4 ms·

Right, but Apple is a mobile phone company, not a mobile app company. iOS app companies exist entirely at the pleasure of Apple, just like companies who depend

Right, but Apple is a mobile phone company, not a mobile app company. iOS app companies exist entirely at the pleasure of Apple, just like companies who depend on the Twitter API.

pixl97 5y ago
Apple is 100% a mobile app company. They guard all the doors, they hold all the keys to the hardware device. Thereby they dictate what you can run on your hardware that you paid for after the sale.
- warkdarrior 5y ago
  > they dictate what you can run on your hardware that you paid for after the sale. You bought the hardware from Apple knowing exactly what restrictions they place on the hardware. You were knowledgeable about it and still decided to purchase the hardware.
  - realusername 5y ago
    That reasoning just cannot work in society to keep a functioning and healthy market
realusername 5y ago
I disagree with that, Apple is a mobile app company and there's only two in the world. Twitter as big as it is, is just a website across millions of others. In the mobile app market there is exactly two companies, Apple and Google, that's it. Does Oppo or Samsung has any power when publishing an app? No? Then they are not part of this market.
- thegrimmest 5y ago
  There aren't many mobile apps you can buy from Apple. Apple is primarily a hardware manufacturer. Their entire product lineup consists of devices[1]. 1. https://www.apple.com/us/store https://www.apple.com/us/store
  - colinjoy 5y ago
    Entirely? https://www.apple.com/services/ https://www.apple.com/services/ https://www.apple.com/logic-pro/ https://www.apple.com/logic-pro/ https://www.apple.com/final-cut-pro/ https://www.apple.com/final-cut-pro/ Of course, these are not the bread and butter products. I find it a bit pointless to separate their hardware and software. I know few people who run Windows or Linux on their Apple hardware. For me, Apple is primarily a products company that excels in fusing hardware and software together. They are increasingly expanding into services, too.
  - realusername 5y ago
    They are plenty of mobile apps you can buy from apple, it's called the appstore. Whether they make them themselves is irrelevant to the point. And similarly again there's none you can buy from Oppo and Samsung (I'll consider the Samsung store negligible in terms of market share).
smoldesu 5y ago
> Right, but Apple is a mobile phone company, not a mobile app company. Apple has consistently made more money from collecting their 30% tax than they have from manufacturing iPhones: https://www.statista.com/statistics/263402/apples-iphone-revenue-since-3rd-quarter-2007/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/263402/apples-iphone-rev... https://www.statista.com/statistics/296226/annual-apple-app-store-revenue/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/296226/annual-apple-app-...
- thegrimmest 5y ago
  Isn't that the whole point? They can only make that money because they build the phones to begin with. They also invested in building the entire platform, literally from scratch. Isn't this just a return on their investment? Aren't they perfectly entitled to it? Why can't phones be loss leaders into mobile app ecosystems, just like razors are loss leaders into razor blades?
  - smoldesu 5y ago
    App developers shouldn't be beholden to using Apple's payment processing if they don't want to use it. Along that same line of logic, forcing developers to go through Apple for first-party distribution gives them a defacto monopoly over the iPhone. Apple could charge 85% overhead and there would be nothing developers could do about it. The only fair resolution here is to force Apple to compete with other storefronts to prove that the value they provide is competitive. Apple could resolve this issue in a number of ways, but they've only chose to make the problem worse; that's why 34 states have come forward voicing their concern[0], and why EU regulators have been stepping in to block Apple's service expansions. They're the largest company in the world, and they deserve the most regulatory scrutiny for it; anything else is a failure of democracy and capitalism. [0] https://finance.yahoo.com/news/1-dozens-u-states-apple-034707198.html https://finance.yahoo.com/news/1-dozens-u-states-apple-03470...
    - charcircuit 5y ago
      Apple could decided third party apps aren't allowed and then developers make 0%. It's their platform to decided what to do with. If they think 15/30% works well, then so be it.

Right, but Apple is a mobile phone company, not a mobile app company. iOS app companies exist entirely at the pleasure of Apple, just like companies who depend on the Twitter API.

pixl97 5y ago

Apple is 100% a mobile app company. They guard all the doors, they hold all the keys to the hardware device. Thereby they dictate what you can run on your hardware that you paid for after the sale.

warkdarrior 5y ago
> they dictate what you can run on your hardware that you paid for after the sale. You bought the hardware from Apple knowing exactly what restrictions they place on the hardware. You were knowledgeable about it and still decided to purchase the hardware.
- realusername 5y ago
  That reasoning just cannot work in society to keep a functioning and healthy market

realusername 5y ago

I disagree with that, Apple is a mobile app company and there's only two in the world. Twitter as big as it is, is just a website across millions of others. In the mobile app market there is exactly two companies, Apple and Google, that's it. Does Oppo or Samsung has any power when publishing an app? No? Then they are not part of this market.

thegrimmest 5y ago
There aren't many mobile apps you can buy from Apple. Apple is primarily a hardware manufacturer. Their entire product lineup consists of devices[1]. 1. https://www.apple.com/us/store https://www.apple.com/us/store
- colinjoy 5y ago
  Entirely? https://www.apple.com/services/ https://www.apple.com/services/ https://www.apple.com/logic-pro/ https://www.apple.com/logic-pro/ https://www.apple.com/final-cut-pro/ https://www.apple.com/final-cut-pro/ Of course, these are not the bread and butter products. I find it a bit pointless to separate their hardware and software. I know few people who run Windows or Linux on their Apple hardware. For me, Apple is primarily a products company that excels in fusing hardware and software together. They are increasingly expanding into services, too.
- realusername 5y ago
  They are plenty of mobile apps you can buy from apple, it's called the appstore. Whether they make them themselves is irrelevant to the point. And similarly again there's none you can buy from Oppo and Samsung (I'll consider the Samsung store negligible in terms of market share).

smoldesu 5y ago

> Right, but Apple is a mobile phone company, not a mobile app company. Apple has consistently made more money from collecting their 30% tax than they have from manufacturing iPhones: https://www.statista.com/statistics/263402/apples-iphone-revenue-since-3rd-quarter-2007/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/263402/apples-iphone-rev... https://www.statista.com/statistics/296226/annual-apple-app-store-revenue/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/296226/annual-apple-app-...

thegrimmest 5y ago
Isn't that the whole point? They can only make that money because they build the phones to begin with. They also invested in building the entire platform, literally from scratch. Isn't this just a return on their investment? Aren't they perfectly entitled to it? Why can't phones be loss leaders into mobile app ecosystems, just like razors are loss leaders into razor blades?
- smoldesu 5y ago
  App developers shouldn't be beholden to using Apple's payment processing if they don't want to use it. Along that same line of logic, forcing developers to go through Apple for first-party distribution gives them a defacto monopoly over the iPhone. Apple could charge 85% overhead and there would be nothing developers could do about it. The only fair resolution here is to force Apple to compete with other storefronts to prove that the value they provide is competitive. Apple could resolve this issue in a number of ways, but they've only chose to make the problem worse; that's why 34 states have come forward voicing their concern[0], and why EU regulators have been stepping in to block Apple's service expansions. They're the largest company in the world, and they deserve the most regulatory scrutiny for it; anything else is a failure of democracy and capitalism. [0] https://finance.yahoo.com/news/1-dozens-u-states-apple-034707198.html https://finance.yahoo.com/news/1-dozens-u-states-apple-03470...
  - charcircuit 5y ago
    Apple could decided third party apps aren't allowed and then developers make 0%. It's their platform to decided what to do with. If they think 15/30% works well, then so be it.