
It is not. This is the view of someone who only knows about Apple's ecosystem.
Sadly the iOS platform is pretty popular (25-50% in most developed countries), and a walled garden par excellence, so ignoring it is ignoring a decent part of your potential market.
People looking for paying customers. Iphone users are much more lucrative. An iPhone is also a status marker which is why most apps start as ios exclusives. It’s much easier to develop for since there are fewer devices and you can expect a certain performance. I would love to see this flipped for the simple reason that I think Apple is complacent and anti-innovation but in the meantime this is the reality we have to deal with.
Golly, I bet if I build for Android I can get half of all the users in the USA to move to that platform too! That way everybody who has a smart phone could all use my app...
Aww shucks, my app is a game for kids though and 90% of the youth are on an iPhone. Maybe though all I have to do is release it for Android and they'll all see what's really cool and come piling in!! Right?
Let's get real though. I would have a better chance of getting to everybody if I lobby the government to force Apple to open up. The way I see it they shouldn't be allowed to decide for half the US or 90% of US youths that some app should or should not exist.
> Aww shucks, my app is a game for kids though and 90% of the youth are on an iPhone
Really? I would have thought people would be hesitant to buy expensive devices for everyday use for kids. Do you have a source showing the distribution of that particular market? Not saying you're wrong, just that it sounds weird.
It seems like if you got famous outside the platform, they will be flexible with you. Although, the Wikipedia article says binding of Isaac is still banned
As an Android user I can side load apps, but I have only done it once or twice and I had a very creepy feeling doing it.
The other issue is that I don't ever want to have to use anything but google, apple or PayPal for anything recurring because I never know how hard it is to cancel. Sadly I am often forced to.
I don’t think the article’s comparison with Stripe is valid. The App Store is not just payment infrastructure. It provides distribution and discovery as well. A more valid comparison would be with Amazon.
> It provides distribution and discovery as well. A more valid comparison would be with Amazon.
Comparing the distribution of megabytes of packages vs physical packages with all the associated real world logistics? Really? One is drastically easier and cheaper.
Of course. That’s exactly my point. I don’t know what cut Amazon takes from sellers. But you would expect it to be higher than Apple’s cut, since it is dealing with physical goods. The comparison would be interesting. (Unlike the comparison with Stripe.)
'the camera on the first iPhone' definitely wasn't a 'world class tool'.
The camera on the first iPhone was terrible! I had a Nokia N95 at the time, and the quality just blew the iPhone out of the water. The iPhone's camera was so bad instagram had to come along with extreme filters to get a decent sort of image out of it, although, look how that turned out...
Also, saying the App Store "is an unavoidable, ubiquitous forum for commerce" really just isn't true. I manage to avoid it fairly successfully.
And crying about a $1000 cap on in app purchases as being harmful? Please, you're killing me.
I can forgive almost anything Apple chooses to do with its app ecosystem. I'm not going to use it, it's none of my business.
Safari? That's where they are doing real harm to the economy. It's 1000x worse than IE ever was. At least you _could_ move on from IE when it stagnated. Apple won't even allow real browsers on iOS. It crosses the line between limiting consumer choice to strangling it out to keep users trapped in their walled garden. The market can't solve the problem, the government needs to step in and twist their arm IMHO.
I don't develop apps for the App Store so I don't know what it's like to go up against the beast. But Apples logic makes sense to me. If developers want their 30% back then they should develop a marketing pipeline that funnel users to their preferred payment method. If the 30% is at all worth it then it make sense to devise a way to capture as much of it as possible.
On the flip side, it's not a free lunch. Developers will have to spend money to get users on boarded outside of the App store.
With that said, I agree that 30% is too much and makes Apple look greedy.
You mean like a subscription or selling in-app add-ons? Apple take 30% of that too. Trying to circumvent it by pointing to an outsider payment service is a banable offence. In the Epic games Vs. Apple mails have been shown that shows they even talked about banning Netflix because they let you pay on netflix.com. Someone smaller than Netflix would have been removed from the AppStore.
For example, ACME Developer could post ads that lead to a web-based signup flow (optionally collect payment info), then provide an App store link.
Until the user provides payment info (via in App or payment site), use an semi-aggressive email drip campaign to steer users to the payment website.
Some percentage of user will find (and use) the App Stores payment process. The hope is that those that due use the website make the campaign payoff in the long term.
True, but those subscriptions can’t be purchased through an iOS app. Nor can you direct users from an iOS app to your web site to purchase the subscription there. Both are against Apple’s rules. You have to just hope users figure out how to subscribe on their own. Or give Apple their 30%.
I spend tens of hours every week online and not even a minute of it on Apple's App Store. So no, it's not "a part of the basic infrastructure of the Internet", rather a service that exists thanks to the Internet.
I don't get this article. The author claims that enormous control and suffocating fees stunt the work of creatives, while at the same time not acknowledging the existence of a myriad other options. Don't like Apple? Don't use its services, and that's it.
> Apple’s gatekeeper status is holding back the growth of the creator economy.
Then move to something else?
> But now the App Store is not one small outpost for developers and creators to make a living. It is an unavoidable, ubiquitous forum for commerce.
It is not. This is the view of someone who only knows about Apple's ecosystem.