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Comment by SCdF | Hacker News Reader

Isn't it obvious?

If they supported things like PWAs and other mobile web initiatives, people could build applications that run seamlessly on their phone, look like native apps etc, and they wouldn't go through their highly lucrative app store.

As phones get more and more powerful and things come along and mature like webgl etc, the reliance on native apps drops more and more. As does Apple's control.

Maybe I should get back under my tinfoil hat, idk, but that is my guess as to where their reluctance comes from.

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Mobile safari was literally one of the reasons we decided to build an app instead of just having a mobile optimized website. So if that's they're strategy, it's working. Though it is a free app so it's not working _that_ well.

For Apple, the App Store is not 'highly lucrative'.

Really? Don't they make 30% on every sale, including any subscriptions, iaps, and basically any money that changes hands? Don't they make it impossible for you to sell software that runs on iOS devices without them taking a cut? Wouldn't PWAs + some kind of external payment engine (paypal or whatever) completely bypass this?

I realise they also make a lot on hardware, but it seems like that's a revenue stream they wouldn't want to lose.

Their financial statements are pretty clear. Hardware is highly lucrative. Services, like the app store, are only recently consistently profitable. They definitely wouldn't intentionally make their devices less desirable to customers to increase service revenue.

Do you have any thoughts as to why they don't allow people to install things from outside of the app store? Or why they require all purchases through apps to go through their payment methods where they take a 30% cut?

Because it is definitely making devices less desirable. I presume you still can't buy books from the Kindle iOS app, for example. I know you can't sub on twitch on iOS.

To continue with the kindle example, Amazon could build a kindle PWA that works offline, allows you to buy books, and in every way works identically to their thick client app (it's just displaying text after all, it's not technically demanding). And Apple wouldn't be able to block them from allowing you to buy things, because you're effectively just using a web browser.

Because they want control over their platform and one (but not the only) reason for that control is to deliver a consistent and safer experience to their users. The app store is a part of that control but it's not some moneymaker.

The fact that you can't install random apps from anywhere on an iPhone doesn't make the device less desirable to anyone, statistically. Incidentally, if you have source, you can install an app on your phone without paying a dime to anyone.

It is, because having a superior app ecosystem is one of the strongest selling points of Apple devices vs the competition.

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