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Frankly, isn't that just what you signed up for as a mobile developer? The WorldAnimals app would probably have worked perfectly fine as a web app, but then the
by t_mann 4y ago
Frankly, isn't that just what you signed up for as a mobile developer? The WorldAnimals app would probably have worked perfectly fine as a web app, but then the author would have had to figure out payments and discoverability himself. That's what the App Store offers, and in exchange Apple gets tremendous power to tweak every nook and cranny to maximise their profit. I'm sure Apple has good commercial reasons for the process that the author has experienced.
I think the real answer here isn't to try and beg Apple to be nicer to the small fish, but to instead use the "old", non-walled version of the web.
- Tijdreiziger 4y agoWell, no, a native app and a web app aren’t one-for-one interchangeable. Apple acts as a gatekeeper by only allowing native apps to be distributed through the App Store, so it is not unreasonable to ask that they refrain from making the process too onerous.
- neilparikh 4y agoIt doesn't apply here, but there are a few app ideas I have where I don't really care about payments or discoverability; I would need use native just because the features are not supported in iOS Safari. For example, here's a list of standards that the Webkit team has said that they have no plans to implement: https://webkit.org/tracking-prevention/#anti-fingerprinting https://webkit.org/tracking-prevention/#anti-fingerprinting (for me, WebBluetooth and Web NFC are the big blockers). Until those gaps are fixed, native apps are your only option.