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Apple Threatens to Remove Email App 'Hey' From App Store Over Lack of In-App Subscription Option [Updated]
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Apple getting increasing hostile towards third party devs as a means to protecting that services revenue.
People didn't think anybody was actually paying for TV plus/Apple Arcade/Apple News did they?!
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When some mention EU commission my first thought is Central Committee.
Apple doesn't have monopoly in smartphone space and they can do whatever they want with their AppStore.
This is just between Apple and developers. Do they want to support the platform if rules are not the same.
And of course they are not cause it's hard to close the door to someone like Netflix, but on the other hand Apple closed the door to nVdia for not playing by rules, so anything is possible.
Apple doesn't have monopoly in smartphone space and they can do whatever they want with their AppStore.
This is just between Apple and developers. Do they want to support the platform if rules are not the same.
And of course they are not cause it's hard to close the door to someone like Netflix, but on the other hand Apple closed the door to nVdia for not playing by rules, so anything is possible.
The most ****ed up thing is, Apple is creating services of their own to compete against the same developers they're forcing their 30% fee on.
Apple forcing Spotify to pay 30% of their subscription revenue? Oh, we have Apple Music, which we're preinstalling on every iOS device and promoting it first on App Store searches. And with Apple Music, we don't have to pay ourselves 30% of the revenue which means we have more money to spend on music licensing.
Apps like Spotify adds huge value to iOS. But Apple is turning it around and ****ing them in the ass. Every app in the App Store is in danger of getting treated like Spotify.
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How did Apple close the door on Nvidia?
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I don’t think all developers would switch to android, for the simple reason that ios is still home to the best spenders, even after the 30% cut.
The key reason that developers are still on iOS is because they still earn more on iOS, just that they now want to earn even more (by paying Apple less).
The main issue I see here is that the App Store model has transformed apps from a position of scarcity to one of abundance, and thus, commodified. If one app developer calls it quits, there are easily a dozen similar apps that can get the job done.
So the reality is that the individual app developer needs Apple more than Apple needs them. They are free to try Android; it would simply be cutting off the nose to spite the face.
I am sorry but I will never agree that competition for competition's sake is a good thing. I used to be in the music industry and, a couple of decades ago, you required talent and commitment to get a chance to have a record released. Then technology came along and "levelled the playing field". Granted, some talent surfaced that otherwise wouldn't have, but for every one situation like that there were now 10,000 where the person who could now make and distribute music had no business doing so! The overall effect of this "access" and "innovation"? A market flooded with crap! Just because you can do something doesn't mean that you should! So making the iOS platform more accessible will most likely lead to an overall lowering of average quality of the apps available...same as it did with the music industry. Democratisation leading to "innovation" isn't always the Nirvana that people would have you believe!!
As to your second point, I don't think too much of iOS, not at all. I realise that iOS wouldn't survive if the poor widdle consumer couldn't use their favourite apps. I personally would lose precisely zero sleep over that as I use my phone as a phone, an email client, a messaging service (WhatsApp) and a web browser...so everything else could disappear tomorrow for all I care!
But if you really think that Devs would make up all the lost revenue on Android then you are sorely mistaken. BECAUSE iOS is a "walled garden" it means that "cracked" (pirated) apps just aren't a thing. But Android doesn't offer that same security. For the very reasons that you are applauding (being able to side load apps to have an alternative to the Play Store), it also means that apps can be cracked and distributed via Torrent and the like. So you would have huge amounts of people using your apps...and only a much smaller number paying for them.
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So like a medical specific social media platform?
If everyone's favorite apps are gone, then all users will move to Android. Period. Yes, even the wealthy iOS users will move. Apps are everything.
The commodified apps don't hold power. No one cares if a smaller calculator app that does the same thing as 100 other apps move to Android-only.
The apps that can persuade Apple are the high powered ones like Netlix, Amazon, Spotify, etc. They can band together and force change.
But Apple is smart. If they could, they would force Facebook to give up 30% of the advertising revenue or get out. But of course, Apple won't do that. It bends the rules just for Facebook's business segment so Facebook doesn't become Android only.
Thus, Apple is making unfair rules.
Couldn't agree more.
I think what is happening here is that the uptake on some of these new services News/TV/Arcade has been what they hoped and they are having to get aggressive in protecting the App Store as that is where the majority of the services revenue comes from.
Keep in mind that they are increasingly seeing some of the big players refusing to pay their App Store Tax. Netflix pulling out cost them about half a billion in revenue.
So the dev wants to avoid paying fees, bypass the App Store terms and conditions, and also want access to all the iOS customers via the App store.
In this instance Apple is right. Sure, the fee might be high, but compared to what? Where else would you be able to access potentially billions of customers?
If I downloaded an app and I had to pay by a third party website and not the app store, I would avoid it. This could do them more harm than good.
In this instance Apple is right. Sure, the fee might be high, but compared to what? Where else would you be able to access potentially billions of customers?
If I downloaded an app and I had to pay by a third party website and not the app store, I would avoid it. This could do them more harm than good.
And Netflix was right to pull out.
It makes no sense what's so ever for Netflix to pay Apple 30% when a user sees signing up on iOS as just a convenience but spends majority of its time watching Netflix on televisions.
