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No, it's a grab for money. Releasing an iOS app requires Apple hardware, X-code, and an Apple developer license which is $100/yr. Where as developing a PWA can
by ajford 7y ago
No, it's a grab for money. Releasing an iOS app requires Apple hardware, X-code, and an Apple developer license which is $100/yr.
Where as developing a PWA can be done on any hardware, and would be natively cross-platform. An offline PWA does not require an active connection, and in fact is the one of the reasons behind the idea of developing a PWA instead of a general webapp or website.
All other browsers allow the use of local storage to optimize and enhance your experience by allowing things like pre-loading data or storing your preferences. This disappears with the decision Apple made to clear storage.
- jfb 7y agoI promise you that Apple does not give a shit about the revenue from the developer program.
- lliamander 7y agoThen why not make it free?
- falcolas 7y agoThat's easy. It adds a hurdle for people who make malicious or fraudulent apps. It's not free, but neither is it MSDN levels of absurdity.
- fomojola 7y agoI'd counter that: make it a one time tax, like the Play Store. Is it reasonable that I need a Dun and Bradstreet number to write an application for my computer?
- judah 7y agoIt's not just about the revenues of $100/year. It's also the revenue from 30% sharing of profits. And most importantly, it's the bigger revenue generated from having apps that work only on iOS, which drives users to buy iPhones and iPads.
- rstupek 7y agoA PWA app isn't going to generate any 30% revenue share for Apple since no one is paying for it in the PWA case and thus likely won't be paying for it in the pure app case either.
- Silhouette 7y agoWhy would no-one be paying for a PWA? There are countless paid-for services available via web apps. Providing even a free native app via the App Store to access a service with a subscription model becomes a very risky proposition given Apple's rules, though.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- joosters 7y agoCan you give a few examples of paid-for PWAs? Sure there are websites that are paid-for, but I've never seen a paid-for PWA.
- Silhouette 7y agoI'm posting pseudonymously here, so please forgive me for not citing personal examples, but the normal web apps for accessing quite a few popular services are now PWAs. Spotify famously started looking into using a PWA after some issues with Apple regarding the cut taken with a native app. Uber is another well-known example.
- judah 7y agoFinancial Times[0] is a PWA and with a paid service option. [0]: http://app.ft.com/ http://app.ft.com/
- billyhoffman 7y ago(Looks at home screen) Slack, Jira, LastPass, and Netflix. All Native apps that are free via the App Store, and all with the subscription model that I pay for. And for most of those I can’t even buy the subscription from inside of the native app, so Apple gets no money from these
- Silhouette 7y agoDoes Apple also not care about the huge cut it takes for everything sold via the App Store? As lliamander said, if they don't care, why not make it free? I don't for a moment believe the argument about creating a barrier for negative actors. They could still screen apps before allowing them into the App Store, and if that mechanism is working reliably then the charge is unnecessary as a deterrent, while if it is not then the financial deterrent isn't going to be enough to stop a lot of people willing to make these kinds of apps anyway.
- fooey 7y agoThey care about they revenue they get by making people buy the hardware that gives them access to the developer program.
- MikusR 7y agoI think you missed the "requires Apple hardware". I know that rich Americans think everyone has Macbooks, but that is not the case.