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What ultimately made me pull out of the Mac App Store was the fact that publishing with Apple meant “app with customizations to accommodate stupid rules”, and $

What ultimately made me pull out of the Mac App Store was the fact that publishing with Apple meant “app with customizations to accommodate stupid rules”, and $EVERYWHERE_ELSE meant “upload and be done with it”. If you haven’t checked lately, the Mac App Store is a pathetic ghost town for the most part. On iOS I guarantee that if the App Store had even one alternative, many apps would do the same and bail on Apple, and you’d see a similar ghost store. Also, since Apple loves to compare its grand scheme to how physical stores used to behave, let’s examine that: there isn’t a single physical store that demands to have complete control over everything in the boxes on their shelves. If you open a product box and it contains a card with information, such as a link to the company web site or other stuff, then that’s what you get. If apps followed this sane model, Apple would just let apps put whatever they want “in the box”, including sensible things like INFORMATION about account sign-ups and other products, and links.

Google234 6y ago
Um, I would imagine most stores would actually control what’s on and in the box. Every item in Walmart does have to be approved by Walmart first
- texasbigdata 6y ago
  In popular culture they “suggest” things in the component list to get price down to what they want. The iOS comparable would be Apple suggesting refactoring for performance.....Walmart is much more aggressive
- imustbeevil 6y ago
  Your bank doesn't force you to buy all of your furniture at Ikea. No one is asking for Apple to give up control of their store. We just want to use a different store, or none at all.
7tsfmCAusrQ 6y ago
> On iOS I guarantee that if the App Store had even one alternative, many apps would do the same and bail on Apple, and you’d see a similar ghost store. Yes, I certainly would, and the only reason I haven't already is I have no other way to get my app into the hands of users who own only Apple phones and tablets.
mortenjorck 6y ago
I have an allergy to tech analogies in general, but Apple's brick-and-mortar retail analogy is one of the worst. In any locality other than rural towns served by a single Dollar General, consumers have a choice between multiple retail outlets. If they don't like the choices at one store, they're free to shop at another. "But Android!" one might say, and once again, the analogy falls completely flat. The switching costs of going between iOS and Android are obviously not remotely comparable from the switching costs of going between Walmart and Target. When you move into iOS town, the only store within a thousand miles is the App Store.
- scarface74 6y ago
  Name one app that is of any importance on iOS that there isn’t available on Android or that would cause you to have to buy again? I have exactly one - Overcast. Even with that I can export to OPML (?).
  - millstone 6y ago
    I would miss all the games. Slay the Spire, Darkest Dungeon, Bastion, FTL...
  - Marsymars 6y ago
    Well, Apple Maps, Photos, Siri, and Messages. (I'd be willing to pay a subscription fee to have them on Android. As is, I just do without, and deal with ridiculous workarounds like having my Android phone save my photos to OneDrive and them manually copying them over to Photos on my Mac.)
    - scarface74 6y ago
      Really? I’m an iPhone user and even I admit that Google Maps, Google Photos and whatever Google is calling their voice assistant today are better. If I were serious about photos I would use Lightroom.
      - Marsymars 6y ago
smnscu 6y ago
> the Mac App Store is a pathetic ghost town for the most part This definitely resonates with me. If you want to see what a good app store could look like, check out SetApp [0]. They charge a monthly fee for access to a curated list of paid apps, they offer a 7-day trial IIRC. I initially subscribed for their two email clients, then stopped using them as they were both shit (slow, glitchy, poor UX, etc.). I am still subscribed just because I like the idea and just how many apps they offer. 0: https://setapp.com/ https://setapp.com/
- Terretta 6y ago
  The ideal app store on the Mac is https://brew.sh/ https://brew.sh/ “App” inventory: https://formulae.brew.sh/formula/ https://formulae.brew.sh/formula/
  - smnscu 6y ago
    Oh, for sure, and you have brew cask for an awesome collection of free/oss apps. https://formulae.brew.sh/cask/ https://formulae.brew.sh/cask/ That's more on the nerdy side, I was thinking more in the sense of the fancy/fun/quality feeling the Mac app store selection should evoke, instead it's just a ghost town with expensive bullshit and ass UX (at least based on what I remember - I haven't opened that damn app in ages lol).
hn_check 6y ago
"On iOS I guarantee that if the App Store had even one alternative, many apps would do the same and bail on Apple, and you’d see a similar ghost store." This earned a serious out loud laugh. Are you actually being sincere? An app store that is widely trusted, and that has been the most successful, most profitable venue for independent developers in history (by a magnitude) is going to be abandoned because you, the developer, find it a hassle? Epic Games, as one example, has made far more from the App Store than any other platform...yet it's their target? LOL. Uproarious stuff. Reading through these various absurd, fully detached from reality comments (I most like the highly upvoted fan fiction nonsense - "I have a super successful app on the App Store and I'm abandoning it because the Android Play Store is such a greener pasture" -- everyone pretends that the Play Store doesn't have virtually the same policies) Some developers of fringe stuff might abandon it, and every other developer would welcome your departure. The rest of us will enjoy a trusted, lubricated, very successful platform. Sidenote - everyone always goes on about the 30% cut. Right now my Costco has iTunes cards for 85 cents on the dollar (e.g. $85 for $100 gift cards, and clearly Costco is getting a cut of that amount). This deal is fairly regular, and gives buyers a sense of "value", and fills up lots of grandparents storage until birthdays and Christmas roll around. And then another few billion appear in developer accounts. What a crime.
- gizmo 6y ago
  My experience with Apple's subscription/payment system in the app store is pretty awful, and I'd much rather buy from a vendor directly, like I do with Spotify/Netflix/Amazon. The refund system on the app store is terrible. Apps you've paid for get updated automatically to something unusable with no recourse. As a software vendor being at the mercy of an unaccountable review process is a nightmare.

