I think it is important to point out that this is the worst ARM computer Apple will ever ship. I am guessing that these laptops are nowhere near comparable in price.
Brand new, a 2017 15-inch Macbook Pro was $1999. The 2020 13-inch Macbook Pro is $1299 with 8GB/256GB. (A used 2017 Macbook Pro is around $500-800 on eBay.)
- Big brands and startups are basically required to have an app in the App Store if they want to succeed.
- Every year a new version comes out that requires developers to fix bugs and sometimes adopt new technology.
Here are the cons:
- Extremely difficult to build an indie business on iOS given that there is a single distribution channel that you don't control.
- The learning curve is pretty steep.
Here are some other points:
- Good iOS developers are harder to find than good web developers (feels true to me, it might not be).
- You probably won't be on call as an iOS developer (this is important to me, it might not to you).
Developers are paid well across the board. I would pick a technology you enjoy working in and isn't in decline. I believe developers are more likely to succeed if they chase their interest over their salary.
Big brands and startups are basically required to have an app in the App Store if they want to succeed.
I don't think that will continue to be the case for much longer. It's mirroring the web to an extent - for a long time every business needed to have a website, and now more and more don't bother with anything more than a holding page that directs users to a few social media accounts. Brand apps are likely to go the same way, especially as Apple are doubling down on rejecting apps that don't provide useful functionality now.
Having an app for your brand is worthwhile if you have something to say and something for users to do. If you don't it's painfully obvious that the whole effort was a waste of time.
Just because you don’t personally value something doesn’t mean it isn’t valuable. Anyway, it’s clear that the issue here is that you simply want apps to go away. Not that they are.
I wish upgrades were easier on the iOS side, but in some instances users are demanding new features. Take for example split screen on the iPad. I takes time to figure out what your interface should look like in different dimensions. I am not sure what Apple could have done about that in advance.
Upgrades on the web take time and resources too. So I don't think this is unique to iOS.
I guess it is a general software problem. Breaking changes in the platform forces developer to put effort into keeping application functioning and that needs to be paid for somehow
I don't have any direct experience of building a business on Android. Last I heard iOS users spend more money on the App Store than Android users. I think this implies it is harder. I would think they are both pretty difficult probably in the same order of magnitude to each other.
So: on net, the single distribution channel provides access to paying customers, in turn making it easier—-not harder—-for indies to build a business there.
Which makes it wrong to say iOS’s single distribution channel is bad for indies: it’s actually good for indies.
Unless you claim that walled garden and paying users occurring together is a sheer coincidence.
I think they are talking about plastic not recycled or collected in a landfill.
"Only around 1 per cent was left uncollected and leaked into natural environments. Though only a small percentage, this nevertheless represents a significant environmental problem, since the amount of plastic waste is so high overall, and since the natural degradation of plastic is so slow, it accumulates over time."
Ah perhaps. I feel like we can assume the same people who don't put plastic in the recycle bin or trash can today will continue to do so no matter how efficient plastic recycling is.
Fair enough. But if plastic can be recycled more efficiently the price should go up on used plastic, so in theory some people won't just walk past it on the ground.
I admit that is a lot of supposition and pie-in-the-sky thinking though.
Right, so the real problem is that the end consumer doesn't get paid to recycle plastic. We've seen that can/bottle buyback programs (where the user gets a deposit back) work wonders.
You don't get paid because the economics of recycling plastic are bad. You can simply make new plastic for cheaper.
So it is possible that a sufficiently efficient recycling process would lead to greater demand (and thus the willingness to pay) for used plastic, which would lead to more people recycling. That's basically what happens with aluminum.
But, you still find aluminum cans discarded by litterers all the time, because at the end of the day it's only worth a couple cents. And at the end of the day, 50% of those end up in a landfill anyway. So I don't think any amount of recycling tech is going to make too much difference in reducing that.
It might help a lot with ocean plastic though. That's made from fishing nets and (ironically) recycling plastic just dumped into the ocean.
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