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I don't really think so. Whether they're right or not, the people making these decisions at Apple aren't doing them to make more money (or at least, not just th

I don't really think so. Whether they're right or not, the people making these decisions at Apple aren't doing them to make more money (or at least, not just that), but because they believe it's better for users. In this particular case, that to encourage people as far as possible to use the in-app purchases system is more favourable to the users. It seems much more likely than "deciding to be evil".

tybris 15y ago
I can envision the board meeting now: "It's so much better for our users if we take 30% of the earnings on every sale". No.
fpgeek 15y ago
Breaking the user experience for competitive apps and not even allowing them to explain why goes far beyond encouraging people to use in-app purchase. For that matter, using in-app purchase is only favorable to users who stay entirely within the Apple ecosystem. One serious objection Amazon et al had to in-app purchase is that it (by design for privacy reasons, IIRC) didn't allow them to connect the dots between an iTunes account and an Amazon account, so they wouldn't have been able to give you access to your iOS-purchased ebooks on non-Apple devices. For that matter, they wouldn't have been able to give you access to your ebooks on a Mac for the same reason, which is particularly hilarious because Apple doesn't provide iBooks for Mac either (IIRC, you can buy but not read on the desktop).
kbutler 15y ago
> the people making these decisions at Apple aren't doing them to make more money (or at least, not just that), but because they believe it's better for users. "Our philosophy is simple—when Apple brings a new subscriber to the app, Apple earns a 30 percent share; when the publisher brings an existing or new subscriber to the app, the publisher keeps 100 percent and Apple earns nothing," -- Steve Jobs When Steve thinks something is better for the users, he says so (e.g., not supporting flash). Steve said this is about money. I believe him.

tybris 15y ago

I can envision the board meeting now: "It's so much better for our users if we take 30% of the earnings on every sale". No.

fpgeek 15y ago

Breaking the user experience for competitive apps and not even allowing them to explain why goes far beyond encouraging people to use in-app purchase. For that matter, using in-app purchase is only favorable to users who stay entirely within the Apple ecosystem. One serious objection Amazon et al had to in-app purchase is that it (by design for privacy reasons, IIRC) didn't allow them to connect the dots between an iTunes account and an Amazon account, so they wouldn't have been able to give you access to your iOS-purchased ebooks on non-Apple devices. For that matter, they wouldn't have been able to give you access to your ebooks on a Mac for the same reason, which is particularly hilarious because Apple doesn't provide iBooks for Mac either (IIRC, you can buy but not read on the desktop).

kbutler 15y ago

> the people making these decisions at Apple aren't doing them to make more money (or at least, not just that), but because they believe it's better for users. "Our philosophy is simple—when Apple brings a new subscriber to the app, Apple earns a 30 percent share; when the publisher brings an existing or new subscriber to the app, the publisher keeps 100 percent and Apple earns nothing," -- Steve Jobs When Steve thinks something is better for the users, he says so (e.g., not supporting flash). Steve said this is about money. I believe him.