9 ms·

Apple doesn’t take a cut of transactions I make in my iPhones browser.

by newsclues 5y ago

Hamuko 5y ago
They do actually get a cut if you pay with Apple Pay.
- lotsofpulp 5y ago
  https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204274 https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204274 >Are there additional fees to accept Apple Pay? >No. Apple doesn't charge any additional fees.
  - lmz 5y ago
    No additional fees is not incompatible with getting a cut. e.g. they could take some of the card issuer's portion.
  - maxsilver 5y ago
    > Apple doesn't charge any additional fees. They do charge additional fees, just not to customers. Those fees get tacked onto the bank/merchant in the transaction. Apple charges between 0.15% to 0.30% of total transaction, according to Financial Times. https://www.macrumors.com/2014/09/12/more-apple-pay-details/ https://www.macrumors.com/2014/09/12/more-apple-pay-details/
deergomoo 5y ago
Exactly, which is what makes their argument so flimsy. Sure sometimes apps get promotion and featured by the store but for the vast majority of apps, any downloads they get have about as much to do with Apple as the results of your web searches do.
SheinhardtWigCo 5y ago
This is why Apple holds back important APIs from their browser, years after they are available in other browsers: fast 3D graphics, offline storage and compute, push notifications, to name a few.
- coldtea 5y ago
  Yes. To avoid the crappification of mobile, where everything it's a bunch of slow, memory and battery draining Electron apps, doing whatever they want, each with custom UI...
  - ubercow13 5y ago
    How is that not what exists? Aren't many apps based on web technologies, and/or have custom UIs? There's little standardisation even among 'real' native apps.
    - coldtea 5y ago
      >How is that not what exists? Aren't many apps based on web technologies, and/or have custom UIs? Yes, but (a) some, as opposed to all which is the dream of the pro web-app camp. (b) forbidding custom JS and web engines helps keep this low (c) even the crappy mobile-webview apps at least have to be wrapped in an app container, be installable and uninstallable the same way, be notarized, use the same payment system with central control, and be tied to the same policies (e.g. regarding privacy, notifications, use of apis) as native mobile apps
  - mhh__ 5y ago
    Definitely that and not to avoid the potential for circumventing their lock-in. If Apple were that obsessed with performance, their LLVM backends wouldn't be closed source.
- criddell 5y ago
  I might buy into that theory if they didn't have Apple Pay in the browser.
  - TheCoelacanth 5y ago
    You mean the feature that lets them take a cut of every transaction that goes through it?
doikor 5y ago
And for how long would Safari on iOS keep up with new features or not get its performance nuked if for example games started to move into browser apps in major numbers on iOS. Apple itself said in the trial that games pretty much subsidize all other apps in terms of the money Apple makes out of the App Store. iOS Safari already lags behind in features. Apple would just make it even worse if it started to cost them significant amount of money to have a truly great web browser.
- slver 5y ago
  Apple lags behind Chrome in some features which curiously directly benefit Google. It's not slow, it's not broken. It's a great mobile browser. So stick to reality and not bunch of made up "what ifs".
  - candiddevmike 5y ago
    PWAs and web based push notifications only benefit Google?
    - easton 5y ago
      I don’t know about “only Google”, but Apple feels that web push in its current form doesn’t benefit the user (at least, how most browsers currently implement it where every page can ask you for notification privileges). They could gate the functionality behind PWA install, but right now they don’t.
      - fauigerzigerk 5y ago
        I don't see how this restriction benefits anyone but Apple. What this restriction does is replace an annoyance that doesn't benefit Apple with one that does. Instead of websites asking to send notifications, they are now nagging us to install useless apps that ask to send notifications and clutter our screens. An honest curator would never even allow these apps into their app store. This is purely a business decision on Apple's part, nothing to do with user interests at all.
cblconfederate 5y ago
For now

Apple doesn’t take a cut of transactions I make in my iPhones browser.

Hamuko 5y ago

They do actually get a cut if you pay with Apple Pay.

lotsofpulp 5y ago
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204274 https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204274 >Are there additional fees to accept Apple Pay? >No. Apple doesn't charge any additional fees.
- lmz 5y ago
  No additional fees is not incompatible with getting a cut. e.g. they could take some of the card issuer's portion.
- maxsilver 5y ago
  > Apple doesn't charge any additional fees. They do charge additional fees, just not to customers. Those fees get tacked onto the bank/merchant in the transaction. Apple charges between 0.15% to 0.30% of total transaction, according to Financial Times. https://www.macrumors.com/2014/09/12/more-apple-pay-details/ https://www.macrumors.com/2014/09/12/more-apple-pay-details/

deergomoo 5y ago

Exactly, which is what makes their argument so flimsy. Sure sometimes apps get promotion and featured by the store but for the vast majority of apps, any downloads they get have about as much to do with Apple as the results of your web searches do.

SheinhardtWigCo 5y ago

This is why Apple holds back important APIs from their browser, years after they are available in other browsers: fast 3D graphics, offline storage and compute, push notifications, to name a few.

coldtea 5y ago
Yes. To avoid the crappification of mobile, where everything it's a bunch of slow, memory and battery draining Electron apps, doing whatever they want, each with custom UI...
- ubercow13 5y ago
  How is that not what exists? Aren't many apps based on web technologies, and/or have custom UIs? There's little standardisation even among 'real' native apps.
  - coldtea 5y ago
    >How is that not what exists? Aren't many apps based on web technologies, and/or have custom UIs? Yes, but (a) some, as opposed to all which is the dream of the pro web-app camp. (b) forbidding custom JS and web engines helps keep this low (c) even the crappy mobile-webview apps at least have to be wrapped in an app container, be installable and uninstallable the same way, be notarized, use the same payment system with central control, and be tied to the same policies (e.g. regarding privacy, notifications, use of apis) as native mobile apps
- mhh__ 5y ago
  Definitely that and not to avoid the potential for circumventing their lock-in. If Apple were that obsessed with performance, their LLVM backends wouldn't be closed source.
criddell 5y ago
I might buy into that theory if they didn't have Apple Pay in the browser.
- TheCoelacanth 5y ago
  You mean the feature that lets them take a cut of every transaction that goes through it?

doikor 5y ago

And for how long would Safari on iOS keep up with new features or not get its performance nuked if for example games started to move into browser apps in major numbers on iOS. Apple itself said in the trial that games pretty much subsidize all other apps in terms of the money Apple makes out of the App Store. iOS Safari already lags behind in features. Apple would just make it even worse if it started to cost them significant amount of money to have a truly great web browser.

slver 5y ago
Apple lags behind Chrome in some features which curiously directly benefit Google. It's not slow, it's not broken. It's a great mobile browser. So stick to reality and not bunch of made up "what ifs".
- candiddevmike 5y ago
  PWAs and web based push notifications only benefit Google?
  - easton 5y ago
    I don’t know about “only Google”, but Apple feels that web push in its current form doesn’t benefit the user (at least, how most browsers currently implement it where every page can ask you for notification privileges). They could gate the functionality behind PWA install, but right now they don’t.
    - fauigerzigerk 5y ago
      I don't see how this restriction benefits anyone but Apple. What this restriction does is replace an annoyance that doesn't benefit Apple with one that does. Instead of websites asking to send notifications, they are now nagging us to install useless apps that ask to send notifications and clutter our screens. An honest curator would never even allow these apps into their app store. This is purely a business decision on Apple's part, nothing to do with user interests at all.

cblconfederate 5y ago

For now