Developers aren’t impressed with Apple’s App Store changes | Hacker News Reader

Developers aren’t impressed with Apple’s App Store changes

macworld.com

105 pointsmiles27 comments

Any iOS developer who does not agree with what Apple is proposing can oppose the settlement.^1 Silence equals acceptance; the lawyers are probably hoping and expecting no one will contest their proposed agreement, but every iOS developer has that right under the law.

1 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28323992

and to add to this - anything that apple is willing to settle for is probably going to be to the advantage of apple, rather than the developers (and the wider ecosystem of apps).

It's because apple fear that by fighting in court, they'd lose and have to give a concession that they do not like - and thus, they are settling for the least worst concession they can accept which is still not good enough to developers.

Don't accept this settlement. What have you got to lose? Apple's terms and condition on the app store is not going to get worse by fighting, and can only get better.

"What have you got to lose?"

Postage stamp, envelope, paper, ink, 20 minutes.

> What have you got to lose?

Attorney costs?

Nope.

s/Any/& small/

There are 538 "large" app developers who are not included in the class.

The near uniform tech press coverage falling for Apple PR spin before the relevant court documents were available I have to guess is because the class action lawyers were pushing the same narrative. Ryan Jones highlighted why the lawyers might have a different perspective from their developer clients here: https://twitter.com/rjonesy/status/1431095409791934467?s=20

Was the brief positive PR worth it for Apple?

Basically they had been abusing developers in 40 different ways, reduced it to just 38 forms of abuse, and they expect a celebration.

If you’re still stealing all my stuff but you agreed to stop jaywalking, expect me to keep fighting to keep you from stealing all my stuff.

Developers should not accept this action, even if they’d get a little cash in the short term.

Spoiler alert: Developers have never been impressed with Apple’s App Store.

Users, on the other hand...

Also not impressed.

They just see no evil (alternate app stores)

hear no evil (Apple's 30% cut)

Speak no evil (Ask why the thing in their pocket isn't theirs to do with as they wish on every level)

I suppose those 1 billion plus active iPhone users are suckers for punishment.

Yes. They're willing to put up with a shit app store in order to get good hardware.

It's a duopoly. Google Play prohibits apps too and takes the same cut. You can't vote with your wallet if both your alternatives are the same.

Imagine you could get an iPhone that was exactly the same in every way except that developers kept 95% of the money they earned instead of Apple taking 30% with no possible competition. How many customers would choose the "screw the developers" option if they weren't being forced to trade it off against anything else?

Google allows apks outside the store, even if they're discouraged. And they mostly don't enforce their policies on apks outside the store. (Of course, some policies are enforced by the OS/play services)

Google is better than Apple in this but this isn’t some amazing feature that makes Android great. It’s still a duopoly that limits you a lot.

If apks outside the play store worked well, Fortnite wouldn’t have given up and gone on to the Play Store.

This article was probably the first of all of these Apple posts here this week to be absolutely clear: Apple didn't really change anything, and this settlement seems entirely broken given the original goals of the lawsuit.

And yet, with tons of votes after only 2 hours, and mostly reasonable comments of people who finally are getting a narrative that doesn't buy into Apple's spin on the truth, it is on page two... I guess it got "flagged"? :/

Developers really need to start a "software engineering association" with a simple rule: if you pay dues, you vote. No, not union: that association won't have any power over its members. With enough members, this association will be able to play hardball with Apple and other corps.

The bit where they limit some of the changes to 3 years likely made it fall a bit flat. They may have meant something different, but it sounded like "then we'll get back to sticking it to you" to me.

So, basically nothing changed? Thanks Apple.

Not any different from other class-action settlements. That batterygate one was settled and yet people are still waiting for payments… but they got good PR out of it.

A lot of vocal small developers are unimpressed. A vocal minority is not a majority - most just don't care knowing what the outcome was going to be already - lawyers making a lot of money, and marketing teams posturing. Move on.

The problem really comes down to market power: if you want any chance of reaching the iphone user market, you gotta bend over and take it from apple.

Sounds familiar...kinda like how corporations maintain cartels on employment, and how unions formed to allow workers to form a cartel of their own to fight back.

I am dead serious: app store developers should form a union, and go on strike. Hold back any and all apps from the app store, and beat back those fees from 30% to practically nothing. The iPhone has no value without an app ecosystem...if anything, they should be paying developers.

It's kind of a weird situation, because it would be a very short-lived union, since the first thing they should want is competing app stores. At which point competitive pressure would keep the various app stores in check and you would no longer need the union for anything.

But as a solution to the immediate problem, it could work, right?

It should be something done by some sort of Software Engineering Union, though I don't know if independent developers and small studios would be willing to join.

You don't say? /s

Developers: We want to distribute our software independent of any app store.

Apple: F* you.

Devs: We don't care about Apple Pay.

Apple: F* you. You have to integrate Apple Pay into your apps and cannot mention other payments systems in your app. But since you sued us, we'll generously allow you to tell your clients about alternative payments systems through any other medium (but not your app).

Devs: We want you to stop gauging us with commissions.

Apple: F* you. But since you sued, we'll not raise the 15 to 30% rates you suckers pay us, for 3 whole years!

Devs: But we sued you ...

Apple: Ok, fine - we'll give some of you a share of $100 million of your own money from the billions all of you suckers pay us annually.

The lawyer who filed the suit on behalf of the devs, and who probably profited the most from the lawsuit, happily declared: “We truly are proud that a case brought by two developers, standing in the shoes of tens of thousands of U.S. iOS developers, could help to bring about so much important change.” - https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/27/technology/apple-settles-...

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