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As an app developer myself, with apps on both the Google Play Store and the App Store with over 250K monthly active users, I have become so frustrated with Appl

As an app developer myself, with apps on both the Google Play Store and the App Store with over 250K monthly active users, I have become so frustrated with Apple's arbitrary and capricious enforcement of its App Store regulations, its bullying and coercion of developers, its extortionate fees, and its monopolistic anti-competitive practices, that I have stopped updating my apps on the App Store. I wonder how many other developers are in a similar position. As a consumer, I now know that if I want the latest, up to date apps, I'm better off turning to the Play Store or one of the many other app stores that can be used on Android devices. I've also given up on the MacBook line, tired of the touch bar, the slate-like keyboards, and (now) the transition to ARM. My next laptop will be a Thinkpad or Dell. Most of my development these days is done under Windows using WSL2, and my primary focus is on Android. It used to be that my apps made more money on Apple devices, but now I actually make more on Android. The Google Play review process is a breeze compared to Apple's laborious and stifling rules (although it is not perfect either by any means), and at some point, it's just not worth the hassle. It's sad, I was an enthusiastic endorser of Apple products just 7 years ago, but can no longer recommend them. This is the first year I won't be buying a new iPhone, iPad, or Apple Watch, too - I'm looking to switch to the Pixel or Samsung Galaxy line and Wear OS. I'd like to see regulation that forces Apple and Google to allow any and all app stores on their devices, and the process of installing apps through those stores must be, by law, equally easy and straightforward as through their own stores (i.e., no security warnings or other jank). The law should make illegal restricting developers to any specific payment processor(s), too.

