And again it shows you don't even understand the basic issue. API-pricing is metered, nothing in Apollo and Apollo pricing is.
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Apollo Now Offers Option to Decline Refund Ahead of June 30 Shutdown
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Why would he even bother when spez has been shown to be willing to lie about and slander him publicly? Most people would think “nah I’m out”, why would you continue to work with a company who lie about you?
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Most chargeable content is metered online. Apple Music, Netflix, carrot weather. These companies charge per average typical use. Apple could charge you more if you listen 24/7 but they don’t. They’ve come up with a price that covers their costs on average.
What is rubbing others the wrong way is that some people keep telling them that Mr. Selig is doing things that he quite obviously isn’t. And telling them that they don’t realize he made a lot of money, when they already know this (and have repeatedly pointed that out.) And lecturing them on how hard done by that poor, big corporation is compared to that mean, rich programmer. And telling them what they can and can’t do with their own cash. Weird that these people don’t have enough self-awareness to recognize that this would be far more annoying to many, than some programmer that wrote a decent program asking his users to consider declining an automatic refund if they felt he had done them a service in the past.
I remember that I started using it since the Pixel Pals were implemented on the dynamic island, and I loved it ever since. It’s sad to see that this beautiful app (that looks way and feel way better than the actual Reddit app) is going to disappear. Huge respect to the devs for all the hard work and passion put in this project.
I don’t think he’s ever said that. He’s been pretty clear that he is going to be fine after the shutdown, if you read his posts on Apollo subreddit.
I don’t begrudge him offering subscribers the option to turn down the refund, or the wallpapers - I don’t see this as “a guise that he will need food stamps”. He has generated some goodwill with his user base - not with you, I think we get that! - and maximizing his return on his work.
No because that would be a stupid assumption that's not even relevant to the point.
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Which you can do if you are Apple. And which you can't if you are alone and have no idea how it turns out. You'll need to add a lot of margin. And you don't have the power Apple has to negotiate decent prices.
The typical Apollo user doesn't pay anything for Apollo. The typical paying Apollo user paid a one-time fee several years ago ($1-$5 to get Pro). The typical heavy user paid a one-time lifetime Ultra fee ($20-$50). Only a small minority pay a monthly subscription for $1.50. Now switch to a plan where you pay $10+/month to be on the safe side.
This is obviously much more expensive than anything before. And nobody knows how many will use it, most likely not many. Subtract the Apple tax and he will earn a few thousand Dollars per month. But he has to pay infrastructure fees and a backend developer and still has to maintain the app for his 100-1000 users who shell out serious money and expect premium support for premium money. In addition, opportunity costs arise because he can't take on a regular job ($300k+ as an ex Apple engineer) or work on other projects with more potential.
It is clear that at these API price points it would become a niche product that might cover the costs but not much more. This is OK for a student but makes no economic sense for an actual business.
Developers would take their business somewhere else, app store will fall, people will hate iPhones because native apps are no longer a thing, and move to Android.
I'm fine with Apple being allowed to make that rule because I know Apple is smart enough not to do it. Similarly, reddit should be allowed to do the same thing and let the market speak.
Doing a quick reverse image search shows you gave up Twitter because of Elon (though, your likes activity shows you still login to Twitter recently even after saying "I’ll just stop looking at this platform"). Now I'm guessing you're in a dilemma of whether or not to say goodbye to Reddit too. Ouch. That surely explains your frustration. 🤭
Ok, and should everyone who has ever sold apps on Apple platforms be forced to refund their users if that happens?
Does it mean that every single app developer out there making software for Apple's platforms is currently guilty of "stealing" by using Apple's tools and APIs for free that they can't guarantee will still be there tomorrow?
It's "literally" nothing of the sort. He's asked people if they want to waive their right to a refund. They can choose not to. Or they can choose to receive it. There is no definition of the word stealing that could possibly be stretched to cover that.
