4 ms·

Apple’s developer problems are much bigger than Epic and ‘Fortnite’

26 points by retskrad 5y ago

donmcronald 5y ago
Go play some kids games and watch the ads. Start with this (9+): https://apps.apple.com/ca/app/sticky-flip/id1563561420 https://apps.apple.com/ca/app/sticky-flip/id1563561420 Play until you get the ad for the game with the girl in the red bikini with the phrases “I have an itch I can’t scratch” and “I’m thirsty.” That game is rated 4+. The problem with the Apple App Store and the Google Play store is that they SUCK on top of taking 30% of revenue. The reason they’re fighting so hard to maintain the status quo is because it will be easy for someone to come along and build a much, much better app store experience that costs less for developers and users.
- esrauch 5y ago
  I find it unlikely someone is going to make a better app store in terms of preventing the "bikini ad in a kids game". People like free apps, free apps are funded by ad networks, ad networks are going to push the boundaries. If Amazon App Store banned all ad supported apps would people use them more? Seems unlikely to me.
  - donmcronald 5y ago
    > If Amazon App Store banned all ad supported apps would people use them more? I would do that in a second. I think the reason it wouldn’t work is that ad fraud is probably generating a ton of revenue and that can’t be replaced by charging fair value up front.
- stouset 5y ago
  Alternatively, try to imagine the situation without these controls in place. Apple recently released figures for how many scam apps and accounts they’ve taken down, and the numbers are astronomical. > Apple stopped over $1.5 billion in potentially fraudulent transactions. > Apple expelled 470,000 teams from the Apple Developer Program for fraud-related reasons. It also rejected nearly 205,000 developer enrollment attempts over fraud concerns. > Apple deactivated 244 million customer accounts due to fraudulent and abusive activity, including fake reviews. It also rejected 424 million attempted account creations due to fraudulent and abusive patterns. https://www.apple.com/privacy/docs/Building_a_Trusted_Ecosystem_for_Millions_of_Apps.pdf https://www.apple.com/privacy/docs/Building_a_Trusted_Ecosys...
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - donmcronald 5y ago
    IMHO they’re profiting from bad actors and doing just enough to be able to claim they’re moderating. I think competing app stores could be much better quality by having better moderation. There’s a ton of margin ($), so the effort being put into moderation could be ramped up significantly and the margins would still be attractive to competitors.
  - curryst 5y ago
    This is what happens when the barrier to entry is almost non-existent. I would not be at all surprised if alternative app stores enforced higher requirements to publish. What's Steam doing these days on that front? They seem more open than requiring a major publisher, but I'm not aware of a large amount of malware or scams (other than the game being shitty). They seem to have a functional model for filtering bad publishers and/or apps.

26 points by retskrad 5y ago

Go play some kids games and watch the ads. Start with this (9+): https://apps.apple.com/ca/app/sticky-flip/id1563561420 https://apps.apple.com/ca/app/sticky-flip/id1563561420 Play until you get the ad for the game with the girl in the red bikini with the phrases “I have an itch I can’t scratch” and “I’m thirsty.” That game is rated 4+. The problem with the Apple App Store and the Google Play store is that they SUCK on top of taking 30% of revenue. The reason they’re fighting so hard to maintain the status quo is because it will be easy for someone to come along and build a much, much better app store experience that costs less for developers and users.

esrauch 5y ago
I find it unlikely someone is going to make a better app store in terms of preventing the "bikini ad in a kids game". People like free apps, free apps are funded by ad networks, ad networks are going to push the boundaries. If Amazon App Store banned all ad supported apps would people use them more? Seems unlikely to me.
- donmcronald 5y ago
  > If Amazon App Store banned all ad supported apps would people use them more? I would do that in a second. I think the reason it wouldn’t work is that ad fraud is probably generating a ton of revenue and that can’t be replaced by charging fair value up front.
stouset 5y ago
Alternatively, try to imagine the situation without these controls in place. Apple recently released figures for how many scam apps and accounts they’ve taken down, and the numbers are astronomical. > Apple stopped over $1.5 billion in potentially fraudulent transactions. > Apple expelled 470,000 teams from the Apple Developer Program for fraud-related reasons. It also rejected nearly 205,000 developer enrollment attempts over fraud concerns. > Apple deactivated 244 million customer accounts due to fraudulent and abusive activity, including fake reviews. It also rejected 424 million attempted account creations due to fraudulent and abusive patterns. https://www.apple.com/privacy/docs/Building_a_Trusted_Ecosystem_for_Millions_of_Apps.pdf https://www.apple.com/privacy/docs/Building_a_Trusted_Ecosys...
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- donmcronald 5y ago
  IMHO they’re profiting from bad actors and doing just enough to be able to claim they’re moderating. I think competing app stores could be much better quality by having better moderation. There’s a ton of margin ($), so the effort being put into moderation could be ramped up significantly and the margins would still be attractive to competitors.
- curryst 5y ago
  This is what happens when the barrier to entry is almost non-existent. I would not be at all surprised if alternative app stores enforced higher requirements to publish. What's Steam doing these days on that front? They seem more open than requiring a major publisher, but I'm not aware of a large amount of malware or scams (other than the game being shitty). They seem to have a functional model for filtering bad publishers and/or apps.