FriendlyNormie 6y ago
I became a millionaire through both app stores and I have no complaints whatsoever about them. You’re a whiny cunt and you have zero clout. Your opinion is worthless. You are no one.
userbinator 6y ago
I'd like to see regulation that forces Apple and Google to allow any and all app stores on their devices, and the process of installing apps through those stores must be, by law, equally easy and straightforward as through their own stores (i.e., no security warnings or other jank). I'm pretty sure that will have massive opposition, because they are deathly scared of opening their devices back to the general-purpose computers they actually are. However, I remain hopeful that people may finally wake up to the "security" excuse and stop sacrificing their freedom.
- inlined 6y ago
  I think it’ll be interesting if Apple loses control of the App Store but still combats anti-practices through evolution of the APIs. It could become a consumer win.
- tempsolution 6y ago
  > no security warnings or other jank This will hopefully never happen. A security warning is a must. The average user has no clue what they are even doing and don't understand the risks they are accepting. A security warning might just be clicked away, but at least you were warned.
- thenewwazoo 6y ago
  My “freedom” is mine to trade, thanks. It’s not an excuse, it’s an informed choice.
  - ifmpx 6y ago
    But others' freedoms aren't. Apple shouldn't be allowed to have this much control.
    - xwdv 6y ago
      Imagine having freedom and then making the wrong choices with it.
      - scarface74 6y ago
        And that’s why we need big government. People are definitely incapable of understanding the greatness of “openness” and are being forced to by Apple products at a premium instead of Android devices that fit their desires better. You can’t imagine how little time I spend complaining about the piss poor upgrade and support of Android devices. I just don’t buy them. I don’t ask big daddy government to get involved.
- bloblaw 6y ago
  I'm a libertarian. I believe in personal choice and freedom. But you have tons of freedom here. Instead of using an OS (iOS in this case) with 25% market share that forces you to go through their AppStore, you can choose to use Android (which has 75% market share) and side load apps to your hearts content. reference: https://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/mobile/worldwide https://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/mobile/worldwide
mqus 6y ago
>I'd like to see regulation that forces Apple and Google to allow any and all app stores on their devices, and the process of installing apps through those stores must be, by law, equally easy and straightforward as through their own stores (i.e., no security warnings or other jank). The law should make illegal restricting developers to any specific payment processor(s), too. Not the same kind of regulation you describe, but still one that may solve a big chunk of your issues was covered here roughly a month ago[1], In which the EU plans to make those kinds of platforms more transparent, especially concerning bans and sudden refusals. But I see how that may not go far enough. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23841409 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23841409
- 7tsfmCAusrQ 6y ago
  Thanks for the link, it's great to see the EU regulators starting to tackle these issues with actual regulations. I agree that it does not in its current form go far enough, but it's a good start.
adventured 6y ago
> its extortionate fees Their fees are not so high as to be extortionate. They're not close to being deserving of that hyperbolic label. The Apple and Google fees are a dramatic improvement over the model that they gradually replaced over the past decade. Want to get on a retail shelf? Nope, you can't. One in a zillion odds you find someone to publish your box to retail - congratulations, now you get to keep less than 20% of the sale price. If Apple's fees were 1/2 what they are, developers would be saying exactly the same thing about them. That's because the fees will always be too high unless they're close to zero, and in that scenario Apple is carrying an unfair burden. And if you forcibly open up more app store competition, and then Apple decides to drop their fees below other competitors, it'll kill the store competition and Apple can sustain that indefinitely thanks to their device margins. They don't need to make money on the market. Then everyone will bitch about that being unfair competition, despite Apple serving up the low fees that were demanded. And on the complaining will go forever until we have a hyper regulated market with pricing set by bureaucrats. Why? Because Apple is really big, that's the real reason why. People hate big corporations almost universally, Apple is in the can do no right group; no matter what they do, a lot of people will bitch about their choices. The end result will be massive, stifling regulation, which everyone will then bitch about the consequences of. > now I actually make more on Android. The Google Play review process is a breeze compared to Apple's laborious and stifling rules (although it is not perfect either by any means), and at some point, it's just not worth the hassle. You should be making more on Android, it's a larger market. It's good that that former imbalance has corrected itself. Fortunately you're not entitled to an easy review process. It's a great thing that Apple adds friction to their store. It's their market, they should be able to set the rules. If it's not worth the hassle, then it's not worth the hassle, you've solved your own problem: give up on the Apple store.
- ubercow13 6y ago
  I don’t know where to start with this. Antitrust is specifically about big corporations, that’s the whole point. We treat them differently. You’re saying if the market was opened up, prices would drop due to competition, so that means it shouldn’t be opened up? You think Apple’s in a situation where it has an unfair burden despite being one of the largest companies in the world?
cageface 6y ago
