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Just curious, if Apple is so bad, why do people build apps for it? Browsers are very robust now a days. I have never built a iPhone or Android app, never needed
by capybara_2020 5y ago
Just curious, if Apple is so bad, why do people build apps for it? Browsers are very robust now a days. I have never built a iPhone or Android app, never needed to. Browsers now a days I imagine can get you atleast 90% of the way. Why go to Apple if you can build a webapp. And it is cross platform so you do not have to maintain a separate Android app.
What am I missing?
- foepys 5y agoSome simply cannot avoid it because Apple does not implement all necessary functionality for all kinds of apps in Safari and does not allow other browser engines that do on iOS.
- nikanj 5y agoA native app has access to way more marketable data than a browser page. Why do you think all the big sites keep on pushing you to install their app?
- josephorjoe 5y agoThe web never implemented easy micropayments, and iPhone/Android did.
- jonny_eh 5y agoActually, Apple Pay works great on the web, but doesn't charge a 30% fee.
- taylodl 5y agoWhich tells you everything. There's a stocking fee you pay to be on the Apple Store. I never hear the HN crowd complaining about the hoops you have to jump through to get your product on Walmart's shelves. It's almost like the entity owning the retail channel and the customers gets to set the T's and C's. You always have the option for not targeting Apple's customers and building your app for Android only - just like you can tell Walmart where to shove it and only sell your product at Costco. It's how retail works.
- jonny_eh 5y agoBut if you make a purchase within the app, the developer should be able to charge their user however they want (Apple Pay, Paypal, CC directly). Wal-Mart doesn't get a share of every game I buy on my Xbox even if I bought the console off a shelf at Wal-Mart.
- fastball 5y agoCustomers want dedicated mobile apps that they can download from App Stores.
- vbezhenar 5y ago1. Apps get added to the home screen by default. Adding a website to the home screen is not easy and most users are not aware of this function. When app is on the home screen, there are much higher chances that user will return. 2. Push notifications increase return rate as well. Website can't send push notification to iOS client. So basically it comes down to user retention. Apps allows for better user monetization, compared to websites.
- Jcowell 5y agoI disagree about one partly. It’s two (well 3 really) clicks to add a PWA to the Home Screen. I would describe it more as having friction than not being easy.
- Daishiman 5y ago3 clicks literally means you lost 90% of your potential users.
- valparaiso 5y agoThat’s how Epics failed with Epic Games Store and Fortnite and moved to Google Play and started paying 30% fee to the Google and then broke rules and were kicked out from the Play Store.
- t-writescode 5y agoNotifications and icons are pretty big for me.
- cvwright 5y agoMy app does end-to-end encryption, and this is much more straightforward in a "real" app. (1) I need non-volatile storage for the keys, and (2) I want users to know if/when they get a new version of the code. You can do E2EE in a web app (like Element.io), but then every time you load the page, you're trusting the server not to send you a new version with a backdoor.