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Comment by jbverschoor | Hacker News Reader

Well I love my Apple App Store. It protects me for certain things with payments, and it’s another line of defense against some attacks.

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We’ll me too but if there is an alternative I can still direcr my business to Apple’s store.

On the Mac I avoid the store if it’s possible to download directly from the developer so that they don’t have to pay a cut. If there were an alternative Mac App Store I would avoid it too like the plague.

I avoid the Microsoft store on Windows but I use Steam all the time. I've also used Steam on MacOS for those few games that run on MacOS that I wanted to play.

I'd can see myself using other stores on iOS depending on the store. If Steam existed on iOS I'd certainly consider it, especially if buying a game that ran across platforms included the iOS version.

I use the MS store for MS software. But avoid Steam if I can as well as they also take a substantial cut (Although this does mean I still get a lot through steam).

Although they're more flexible, if a game sells you a CD-key outside the store (eg on Humble, through promotions, etc) they don't take a cut. Steam only gets it when it's through the Steam store.

These proposed changes don't prevent that. The Australian government just wants the stores to be more clear with developers about what is going on.

There is an endless stream of Android and iOS devs saying their app got dropped without warning and the support person refuses to explain or respond to them. That's just unacceptable when an app being removed has the ability to break a business.

Then stick with it? Nobody is killing the app store. Having options doesn't kill anything except maybe Apple and Googles profits.

There will also be the fragmentation that you see with streaming services today; apps will choose an app store, there will be exclusivity deals; your kid will install a pirate app store to get games filled with deceptive crap in them for free, etc.

And fragmentation is competition. The issue with Apple App Store is they're using their monopoly to stop competition.

Yep it neatly organizes everything with subscriptions and vetted apps into a single location. Can't ask for more. The only people that want out of it is people who want a bigger rev cut, to bypass app store rules and infect devices.

> people who want a bigger rev cut

This is not unreasonable. Apps like netfix and spotify can not possibly pay the Apple cut and stay competitive with apples own services which pay nothing.

Not a single user is going to pay 30% extra to listen to the same music.

Do netflix and spotify currently pay apple 30%?

They don’t allow you to subscribe in-app and are not allowed to show CTAs to subscribe online, just an opaque “sign in” screen.

When you install the app they throw you on a screen that says "You can't continue via the app. Yes, we know it sucks"

They aren't allowed to tell you how to subscribe, they can just say you must and it can't be done in the app. While on Apples own services, it just uses your already filled payment details.

According to this reasoning Apple could make the app store optional and (except for "people who want a bigger rev cut, to bypass app store rules and infect devices") every user would continue to choose the app store. I suppose the reasoning further leads to the conclusion that there is no point in giving users a choice because they would all choose the app store anyway. I do not subscribe to this reasoning. If there was a non-app store option I would choose it and I doubt I am the only such user. Among many potential benefits, a non-app store repository might give me the ability to install/remove old versions of apps on older devices.

The bigger problem is the amount of PII they demand from users to install even free apps.

I should be able to install free apps on my device without giving up my name, address, email, phone number, and device serial number. Apple's App Store requires all of these.

I want out because Apple doesn't approve the apps I want to use. Everything from emulators to cloud gaming (Xbox Game Streaming and Google Stadia) and alternative browser engines (all browsers are just Safari skins on iOS) are blocked by Apple because of their app store rules. These types of apps being blocked by Apple does not benefit anyone but Apple.

Have you ever used a Mac though? Has an App Store, and you can choose to install apps from third parties if you want to. Best of both worlds.

Does it actually? Or does OS security models protect you from attacks?

What Apple should do is charge users $10 to turn off competing app stores, since from posts like this it seems to be worth so much to users to have them locked out.

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