Getting out of iOS dev was the best career decision I’ve ever made. My baseline level of stress and frustration has plummeted. I also enjoy using my Samsung Note much more than I ever did any iPhone. It feels like the training wheels have been taken off my phone. As developers I think we should all do what we can to nurture the open web. It’s the last truly developer friendly platform.
- city41 6y ago
  Apple more than anyone is hostile to the web. I still have a recurring iCloud charge I tried to cancel today. But I literally can't as it's not doable on any Apple website. You must use an Apple device or iTunes, neither of which I have.
  - microtherion 6y ago
    Apple has instructions for canceling subscriptions from non-Apple devices: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202039 https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202039 As a last resort (e.g. if all you have is an Arduino), they advise you to contact Apple support. I'm pretty sure it would be unlawful to have no way to cancel other than with an Apple device.
- christoph 6y ago
  I agree. There really is nothing more frustrating than spending months working on an app, to get it either rejected on some really minor issue or have to go back and forth with Apple for weeks explaining how things work from a customer and business perspective, constantly on tenterhooks as to whether they will give it the OK nod. Then you go through the same thing each time you push an update, even for a minor bugfix like amending some foreign language strings, get a different reviewer who hasn't read the case notes (I'm guessing these must exist) and decides to do a deep-dive, or maybe a quick rubberstamp in a matter of hours. It seems like a total lottery from my experience. Maybe they just suddenly added a new clause that requires something being done differently and you aren't up on the latest app store guidelines... It really is so frustrating from a developers mental health perspective.
- axlee 6y ago
vturner 6y ago
This is off-topic, but your comment on your user base caught my attention. Do you think Android app development can be monetarily worth the time investment for individual developers who would be just starting out? I made two apps years ago and greatly enjoyed it, much more than any development I've done since. At that time, the markets were dominated by the big players. Only the big apps made any $$. Is that still the case making individual development a hobby with the occasional bit of $$?
- 7tsfmCAusrQ 6y ago
  Absolutely, yes, but if you are writing your own apps rather than being paid to write apps for other people, there's a strong luck element as with any entrepreneurial activity. I have six apps out right now, of which just one accounts for 90% of my revenue. Rather than setting out to write apps, I think it's better to think about an app as merely a vehicle to deliver a service, a product, some unit of customer value, from you to your customers. If you have something to offer that is of high value, you can definitely make a lot of money from an app. If you don't, no matter how well designed and built the app is, it is likely to fail.
  - thdrdt 6y ago
    I think it is also good to keep in mind you won't get customers from app stores. You need to get in contact with your customers in another way and then let them know where they can download your app.
motoboi 6y ago
Do people really buy android apps?
- sprayk 6y ago
  Yes.
bloblaw 6y ago
> [..] and its monopolistic anti-competitive practices, iOS owns 25% of the market. How is that a monopoly? You might not like their policies, but as you mention, you have a choice to move to a competitor with a vastly larger market share. > I'm better off turning to the Play Store or one of the many other app stores that can be used on Android devices. Doesn't this demonstrate that the Apple AppStore isn't a monopoly? That you have a clear alternative with 74% market share. > I'd like to see regulation that forces Apple and Google to allow any and all app stores on their devices, ...but why would they do that? There is healthy market competition between Apple and Google. I'm old, so I remember when Windows dominated everything. That was 2007 (or '98 if you wanna talk IE anti-trust case). 13 years later and Microsoft has 0 market share in mobile devices. In another 13 years it is likely a new competitor could supplant the Google and Apple dominance. reference: https://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/mobile/worldwide https://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/mobile/worldwide
- partiallypro 6y ago
  a) Global market share is irrelevant, show US share, which is about 51/49 b) Apple makes up the plurality of all store revenues, despite having a smaller install base both globally and in the US. c) You can display monopolistic/duopoly behavior without having 100% of the market.
  - bloblaw 6y ago
    a) It's an opinion that global market share is irrelevant, but I will report the fact that Apple has 58% USA market share. b) source? c) But can Apple be a monopoly with 58% of the market and a trillion dollar competitor with 41% of that market...and 75% control of the global market? A question for the courts, for sure, but it certainly isn't obvious to me. reference: https://gs.statcounter.com/vendor-market-share/mobile/united-states-of-america https://gs.statcounter.com/vendor-market-share/mobile/united...
    - partiallypro 6y ago
      Apple users spend 80% more on apps than Android users, and that's using global numbers which makes the number even more staggering. https://fueled.com/blog/app-store-vs-google-play/#:~:text=Apple%20users%20spend%2072%20minutes%20longer%20on%20their,take%20developers%20approximately%2030-40%25%20more%20time%20to%20complete https://fueled.com/blog/app-store-vs-google-play/#:~:text=Ap... https://www.statista.com/chart/14590/app-downloads-and-consumer-spend-by-platform/ https://www.statista.com/chart/14590/app-downloads-and-consu...
dboreham 6y ago
Another shout out for WSL2. Feels good to have real Linux not Apple's kind of close but not quite, plus wide range of hardware to choose from and compatibility with commercial GUI apps.
- 7tsfmCAusrQ 6y ago
