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Comment by croh | Hacker News Reader

> As a user, I'm very happy the stores impose stringent rules.

I have seen this view lot from apple users. And I really feel sad that no body gives the enough credit to dev community because of whom you're getting these apps in first place, not from Apple directly (And I am sure, if they do, heck they will charge you like hell).

Please understand it is mutual platform for apple/google, devs and consumers. Now days, Apple and consumers has not much to lose as they have enough apps but dev's life is becoming difficult day by day - apple/google account charges, huge margin-cut over in-app-payments, rejection without any proper reason, no immediate support, bad apis and documentation. I am happy I quit professional mobile app making for good.

> I pay Apple to uphold this bar by any means necessary.

I wish you could pay devs instead of Apple to held this bar high.

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People give plenty of credit to devs. Apps that meet the quality bar to stay in the App Store make way more from iOS users than Android.

There are thousands and thousands of apps to sift through. It’s good that iOS helps filter out the shit where devs can’t be bothered to do basic user friendly things like providing screenshots, etc.

Do they make more from iOS users than from the subset of Android users that have phones priced similarly to iPhone?

Since they make more from iOS users overall, they definitely make more than from a small subset of Android users.

My point is app developers rightly care about their total income, not about the per-capita income from a tiny slice of the userbase.

> Since they make more from iOS users overall*

* In the United States of America

Many American app makers hit a ceiling when they try to expand internationally and they discover that for the rest of the world, Android is both dominant, and more profitable.

Globally the apple App Store is about 2x revenue. https://appleinsider.com/articles/21/01/05/app-store-earns-7...

And ex-US?

Per user, duh.

> I wish you could pay devs instead of Apple to held this bar high.

Let’s be honest, the majority of the apps charge in-app for every fart. At the dawn of the app stores you could find a ton of free apps and games from hobbyists, but now it’s all about squeezing money. And the guy in the article didn’t have to publish the app in the first place, could have uploaded the app to the phone directly through the dev tools.

> Let’s be honest, the majority of the apps charge in-app for every fart.

Apple/Google take 30 % of that fart, so you guess what they get at end.

> At the dawn of the app stores you could find a ton of free apps and games from hobbyists, it’s all about squeezing money.

Well apple charge you $100 per year to upload app, are you kidding ? Plus they don't let you have another store. Everything should must go thr' their wall, so no chance to avoid charge.

> And the guy in the article didn’t have to publish the app in the first place, could have uploaded the app to the phone directly through the dev tools.

How many phones he can upload it honestly ?

Anyway, the point I am tring to say is, Apple/Google are not valuing dev community as they used to and devs are taken granted for. They should care devs as they care for consumers PR as it is mutual platform

> Well apple charge you $100 per year to upload app, are you kidding ?

IIRC Apple charged you 100$ as early as in 2013, that's when I bought a subscription myself for the first time. But the app landscape was much different back then and it didn't stop hobby developers from publishing.

> Apple/Google are not valuing dev community as they used to and devs are taken granted for

I mean, it's about making money, App Store is not a public good. If developers feel there's a better opportunity they can pursue other platform, but it seems like Google and Apple succeed at making the money-making developers happy. What else should matter to a public company?

Sure, it did. When I first got an ipod touch over a decade ago, I was excited to have something customizable. After all, all the marketing was focused on how wide a selection of apps existed, and the general vibe was that it was a good platform to develop for. I'd have loved to have made small utility apps for myself.

But, part of writing things for myself is wanting to share them with friends should they ask. And that requires either a $100 fee, or walking each friend through the process of requesting a developer license in order to run an unpublished app. The fee is a pittance for anybody doing large development, but was far more than college-me wanted to spend on an entrance fee to a language.

> Apple/Google take 30 % of that fart, so you guess what they get at end.

Typically 15% now.

> Typically 15% now.

Only because of the (still ongoing) anti-trust lawsuit against them.

That 30% is also the industry standard. (Microsoft, Google, Sony, Nintendo, Epic etc). Which has only recently started to shift.

Didn’t Apple basically set the standard? Seems like a weird way to justify it.

What did you expect? The process to get an app on the store is complicated, time consuming and you even need to pay for it. Hobbyists are just publishing web apps instead nowadays and couldn't be bothered to publish on the app store. It's simpler, more accessible and you're guaranteed it will work. Only companies or people who don't really have any other choice do that.

That's also what came to my mind after reading the article: why didn't he simply write a web app? His girlfriend might even have used that because it was only browsing to a URL instead of installing an app on the phones of all guests.

PWA are crippled on apple phones.

That's not a surprise because it would make a dent into Apple's profits but did he need a PWA for picking a movie to watch? Share a URL to friends or place a QR code in the living room and that's it.

> What did you expect?

Many years ago, I got excited when I got a Nokia phone which supported Java ME. Finally, here was my chance to put some useful stuff on _MY_ phone I thought. Then I learned what I needed to get a single copy of something on a single phone (after signing up for the dev program). I don't remember the details, but, clearly, the point was you needed to be a part of an international conglomerate if you wanted to be able to ship awful clones of 80s 8-bit games.

The messed up nightmare "mobile computing" was going to devolve into became apparent to me then. Nothing one can do about it. You either use the stuff everyone else is using or your are "out". Still, I had expected to be able to attach a cable and copy a blob from _MY_ computer to _MY_ phone.

I know this is about app stores. Well, in this case, I expect to be able to put a blob somewhere and point people to it for them to install if they so choose.

And, no, web pages that try to act like apps don't really count.

> the majority of the apps charge in-app for every fart.

Honestly, if I find an app that I'd like to pay for, I do a quick google search to find their web app. If they have one, I pay for it there and use it on my phone.

If it's a game I actually enjoy, I might make a single in-app purchase for what I think the game is worth, usually around $5-10.

It would be nice if you could install apps without the app store, right now you can't choose anything else w/o jailbreaking.

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