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FTC Looking Into App Store Rules Regarding Subscription Services
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You overestimate the savviness of the average consumer. Yes, in an ideal world, everyone would shop around for the best deal. But I think if I saw the $13 price tag in the Spotify app, I'd reasonably assume it was the same price everywhere else, and notice that Apple Music is 'cheaper'. If Spotify wanted to charge the same price as Apple (and still allow users to make the purchase in-app) they would only be making $7 for every $10 that Apple Music makes. And the extra $3 that Spotify doesn't make is going to Apple as well. And Apple makes even more money from device sales. The result is far from a level playing field for companies like Spotify and Pandora to compete with Apple.
*****IMO***** apple is clearly stomping on a thick red line and will be sued. I love all the "Well, if they don't like it, they can leave the app store" comments. So simplistic and mundane.
Even before they entered the music streaming business apple were standing on that red line. but now? are you kidding me? they will be sued and they will probably lose.
One needs to look at IE and the MS saga to know where this is going.
Apple is forcing their competition to either be more expensive or match their pricing and lose money.
Not to mention that their music service is already pre installed on the iphone which no one is mentioning. Imagine if they preinstalled a game similar to angry birds, how is this ok?
Apple just lets business innovate and when an industry is hot they go in. That much is clear.
I would be very surprised if this won't turn into a big fat lawsuit in the coming months.
Even before they entered the music streaming business apple were standing on that red line. but now? are you kidding me? they will be sued and they will probably lose.
One needs to look at IE and the MS saga to know where this is going.
Apple is forcing their competition to either be more expensive or match their pricing and lose money.
Not to mention that their music service is already pre installed on the iphone which no one is mentioning. Imagine if they preinstalled a game similar to angry birds, how is this ok?
Apple just lets business innovate and when an industry is hot they go in. That much is clear.
I would be very surprised if this won't turn into a big fat lawsuit in the coming months.
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Spotify is whining like the little btches they are.
They should have had people sign up on Spotify.com from day one and never had an in-App purchase option. Then they'd get 100% of their subscription fees.
They can place a link at their site that takes you straight to their App in the App Store as soon as you sign up. Because, you know, Apple allows this.
Pretty damn simple procedure. But no, Spotify wanted wanted quick and easy to hundreds of millions of iOS users. So they ALSO allowed purchases in-App. Now that they're established they're whining.
They should have had people sign up on Spotify.com from day one and never had an in-App purchase option. Then they'd get 100% of their subscription fees.
They can place a link at their site that takes you straight to their App in the App Store as soon as you sign up. Because, you know, Apple allows this.
Pretty damn simple procedure. But no, Spotify wanted wanted quick and easy to hundreds of millions of iOS users. So they ALSO allowed purchases in-App. Now that they're established they're whining.
By your link, it sure doesn't look like countless developers are making millions of dollars in the App Store. A very small percentage are making the majority of the money.
With over $10 billion paid out to devs, you better believe a lot of them are doing well. Then there ARE countless devs who work for companies that have free Apps (banking, shopping, schools and numerous businesses).
You think these people aren't getting paid to develop these Apps?
Not sure what your point is. Are you complaining about how much devs make?
They are getting paid as software developers. Whether they are writing apps or not, it doesn't matter.
They are when their whole purpose is to poach iOS users to a different ecosystem.
Why would I buy an Android to use Google Mail when I can use it right here on my iPhone?
Because you are missing all the other google apps that complete the ecosystem properly. While you can use them on iOS, they work so much better on android.
I'm not complaining about anything. Earlier in the thread someone made the comment about how many developers were getting rich in the App Store. I asked who was getting rich. I received answers stating there were countless developers making millions of dollars, etc etc. I was ridiculed, insulted, etc. funny that no one making the claim provided any evidence beyond stating Angry Birds and a couple of other games, a far cry from countless.
Then a user posted a link that showed that more than half of the App Store developers made less than $500 per month. Only 1.6 percent of the developers made the majority of the money. So therefore, there aren't countless people making millions a year. A tiny percentage make the lions share and there are tens of thousands who make peanuts.
I asked a legitimate question and a few people got bent out of shape about it. One user provided a credible link. Check it out.
I'm all for the little guy making money.
That's the thing, Apple is getting paid an annual fee for offering and supporting the service. They may get away with charging 30% as a one time fee for every app sold but they can't get away with charging 30% every month. Why are they able to do it? I'm not downloading the app every month so that bs about the servers does not count.
And that's why they charge developers an annual fee. We're already paying for that. If I offer a free app they wont charge me anything extra for having it in the appstore or for the updates I push in. If I offer a service they want to charge me 30% every month for what exactly? For a one time download?
But you actually think that 800 million people read this forums? They don't know Spotify charges 9.99 on their website and 12.99 on the appstore because of Apple.
sued for what?
my interpretation is now that apple music has launched, ftc is going to reexamine the policy.. it was ok before but things have changed somewhat since apple now has a competing service in play.
seems you think ftc has launched some grand investigation into the app store since inception.. pretty sure ftc has been there all along and i imagine they have an ongoing relationship with apple.
but few if any dollars have been made by apple off apple music thus far as everyone using it is morelikelythannot on trial.. so there's not much of a case for 'apple made all this cash off their app due in part to unfair practice' (or whatever)..
-or-
what are you imagining this big fat lawsuit to be about. exactly?
That's… not how Google works. They make most of their money off advertising, not device sales. If anything, they use Android to get more people using their services, not the other way round. Apple and Google have never needed to compete on that front.
This is getting off-topic, but you already answered my question, which is that no one sells iOS apps without using Apple as a middleman. If Apple's method of distribution isn't working for you as a developer, then you really have no other choice. The user can't choose from anywhere else to download their iOS apps. It is this which makes it harder to forgive Apple for some of their harsher policies.
if apple was doing it the way grocery stores do it, apple would own spotify and compete it against their rebranded personal product.
grocery industry is one of the worst examples to use for fair practice.. we think there are thousands of choices etc but there are 5 brands in albertson's
It might be now that they've fielded a direct competitor against the music services they're offering in their own store.
didn't mean to imply it was.
idk, was just answering the question about how it's different than grocery stores selling store brands.