  Yes it's fantastic. Even the small things make a difference - for example, it's really nice to be able to use the same package manager on my local machine as I use on my Google Cloud servers, on which I'm running Ubuntu, instead of having to use brew. I can use GNU variants of CLI utilities like ps, head etc. rather than the quirky BSD variants found on Mac OS X. iTerm2 was binding me to Mac OS for a while, but Windows Terminal Preview is getting quite good, and IntelliJ itself has a very good built-in terminal that works well with WSL2.
  - Shared404 6y ago
    VSCod(e)/(ium) has a very nice built in terminal emulator as well. It's what I typically use on windows.
    - 7tsfmCAusrQ 6y ago
      Thanks, I'll give it a try! I'm looking forward to testing out Win-Kex also.
- stephenr 6y ago
  ... So many things wrong with this comparison. (a). WSL is just a Linux VM. You can do this on any desktop OS. If you're not using WSL, you can even do it with multiple hypervisors at once if you so wish. (b). macOS isn't, and has never tried to be, "Linux". It's POSIX.
  - shagie 6y ago
    macOS is UNIX too (Linux isn’t). https://www.opengroup.org/openbrand/register/ https://www.opengroup.org/openbrand/register/
cglong 6y ago
Just wanted to say, as someone who's been a fervent Apple fan since 2007, getting a Pixel was the best tech decision I've made in years :)
hartator 6y ago
> My next laptop will be a Thinkpad or Dell. Why haven’t you switched yet? Competition is not that good unfortunately.
- 7tsfmCAusrQ 6y ago
  Since being apartment-bound due to COVID, I've switched to doing most of my development on my desktop machine, so there hasn't been any urgent need for me to have a new laptop. I still have my late-2013 MBP, one of the last non-Butterfly / non-Touchbar laptops Apple made, which I use on rare occasions. I've looked at the Windows laptops extensively though, and will likely get a ThinkPad X1 Extreme G2 or G3, or a Dell XPS 15, when the time comes. They both seem very good, with superior keyboards, displays, performance, and value compared to Apple's current lineup.
  - keyb0ardninja 6y ago
    > I've looked at the Windows laptops extensively You can also take a look at linux vendors like System76. Check their line-up here: https://system76.com/laptops https://system76.com/laptops Among Windows laptops did you consider the ASUS Zephyrus G14?
    - 7tsfmCAusrQ 6y ago
      Thanks, I wasn't aware of those Linux laptops, and will definitely check them out. I hadn't seen the Zephyrus G14 either. How great to have so many choices!
- hn_check 6y ago
  Because the story is an absurd lie. The guy has gotten 100+ upvotes for that hysterically dumb bit of fiction. HN has proven to be outrageously gullible time and time again, and this one takes the cake.
jonas21 6y ago
I'm an independent app developer too, and I share your frustrations. Sometimes I wish I had the luxury of walking away from the App Store -- but with ~80% of my revenue coming from iOS, I can't do that. Similarly, I can't give up on owning a Mac because you need one to develop for iOS. On one hand, it's super annoying whenever Apple rejects an update for some arbitrary reason. But on the other hand, making a living by writing and selling my own apps has been a dream of mine pretty much forever -- and something that I didn't think would be possible before the app stores came along.
- 7tsfmCAusrQ 6y ago
  I feel your pain. I would encourage you to grow and develop your audience on Android. There is a big market there to be tapped, which with some effort could equal or exceed your revenue from Apple. It's much easier to write cross-platform apps now than it was five years ago, thanks to frameworks like Flutter. Of course, Apple would like to have us all believe that app developers couldn't make a living by writing and selling apps before the Invention of the App Store, and that they have done us all a great favor, one that warrants us paying them 30% of our income. However, the reality is, this has always been possible. As early as the beginning of the 80s, indy developers made millions writing games for the ZX Spectrum, the BBC Micro, the Amiga, and so on. You just had to work with a publisher or distributor, of which there were hundreds and it was a free market. In the 90s millions could be made from DOS and Windows apps in the same way. In the early '00s, it became possible to self-publish on the web and our apps would be indexed and marketed for us by search engines; we didn't even need a publisher, but could still choose to go through one if the value add merited the cost. So there has been no radical innovation, no Invention that has changed what is possible for us to achieve as app developers. It's arguably a little bit easier to get our apps to market than it used to be, but given how onerous Apple's "guidelines" have become, I'm not even sure that is true. Writing websites serving apps and integrating with checkout engines just isn't that difficult... and most apps still need marketing to succeed because being listed in the App Store is not by itself sufficient. The only thing that has changed, now that the mobile computing revolution has almost reached saturation point and the majority of screen time by consumers is on mobile devices, is that we are now all forced to publish through a single store on each platform, and we are permitted no alternative if we want to reach our customers. Equally, our customers are permitted no alternative way to obtain our products. There is no competition between publishers on Apple's platform, because there is only one publisher, Apple, by fiat of Apple; and we are now forced to pay a 30% tax, a figure which is not challenged by the usual mechanisms of competition, and supply and demand, which make markets efficient.
Razengan 6y ago
> It used to be that my apps made more money on Apple devices, but now I actually make more on Android. Which apps are those? Genuinely interested in seeing the numbers.
- hn_check 6y ago
  We all understand that it's an absurd fiction, right? The story reads like a tired fan fiction. Bizarre seeing this nonsense upvoted on here. It is a Saturday evening so I guess that's why.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]

