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U.S. Antitrust Committee Likens Tech Companies Including Apple to 'Oil Barons and Railroad Tycoons'

Unregistered 4U said:
They don’t really HAVE to monetize it. They can announce plans to shut it down giving all developers 1 year to inform their customers and have them switch to Windows, macOS or Android. Then, they develop all the important apps like YouTube themselves.

In what market? And remember, if you use a company’s trademarked name in the description, you’re not talking about a market. You’re talking about a company‘s product.
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Nobody will allow Apple built apps onto their own services, and why would they. There are thousands of apps that are used by hundreds of millions of people every day. It’s not just YouTube and other derivates of Modern Day TV. I deem that an impossible idea.
 
Unregistered 4U said:
Dystopian... great suffering or injustice... because a developer has to pay 30% to Apple? The same system that has garnered some developers many hundreds of thousands, even millions of dollars?

Can’t say that I can draw that connection.
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It’s just the process of becoming Goiath after playing David for a while. Of course they’re turning into that big fat big brother gatekeeper that has to be paid in order to do business on half the market.

Rewatch the 1984 ad, the connection is easy to draw.
 
ericwn said:
It’s just the process of becoming Goiath after playing David for a while. Of course they’re turning into that big fat big brother gatekeeper that has to be paid in order to do business on half the market.

Rewatch the 1984 ad, the connection is easy to draw.
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Re-examine the definition of “dystopian”. There are several ways great suffering and injustice can be played out in the us. “Via a 30% charge to developers” is quite literally NOT one of them.
 
ericwn said:
What’s a developer experience and how would it matter to the customers?
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Let's take Bear notes for example

Bear notes uses CloudKit (Apple's backend service) to store user data. CloudKit provides up to 1 petabyte (1000 terabytes) of cloud storage for free. So, Bear developers can focus on making the app better without worrying about cloud infrastructure and it ends up being cheaper for users to pay for the product as they're not paying for Bear's server costs.

Then there's Apple Maps. All iOS developers can take advantage of using Apple Maps into their apps without paying a single cent. Google Maps costs money after the free tier usage is up. I know someone who pays thousands of dollars per month for Google Maps.

Combining CloudKit and Apple Maps, it's possible for a single developer to put out a free cloud-enabled app that generates millions of downloads and won't cost a single cent to the developer (other than the flat $99/yr developer fee that pays for app reviews) or the customer. Putting out a free Android app that uses Google Maps could mean that the developer will end up paying thousands of dollars in Google Maps or Google Firebase costs if the app ends up being popular.

And that's just 2 of many things that Apple provides to developers.
 
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farewelwilliams said:
Let's take Bear notes for example

Bear notes uses CloudKit (Apple's backend service) to store user data. CloudKit provides up to 1 petabyte (1000 terabytes) of cloud storage for free. So, Bear developers can focus on making the app better without worrying about cloud infrastructure and it ends up being cheaper for users to pay for the product as they're not paying for Bear's server costs.

Then there's Apple Maps. All iOS developers can take advantage of using Apple Maps into their apps without paying a single cent. Google Maps costs money after the free tier usage is up. I know someone who pays thousands of dollars per month for Google Maps.

Combining CloudKit and Apple Maps, it's possible for a single developer to put out a free cloud-enabled app that generates millions of downloads and won't cost a single cent to the developer (other than the flat $99/yr developer fee that pays for app reviews) or the customer. Putting out a free Android app that uses Google Maps could mean that the developer will end up paying thousands of dollars in Google Maps or Google Firebase costs if the app ends up being popular.

And that's just 2 of many things that Apple provides to developers.
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Thank you. I don't think people (non-developers) realize all the resources you get from Apple.

This and your earlier comment outlines some of the stuff you're getting for the 30% that Apple takes from each purchase. I would imagine it's a lot easier (and of course cheaper) to have Apple simply take a percentage off the top rather than you going out and seeking services from various providers. It takes the headache away from having to deal with with 3rd-party servers, storage, databases, payment processing, identification services, etc.

After reading your comments... I'm even more convinced that Apple's 30% is justified. (though I'm sure others will continue to disagree)

Samsung and Amazon also have app stores and they also take 30% from each sale.

But Samsung and Amazon offer almost none of those resources to the developer. They're just a store. You basically build an Android app (using Google's tools and resources) and then it gets sold by Samsung or Amazon. So why do they get 30%?

It seems ridiculous that Samsung and Amazon want 30% even though they do almost none of the work.

To sum up... Apple is the platform owner and provides tons of tools and resources... and they want 30%

Then you have these other guys who provide almost nothing for the developer... yet they want the same 30%

Which one of those makes more sense?
 
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farewelwilliams said:
Let's take Bear notes for example

Bear notes uses CloudKit (Apple's backend service) to store user data. CloudKit provides up to 1 petabyte (1000 terabytes) of cloud storage for free. So, Bear developers can focus on making the app better without worrying about cloud infrastructure and it ends up being cheaper for users to pay for the product as they're not paying for Bear's server costs.

Then there's Apple Maps. All iOS developers can take advantage of using Apple Maps into their apps without paying a single cent. Google Maps costs money after the free tier usage is up. I know someone who pays thousands of dollars per month for Google Maps.

Combining CloudKit and Apple Maps, it's possible for a single developer to put out a free cloud-enabled app that generates millions of downloads and won't cost a single cent to the developer (other than the flat $99/yr developer fee that pays for app reviews) or the customer. Putting out a free Android app that uses Google Maps could mean that the developer will end up paying thousands of dollars in Google Maps or Google Firebase costs if the app ends up being popular.

And that's just 2 of many things that Apple provides to developers.
Click to expand...

Thanks for taking the time, much appreciated!
 
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