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It appears that the apple tax and review process is a constant problem for iOS developers (according to many linked articles on HN) If it genuinely is a big pr

It appears that the apple tax and review process is a constant problem for iOS developers (according to many linked articles on HN) If it genuinely is a big problem, why don't the apps band together and advertise the problem to their users? I'm guessing many users don't know/care right now, but might pay attention if the app they love suddenly pulls the plug on iOS. Edit: like a union

smoldesu 5y ago
They are advertising it, that's what this is. They're just not in a position to bargain though; Apple has proven time-after-time that they won't make changes to their policy unless faced with significant legal backlash. If you're a big developer, pulling iOS support would threaten your userbase and create a vacuum for lookalikes to take over your place, which is especially bad considering how Apple has no policy for curating "clone" apps. If you're a small developer, you're basically shooting yourself in the foot by not offering cross-platform support of your content, and losing out on a chunk of the revenue that you need to continue development. It's a catch-22, and a fairly well-engineered one at that. Apple won't care about this unless legislators do. They defended their 30% cut as a necessary and inexorable part of the App Store experience until the Epic case, where they announced that actually they can make do with 15%, and maintain the same level of quality. I think we're forgetting how much of a bargaining chip Epic had, too; Fortnite, at it's apex, could not convince Apple to bend their rules regarding app distribution. The only solution here is sideloading, the only question is how long it's going to take before the government lays down the law.
heavyset_go 5y ago
> If it genuinely is a big problem, why don't the apps band together and advertise the problem to their users? Apple abuses their market position in order to leverage a chilling effect on talking about their abuses at all. From[1]: > If you run to the press and trash us, it never helps. [1] https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/guidelines/ https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/guidelines/

smoldesu 5y ago

They are advertising it, that's what this is. They're just not in a position to bargain though; Apple has proven time-after-time that they won't make changes to their policy unless faced with significant legal backlash. If you're a big developer, pulling iOS support would threaten your userbase and create a vacuum for lookalikes to take over your place, which is especially bad considering how Apple has no policy for curating "clone" apps. If you're a small developer, you're basically shooting yourself in the foot by not offering cross-platform support of your content, and losing out on a chunk of the revenue that you need to continue development. It's a catch-22, and a fairly well-engineered one at that. Apple won't care about this unless legislators do. They defended their 30% cut as a necessary and inexorable part of the App Store experience until the Epic case, where they announced that actually they can make do with 15%, and maintain the same level of quality. I think we're forgetting how much of a bargaining chip Epic had, too; Fortnite, at it's apex, could not convince Apple to bend their rules regarding app distribution. The only solution here is sideloading, the only question is how long it's going to take before the government lays down the law.

heavyset_go 5y ago

> If it genuinely is a big problem, why don't the apps band together and advertise the problem to their users? Apple abuses their market position in order to leverage a chilling effect on talking about their abuses at all. From[1]: > If you run to the press and trash us, it never helps. [1] https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/guidelines/ https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/guidelines/