FriendlyNormie 6y ago

I became a millionaire through both app stores and I have no complaints whatsoever about them. You’re a whiny cunt and you have zero clout. Your opinion is worthless. You are no one.

userbinator 6y ago

I'd like to see regulation that forces Apple and Google to allow any and all app stores on their devices, and the process of installing apps through those stores must be, by law, equally easy and straightforward as through their own stores (i.e., no security warnings or other jank). I'm pretty sure that will have massive opposition, because they are deathly scared of opening their devices back to the general-purpose computers they actually are. However, I remain hopeful that people may finally wake up to the "security" excuse and stop sacrificing their freedom.

inlined 6y ago
I think it’ll be interesting if Apple loses control of the App Store but still combats anti-practices through evolution of the APIs. It could become a consumer win.
tempsolution 6y ago
> no security warnings or other jank This will hopefully never happen. A security warning is a must. The average user has no clue what they are even doing and don't understand the risks they are accepting. A security warning might just be clicked away, but at least you were warned.
thenewwazoo 6y ago
My “freedom” is mine to trade, thanks. It’s not an excuse, it’s an informed choice.
- ifmpx 6y ago
  But others' freedoms aren't. Apple shouldn't be allowed to have this much control.
  - xwdv 6y ago
    Imagine having freedom and then making the wrong choices with it.
    - scarface74 6y ago
      And that’s why we need big government. People are definitely incapable of understanding the greatness of “openness” and are being forced to by Apple products at a premium instead of Android devices that fit their desires better. You can’t imagine how little time I spend complaining about the piss poor upgrade and support of Android devices. I just don’t buy them. I don’t ask big daddy government to get involved.
bloblaw 6y ago
I'm a libertarian. I believe in personal choice and freedom. But you have tons of freedom here. Instead of using an OS (iOS in this case) with 25% market share that forces you to go through their AppStore, you can choose to use Android (which has 75% market share) and side load apps to your hearts content. reference: https://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/mobile/worldwide https://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/mobile/worldwide

mqus 6y ago

>I'd like to see regulation that forces Apple and Google to allow any and all app stores on their devices, and the process of installing apps through those stores must be, by law, equally easy and straightforward as through their own stores (i.e., no security warnings or other jank). The law should make illegal restricting developers to any specific payment processor(s), too. Not the same kind of regulation you describe, but still one that may solve a big chunk of your issues was covered here roughly a month ago[1], In which the EU plans to make those kinds of platforms more transparent, especially concerning bans and sudden refusals. But I see how that may not go far enough. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23841409 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23841409

7tsfmCAusrQ 6y ago
Thanks for the link, it's great to see the EU regulators starting to tackle these issues with actual regulations. I agree that it does not in its current form go far enough, but it's a good start.