In that sense we agree indeed. Whether it should be way less, I don't know. But charging a lesser fee is something completely different from allowing sideloading or competing app stores, which would make for a totally different experience, more like android. It's not something I want.
No one thinks it's wrong. Apple deserves a cut. The problems are how much of a cut, and how is Apple abusing its rules to favor its own apps and apps that are important to them.
For example, why doesn't Apple force Facebook to give up 30% of all ad revenue generated from its Instagram, Facebook, Messenger, and Whatsapp apps? They are digital revenue after all. Why make rules on digital revenue but conveniently leave out Facebook-type apps?
Oh right! Because Facebook will say f you and go Android only which means there will be a mass iOS exodus from its users.
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I think you think too much of side-loading apps. I'm willing to bet that 99.99% of apps are acquired through the Play Store on Android. And anyone installing non Play Store apps on Android probably knows the risks involved.
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Yep, I bet they hardly lost a single subscriber either because the vast majority just subbed directly with Netflix.
If I had to guess I'd say App Store and the money Google pays for default search make up the vast majority of Apples services revenue.
Then they've got Music with say, 50-60 million users paying average of around $10. I reckon the rest of their services barely move the needle.
Hence, they need to continue to force more and more apps to get on that 30% tax.
If Apple has any balls, it'd try to pick on the big players. Ask Facebook for 30% of all of its revenue generated on iOS. It's all digital revenue, right? I want to see this fight.
But I doubt Apple has the balls to take on Facebook.
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Yes. Some developers take the hit in order to bypass the 30% tax. To some, it's totally worth it, such as Netflix. To smaller ones, it's probably not worth it.
The problem is that Apple has made this a grey area by not consistently applying its own rules equally. The dev hasn't included any links or instructions telling people to sign up online (a precedent set by other apps) and expected that that would be fine. If people can't figure out where to make an account, that hurts the app devs, not Apple.
I can’t help but wonder how everyone defending Apple would feel if they implemented the same App Store policies on Macs and didn’t allow you to download your own apps.
After all, if the iOS App Store as it is today is so great, imagine how your Mac experience will be elevated. Less malware, better battery life, better privacy, ... /s
After all, if the iOS App Store as it is today is so great, imagine how your Mac experience will be elevated. Less malware, better battery life, better privacy, ... /s
They already paid the developer license. How about instead of jumping on the developer point out the obvious stupid rules that Apple continues to push (and break themselves) within the App Store?
but nah, that’s way too hard for you people around here.
Why not like on Mac OS X? You can buy it from the Mac App Store or buy software and services from other sources? Give us the freedom what to install and how we want to install it.
There is no reason to restrict installation of apps threw the App Store except for greed.
If people still want to buy it threw the App Store, then fair play to Apple and they deserve their 30% cut.
Exactly!
Apple is trying hard to do this by the way.
I bet with the move to ARM processors, they'll make it harder and harder gradually to install apps freely on Mac.
Thats what is so bad about this.
They know they can't get into with a Google or a Facebook, they can't risk YouTube or Instagram being pulled from the platform they are happy to bully smaller companies though.
Having access to the best apps is but one of many reasons for my preference of iOS. I will likely still stay (and perhaps reconsider going back to stock apps). It just means the developer loses me as a paying customer were he to move to android.
It also makes a pretty compelling argument for Apple to have their own services like music streaming, just like they created their own mapping service to replace their reliance on google maps. This way, if Spotify ever did decide to play punk and withhold their service from iOS (perhaps as part of negotiations for better terms), Apple could just tell them to F off because they have an equivalent alternative to prevent users from following Spotify to Android.
Lastly, I continue to stay by my initial assertion that Apple’s 30% revenue cut is not unjustified and personally, it’s a hill I am willing to die on.
Here’s my argument, summarised.
1) I suspect Apple is not making as much money from the App Store as people make it out to be. Revenue is one thing, profit is another once you deduct the hefty costs of hiring all the people to manage the store.
2) As mentioned, there are many forms of app monetisation that Apple does not get a cut of. They don’t get facebook ad revenue, they don’t get a share of Uber rides or food deliveries, and they don’t get a cut when I buy clothes from Zalora.
I think we can all agree that nobody is expecting that Apple run the App Store at a loss, and the $99 a year from developers don’t even come close to breaking even. As such, the only source of revenue they can get is from app sales and subscriptions. So those who can pay, should pay.
3) I don’t agree that Apple should open up iOS to competing app stores, because that would weaken the main selling point of iOS - security.
The rules don’t strike me as unfair, but they do appear to be quite inconsistently enforced. If anything, it just means that Apple ought to do the same to larger companies like Netflix and Spotify, rather than continue to make exceptions for other developers.
That's what I'm saying.
If Apple has the balls to force Facebook & Google to pay 30% on all digital revenue generated on iOS, then I have nothing else to say.
If Facebook & Google pay, fine. I will pay too. You got us Apple.
But if Apple is always bending rules for the big boys but ***** the smaller ones over, I have no respect for it.
Honestly, Netflix has Apple by the balls and Apple knows it. Apple apps play by different rules as Apple TV does not have to pay the 30% cut.
If Netflix takes Apple to court, Apple will loose so that is probably why Apple let Netflix do whatever they want to do.