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Choice isn't always great for the end user. Remember when you wanted to stream a movie and could just go to Netflix? Now today you need to subscribe to Netflix

by slg 4y ago

Choice isn't always great for the end user. Remember when you wanted to stream a movie and could just go to Netflix? Now today you need to subscribe to Netflix, Disney+, HBO Max, Amazon Prime, etc. if you want everything. I worry that this move can lead to that. This change isn't only about choice for the end user. It gives developers choice too. Those developers have their own incentives that are generally less aligned with the end user than Apple. Odds are this shifts the iOS experience from just needing the Apple App Store to needing the Amazon Store, the Epic Games Store, the Google Store, etc. Some of those stores (probably all of them) are going to have a weaker approach to security and privacy than Apple had. Right now I have Apple fighting for my privacy on iOS against companies like Google and Facebook. Will that still happen when Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp are only available from the Facebook store?

sieabahlpark 4y ago
nine_k 4y ago
You don't miss choice when you don't need it. If everything you ever wanted to watch was on Netflix, great! But if something was not there, you were out of luck. Now you have more of a chance, maybe at a greater expense. Same applies to music. Apple's App Store is rather notorious for its bans on particular kinds of apps. Not only anything adult-oriented, but also stuff more important for some of us, like a different browser engine, or a programming environment, to say nothing about different payment options without the 30% cut. Choice is not always easiest to the user, and iOS's original value proposition is that it removes much of the choice and makes things easy, so that they just work™ and include all you may ever need™. Good thing if this apples to you; you just need not make any changes to the way you're already using your iOS device. (This is unrelated to whether state bodies forcing commercial entities do certain things is a good or a bad thing; as any power tool, it can be used for either, and always remains inherently dangerous.)
- slg 4y ago
  >Choice is not always easiest to the user, and iOS's original value proposition is that it removes much of the choice and makes things easy, so that they just work™ and include all you may ever need™. Good thing if this apples to you; you just need not make any changes to the way you're already using your iOS device. But this now removes the choice for the end user who likes the it just works™ experience because the developers with power like Meta will likely force it on us. It is reducing Apple's power, but it is empowering Meta, Google, Amazon, and other big tech companies who are seemingly even less likely to act in the end user's best interest than Apple. If you were one of the users who wanted the choice of adult content or a different browser, you always had the choice to use Android.
  - smoldesu 4y ago
    It doesn't Just Work, though. Developers are tired of it, and making things Just Work relied on the unfair exploitation of developers and restrictions of user freedom. If your digital utopia is predicated on software genocide, then it's not poised to last long.
    - nine_k 4y ago
      I think that Apple quite deliberately do not make the life of smaller developers any easier. They seem to not want all these small fish, they would prefer to interact with serious corporate developers like Adobe. I won't be surprised if they increased the developer license fee to, say, a minimum $499/year for a group of 5 developers, maybe with a special provision for students. They already have too many small titles in their App Store, they likely would prefer fewer high-profile titles, like game consoles have it.
  - nine_k 4y ago
    While I understand your concern of who strongarms whom, I don't see it as a departure from the original promise of iOS. If you need FB or Google, and they go crazy and refuse to keep their apps in App Store, they have web versions, and will definitely maintain them. (As do Reddit and Twitter, despite their trying hard to persuade me to use their apps.) If you think about Google Meet or FB Messanger, then why? iOS has perfectly good iMessage and FaceTime, and I call them perfectly good completely unironically here. You can still keep your iOS device as locked-down as before, unless you need certain forbidden non-apple fruit. But that was the case a year ago, too.

by slg 4y ago

sieabahlpark 4y ago

nine_k 4y ago

You don't miss choice when you don't need it. If everything you ever wanted to watch was on Netflix, great! But if something was not there, you were out of luck. Now you have more of a chance, maybe at a greater expense. Same applies to music. Apple's App Store is rather notorious for its bans on particular kinds of apps. Not only anything adult-oriented, but also stuff more important for some of us, like a different browser engine, or a programming environment, to say nothing about different payment options without the 30% cut. Choice is not always easiest to the user, and iOS's original value proposition is that it removes much of the choice and makes things easy, so that they just work™ and include all you may ever need™. Good thing if this apples to you; you just need not make any changes to the way you're already using your iOS device. (This is unrelated to whether state bodies forcing commercial entities do certain things is a good or a bad thing; as any power tool, it can be used for either, and always remains inherently dangerous.)

slg 4y ago
>Choice is not always easiest to the user, and iOS's original value proposition is that it removes much of the choice and makes things easy, so that they just work™ and include all you may ever need™. Good thing if this apples to you; you just need not make any changes to the way you're already using your iOS device. But this now removes the choice for the end user who likes the it just works™ experience because the developers with power like Meta will likely force it on us. It is reducing Apple's power, but it is empowering Meta, Google, Amazon, and other big tech companies who are seemingly even less likely to act in the end user's best interest than Apple. If you were one of the users who wanted the choice of adult content or a different browser, you always had the choice to use Android.
- smoldesu 4y ago
  It doesn't Just Work, though. Developers are tired of it, and making things Just Work relied on the unfair exploitation of developers and restrictions of user freedom. If your digital utopia is predicated on software genocide, then it's not poised to last long.
  - nine_k 4y ago
    I think that Apple quite deliberately do not make the life of smaller developers any easier. They seem to not want all these small fish, they would prefer to interact with serious corporate developers like Adobe. I won't be surprised if they increased the developer license fee to, say, a minimum $499/year for a group of 5 developers, maybe with a special provision for students. They already have too many small titles in their App Store, they likely would prefer fewer high-profile titles, like game consoles have it.
- nine_k 4y ago
  While I understand your concern of who strongarms whom, I don't see it as a departure from the original promise of iOS. If you need FB or Google, and they go crazy and refuse to keep their apps in App Store, they have web versions, and will definitely maintain them. (As do Reddit and Twitter, despite their trying hard to persuade me to use their apps.) If you think about Google Meet or FB Messanger, then why? iOS has perfectly good iMessage and FaceTime, and I call them perfectly good completely unironically here. You can still keep your iOS device as locked-down as before, unless you need certain forbidden non-apple fruit. But that was the case a year ago, too.