adventured 6y ago

> its extortionate fees Their fees are not so high as to be extortionate. They're not close to being deserving of that hyperbolic label. The Apple and Google fees are a dramatic improvement over the model that they gradually replaced over the past decade. Want to get on a retail shelf? Nope, you can't. One in a zillion odds you find someone to publish your box to retail - congratulations, now you get to keep less than 20% of the sale price. If Apple's fees were 1/2 what they are, developers would be saying exactly the same thing about them. That's because the fees will always be too high unless they're close to zero, and in that scenario Apple is carrying an unfair burden. And if you forcibly open up more app store competition, and then Apple decides to drop their fees below other competitors, it'll kill the store competition and Apple can sustain that indefinitely thanks to their device margins. They don't need to make money on the market. Then everyone will bitch about that being unfair competition, despite Apple serving up the low fees that were demanded. And on the complaining will go forever until we have a hyper regulated market with pricing set by bureaucrats. Why? Because Apple is really big, that's the real reason why. People hate big corporations almost universally, Apple is in the can do no right group; no matter what they do, a lot of people will bitch about their choices. The end result will be massive, stifling regulation, which everyone will then bitch about the consequences of. > now I actually make more on Android. The Google Play review process is a breeze compared to Apple's laborious and stifling rules (although it is not perfect either by any means), and at some point, it's just not worth the hassle. You should be making more on Android, it's a larger market. It's good that that former imbalance has corrected itself. Fortunately you're not entitled to an easy review process. It's a great thing that Apple adds friction to their store. It's their market, they should be able to set the rules. If it's not worth the hassle, then it's not worth the hassle, you've solved your own problem: give up on the Apple store.

ubercow13 6y ago
I don’t know where to start with this. Antitrust is specifically about big corporations, that’s the whole point. We treat them differently. You’re saying if the market was opened up, prices would drop due to competition, so that means it shouldn’t be opened up? You think Apple’s in a situation where it has an unfair burden despite being one of the largest companies in the world?

cageface 6y ago

Getting out of iOS dev was the best career decision I’ve ever made. My baseline level of stress and frustration has plummeted. I also enjoy using my Samsung Note much more than I ever did any iPhone. It feels like the training wheels have been taken off my phone. As developers I think we should all do what we can to nurture the open web. It’s the last truly developer friendly platform.

city41 6y ago
Apple more than anyone is hostile to the web. I still have a recurring iCloud charge I tried to cancel today. But I literally can't as it's not doable on any Apple website. You must use an Apple device or iTunes, neither of which I have.
- microtherion 6y ago
  Apple has instructions for canceling subscriptions from non-Apple devices: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202039 https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202039 As a last resort (e.g. if all you have is an Arduino), they advise you to contact Apple support. I'm pretty sure it would be unlawful to have no way to cancel other than with an Apple device.
christoph 6y ago
I agree. There really is nothing more frustrating than spending months working on an app, to get it either rejected on some really minor issue or have to go back and forth with Apple for weeks explaining how things work from a customer and business perspective, constantly on tenterhooks as to whether they will give it the OK nod. Then you go through the same thing each time you push an update, even for a minor bugfix like amending some foreign language strings, get a different reviewer who hasn't read the case notes (I'm guessing these must exist) and decides to do a deep-dive, or maybe a quick rubberstamp in a matter of hours. It seems like a total lottery from my experience. Maybe they just suddenly added a new clause that requires something being done differently and you aren't up on the latest app store guidelines... It really is so frustrating from a developers mental health perspective.
axlee 6y ago

vturner 6y ago

This is off-topic, but your comment on your user base caught my attention. Do you think Android app development can be monetarily worth the time investment for individual developers who would be just starting out? I made two apps years ago and greatly enjoyed it, much more than any development I've done since. At that time, the markets were dominated by the big players. Only the big apps made any $$. Is that still the case making individual development a hobby with the occasional bit of $$?