I'm a long term Apollo user and I think that, notwithstanding that he's clearly become very emotional about it, the developer's position has been reasonable all along. Before Reddit announced the pricing, he was very publicly positive about them charging for API access; he accepted it was a perfectly reasonable thing for them to want to do, given that it limited their ad-revenue.
In contrast, Reddit have clearly been disingenuous about the objective of the charging structure. Claiming that the third-party apps cost them $10m, whilst proposing to charge a single third-party app more than twice that. That's their right as a company to do so and to profit from it, but the pretence they've put up that this is about other people not profiting from their IP and work is laughable, given 100% of the content they profit from is provided free by users who are moderated for free by mods. I would have had a lot more respect for them if they'd just said "we want to kill third party apps".
I'm sure the developer will be fine, he made a good product that people valued and paid for. That doesn't constitute stealing, and I'm sure he'll earn good money with whatever company hires him - he won't go hungry - but if people got enough value from the product to make them essentially decide to donate the few dollars of refund, what's the harm in him asking?
I’m very concerned about this apollo cult-like behaviour here in this forum. I’m deeply confused how brainwashed some of the readers are I’m very seriously scared about the state of our society when so many can be so easily manipulated with their feelings without logic. Even Reddit itself have turned around and recognize this disgustung act yet this forum continuing to be filled with delusional posts. I’ll quote you some sound arguments from /r/Apple sub itself
The article reads like the refund is automatic, so you didn’t actually need to find it to get refunded, only if you wanted to prevent the refund. That’s why I don’t really understand some users’ apparent anger at this option, since it is an option, and one you need to make an effort to choose.
Because he’s lying. And playing everyone with this victim act. He’s not paying everyone out of pocket, those wasn’t his money. It’s money held by him for future services. It’s not our problem that he went and spent all this held money.
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Wow, that’s like Jim Jones criticizing the Moonies. Pot, meet kettle. I actually had no interest in Reddit or Apollo and was trying to avoid the toxic nature of this thread, but seeing your complete misrepresentations of the few facts I have read here and in the news made me feel the need to post. I expect your posts have actually created several fans for Christian, when they get to see what he had to deal with.
Again, accusing him of lying seems ironic, considering the the article contradicts almost everything you’ve been posting, but I guess you just call yours alternative facts.
You seem obsessed with “out of pocket”, but even say it is held by him. Where is he holding it? Everyone realizes that it was payment for future services, so I’m not sure why you think that only you realize this. It truly isn’t your problem if he didn’t save the cash, so don’t click the button and you will get a refund, but stop telling people how to live their lives. It makes you sound like a cult leader!
Bingo. I've been waiting for the greed to show up on the developer's side in a very public way and here it is. It's business. You paid for a service they are not providing anymore and they still want you to pay? It's like paying $50 a month for water service and when they can't provide you water to the tap they still take your $50.
You're comparing apples (pun intended) and oranges.
Apple's business depends on those developers as much as the developers depend on Apple. The same was not true for reddit. Apple had a phone with no App Store, remember? Apple realized a better business model would be to have an App Store specifically for developers to submit their applications. The applications make iPhone better, and both Apple and developers make money in the process.
In the case of reddit, they were literally paying for 3rd party applications to exist, which didn't show users ads, and the developers of those applications made millions, while reddit made nothing.
So there's no point in answering your question, because it isn't ever going to happen. It's not something that's likely to happen. It's surprising that API access was free for as long as it was at reddit.
Just watch what these "protestors" will do soon. They have stolen 80GB of Reddit data and will release it to the public if Reddit doesn't make their API free.
This thing is far from over.
I'm aware that reddit previously didn't charge for API access, yes. I'm also aware that they are now choosing to charge for that service. They don't have to react reasonably (whatever that means), because it's their business. They can choose to do whatever they want.
I'm not siding with big giant corporations, I'm siding with common sense. Reddit is a business, and they aren't profitable. They were literally paying server costs for these 3rd party apps to exist and they don't want to anymore. It doesn't matter what the reason is. It's their decision to make. Not ours.
Also, I got a good laugh at "small developers." Look into how much money Christian Selig has made from Apollo. He's a millionaire.