Google234 6y ago

Um, I would imagine most stores would actually control what’s on and in the box. Every item in Walmart does have to be approved by Walmart first

texasbigdata 6y ago
In popular culture they “suggest” things in the component list to get price down to what they want. The iOS comparable would be Apple suggesting refactoring for performance.....Walmart is much more aggressive
imustbeevil 6y ago
Your bank doesn't force you to buy all of your furniture at Ikea. No one is asking for Apple to give up control of their store. We just want to use a different store, or none at all.

7tsfmCAusrQ 6y ago

> On iOS I guarantee that if the App Store had even one alternative, many apps would do the same and bail on Apple, and you’d see a similar ghost store. Yes, I certainly would, and the only reason I haven't already is I have no other way to get my app into the hands of users who own only Apple phones and tablets.

mortenjorck 6y ago

I have an allergy to tech analogies in general, but Apple's brick-and-mortar retail analogy is one of the worst. In any locality other than rural towns served by a single Dollar General, consumers have a choice between multiple retail outlets. If they don't like the choices at one store, they're free to shop at another. "But Android!" one might say, and once again, the analogy falls completely flat. The switching costs of going between iOS and Android are obviously not remotely comparable from the switching costs of going between Walmart and Target. When you move into iOS town, the only store within a thousand miles is the App Store.

scarface74 6y ago
Name one app that is of any importance on iOS that there isn’t available on Android or that would cause you to have to buy again? I have exactly one - Overcast. Even with that I can export to OPML (?).
- millstone 6y ago
  I would miss all the games. Slay the Spire, Darkest Dungeon, Bastion, FTL...
- Marsymars 6y ago
  Well, Apple Maps, Photos, Siri, and Messages. (I'd be willing to pay a subscription fee to have them on Android. As is, I just do without, and deal with ridiculous workarounds like having my Android phone save my photos to OneDrive and them manually copying them over to Photos on my Mac.)
  - scarface74 6y ago
    Really? I’m an iPhone user and even I admit that Google Maps, Google Photos and whatever Google is calling their voice assistant today are better. If I were serious about photos I would use Lightroom.
    - Marsymars 6y ago

smnscu 6y ago

> the Mac App Store is a pathetic ghost town for the most part This definitely resonates with me. If you want to see what a good app store could look like, check out SetApp [0]. They charge a monthly fee for access to a curated list of paid apps, they offer a 7-day trial IIRC. I initially subscribed for their two email clients, then stopped using them as they were both shit (slow, glitchy, poor UX, etc.). I am still subscribed just because I like the idea and just how many apps they offer. 0: https://setapp.com/ https://setapp.com/

Terretta 6y ago
The ideal app store on the Mac is https://brew.sh/ https://brew.sh/ “App” inventory: https://formulae.brew.sh/formula/ https://formulae.brew.sh/formula/
- smnscu 6y ago
  Oh, for sure, and you have brew cask for an awesome collection of free/oss apps. https://formulae.brew.sh/cask/ https://formulae.brew.sh/cask/ That's more on the nerdy side, I was thinking more in the sense of the fancy/fun/quality feeling the Mac app store selection should evoke, instead it's just a ghost town with expensive bullshit and ass UX (at least based on what I remember - I haven't opened that damn app in ages lol).

hn_check 6y ago

"On iOS I guarantee that if the App Store had even one alternative, many apps would do the same and bail on Apple, and you’d see a similar ghost store." This earned a serious out loud laugh. Are you actually being sincere? An app store that is widely trusted, and that has been the most successful, most profitable venue for independent developers in history (by a magnitude) is going to be abandoned because you, the developer, find it a hassle? Epic Games, as one example, has made far more from the App Store than any other platform...yet it's their target? LOL. Uproarious stuff. Reading through these various absurd, fully detached from reality comments (I most like the highly upvoted fan fiction nonsense - "I have a super successful app on the App Store and I'm abandoning it because the Android Play Store is such a greener pasture" -- everyone pretends that the Play Store doesn't have virtually the same policies) Some developers of fringe stuff might abandon it, and every other developer would welcome your departure. The rest of us will enjoy a trusted, lubricated, very successful platform. Sidenote - everyone always goes on about the 30% cut. Right now my Costco has iTunes cards for 85 cents on the dollar (e.g. $85 for $100 gift cards, and clearly Costco is getting a cut of that amount). This deal is fairly regular, and gives buyers a sense of "value", and fills up lots of grandparents storage until birthdays and Christmas roll around. And then another few billion appear in developer accounts. What a crime.

gizmo 6y ago
My experience with Apple's subscription/payment system in the app store is pretty awful, and I'd much rather buy from a vendor directly, like I do with Spotify/Netflix/Amazon. The refund system on the app store is terrible. Apps you've paid for get updated automatically to something unusable with no recourse. As a software vendor being at the mercy of an unaccountable review process is a nightmare.