7tsfmCAusrQ 6y ago
Absolutely, yes, but if you are writing your own apps rather than being paid to write apps for other people, there's a strong luck element as with any entrepreneurial activity. I have six apps out right now, of which just one accounts for 90% of my revenue. Rather than setting out to write apps, I think it's better to think about an app as merely a vehicle to deliver a service, a product, some unit of customer value, from you to your customers. If you have something to offer that is of high value, you can definitely make a lot of money from an app. If you don't, no matter how well designed and built the app is, it is likely to fail.
- thdrdt 6y ago
  I think it is also good to keep in mind you won't get customers from app stores. You need to get in contact with your customers in another way and then let them know where they can download your app.

motoboi 6y ago

Do people really buy android apps?

sprayk 6y ago
Yes.

bloblaw 6y ago

> [..] and its monopolistic anti-competitive practices, iOS owns 25% of the market. How is that a monopoly? You might not like their policies, but as you mention, you have a choice to move to a competitor with a vastly larger market share. > I'm better off turning to the Play Store or one of the many other app stores that can be used on Android devices. Doesn't this demonstrate that the Apple AppStore isn't a monopoly? That you have a clear alternative with 74% market share. > I'd like to see regulation that forces Apple and Google to allow any and all app stores on their devices, ...but why would they do that? There is healthy market competition between Apple and Google. I'm old, so I remember when Windows dominated everything. That was 2007 (or '98 if you wanna talk IE anti-trust case). 13 years later and Microsoft has 0 market share in mobile devices. In another 13 years it is likely a new competitor could supplant the Google and Apple dominance. reference: https://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/mobile/worldwide https://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/mobile/worldwide

partiallypro 6y ago
a) Global market share is irrelevant, show US share, which is about 51/49 b) Apple makes up the plurality of all store revenues, despite having a smaller install base both globally and in the US. c) You can display monopolistic/duopoly behavior without having 100% of the market.
- bloblaw 6y ago
  a) It's an opinion that global market share is irrelevant, but I will report the fact that Apple has 58% USA market share. b) source? c) But can Apple be a monopoly with 58% of the market and a trillion dollar competitor with 41% of that market...and 75% control of the global market? A question for the courts, for sure, but it certainly isn't obvious to me. reference: https://gs.statcounter.com/vendor-market-share/mobile/united-states-of-america https://gs.statcounter.com/vendor-market-share/mobile/united...
  - partiallypro 6y ago
    Apple users spend 80% more on apps than Android users, and that's using global numbers which makes the number even more staggering. https://fueled.com/blog/app-store-vs-google-play/#:~:text=Apple%20users%20spend%2072%20minutes%20longer%20on%20their,take%20developers%20approximately%2030-40%25%20more%20time%20to%20complete https://fueled.com/blog/app-store-vs-google-play/#:~:text=Ap... https://www.statista.com/chart/14590/app-downloads-and-consumer-spend-by-platform/ https://www.statista.com/chart/14590/app-downloads-and-consu...

dboreham 6y ago

Another shout out for WSL2. Feels good to have real Linux not Apple's kind of close but not quite, plus wide range of hardware to choose from and compatibility with commercial GUI apps.

7tsfmCAusrQ 6y ago
Yes it's fantastic. Even the small things make a difference - for example, it's really nice to be able to use the same package manager on my local machine as I use on my Google Cloud servers, on which I'm running Ubuntu, instead of having to use brew. I can use GNU variants of CLI utilities like ps, head etc. rather than the quirky BSD variants found on Mac OS X. iTerm2 was binding me to Mac OS for a while, but Windows Terminal Preview is getting quite good, and IntelliJ itself has a very good built-in terminal that works well with WSL2.
- Shared404 6y ago
  VSCod(e)/(ium) has a very nice built in terminal emulator as well. It's what I typically use on windows.
  - 7tsfmCAusrQ 6y ago
    Thanks, I'll give it a try! I'm looking forward to testing out Win-Kex also.
stephenr 6y ago
... So many things wrong with this comparison. (a). WSL is just a Linux VM. You can do this on any desktop OS. If you're not using WSL, you can even do it with multiple hypervisors at once if you so wish. (b). macOS isn't, and has never tried to be, "Linux". It's POSIX.
- shagie 6y ago
  macOS is UNIX too (Linux isn’t). https://www.opengroup.org/openbrand/register/ https://www.opengroup.org/openbrand/register/

cglong 6y ago

Just wanted to say, as someone who's been a fervent Apple fan since 2007, getting a Pixel was the best tech decision I've made in years :)

hartator 6y ago

> My next laptop will be a Thinkpad or Dell. Why haven’t you switched yet? Competition is not that good unfortunately.

7tsfmCAusrQ 6y ago
Since being apartment-bound due to COVID, I've switched to doing most of my development on my desktop machine, so there hasn't been any urgent need for me to have a new laptop. I still have my late-2013 MBP, one of the last non-Butterfly / non-Touchbar laptops Apple made, which I use on rare occasions. I've looked at the Windows laptops extensively though, and will likely get a ThinkPad X1 Extreme G2 or G3, or a Dell XPS 15, when the time comes. They both seem very good, with superior keyboards, displays, performance, and value compared to Apple's current lineup.
- keyb0ardninja 6y ago
  > I've looked at the Windows laptops extensively You can also take a look at linux vendors like System76. Check their line-up here: https://system76.com/laptops https://system76.com/laptops Among Windows laptops did you consider the ASUS Zephyrus G14?
  - 7tsfmCAusrQ 6y ago
    Thanks, I wasn't aware of those Linux laptops, and will definitely check them out. I hadn't seen the Zephyrus G14 either. How great to have so many choices!
hn_check 6y ago
Because the story is an absurd lie. The guy has gotten 100+ upvotes for that hysterically dumb bit of fiction. HN has proven to be outrageously gullible time and time again, and this one takes the cake.

jonas21 6y ago

I'm an independent app developer too, and I share your frustrations. Sometimes I wish I had the luxury of walking away from the App Store -- but with ~80% of my revenue coming from iOS, I can't do that. Similarly, I can't give up on owning a Mac because you need one to develop for iOS. On one hand, it's super annoying whenever Apple rejects an update for some arbitrary reason. But on the other hand, making a living by writing and selling my own apps has been a dream of mine pretty much forever -- and something that I didn't think would be possible before the app stores came along.

7tsfmCAusrQ 6y ago
I feel your pain. I would encourage you to grow and develop your audience on Android. There is a big market there to be tapped, which with some effort could equal or exceed your revenue from Apple. It's much easier to write cross-platform apps now than it was five years ago, thanks to frameworks like Flutter. Of course, Apple would like to have us all believe that app developers couldn't make a living by writing and selling apps before the Invention of the App Store, and that they have done us all a great favor, one that warrants us paying them 30% of our income. However, the reality is, this has always been possible. As early as the beginning of the 80s, indy developers made millions writing games for the ZX Spectrum, the BBC Micro, the Amiga, and so on. You just had to work with a publisher or distributor, of which there were hundreds and it was a free market. In the 90s millions could be made from DOS and Windows apps in the same way. In the early '00s, it became possible to self-publish on the web and our apps would be indexed and marketed for us by search engines; we didn't even need a publisher, but could still choose to go through one if the value add merited the cost. So there has been no radical innovation, no Invention that has changed what is possible for us to achieve as app developers. It's arguably a little bit easier to get our apps to market than it used to be, but given how onerous Apple's "guidelines" have become, I'm not even sure that is true. Writing websites serving apps and integrating with checkout engines just isn't that difficult... and most apps still need marketing to succeed because being listed in the App Store is not by itself sufficient. The only thing that has changed, now that the mobile computing revolution has almost reached saturation point and the majority of screen time by consumers is on mobile devices, is that we are now all forced to publish through a single store on each platform, and we are permitted no alternative if we want to reach our customers. Equally, our customers are permitted no alternative way to obtain our products. There is no competition between publishers on Apple's platform, because there is only one publisher, Apple, by fiat of Apple; and we are now forced to pay a 30% tax, a figure which is not challenged by the usual mechanisms of competition, and supply and demand, which make markets efficient.

Razengan 6y ago

> It used to be that my apps made more money on Apple devices, but now I actually make more on Android. Which apps are those? Genuinely interested in seeing the numbers.

hn_check 6y ago
We all understand that it's an absurd fiction, right? The story reads like a tired fan fiction. Bizarre seeing this nonsense upvoted on here. It is a Saturday evening so I guess that's why.
- deleted 6y ago
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