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> Let the user decide. End of story. The value proposition of iOS is that the app store is the place to go, and that my experience will be seamless. I want a c
by maccard 3y ago
> Let the user decide. End of story.
The value proposition of iOS is that the app store is the place to go, and that my experience will be seamless. I want a centralised place to manage my subscriptions. Here's an example:
I subscribed to NYT Cooking in the web a few years back. I went to cancel only to find out that I have to phone them. If I subscribed on an app store it would have been one click and done. I'm actually still subscribed to it.
Why is your choice more important than my choice?
- nprateem 3y agoYeah that's perfectly reasonable. Of course it makes everything easier. It's also practically impossible to compete against which is what gives apple this unfair advantage, making their 30% cut obscene. They're making it due to being first, technical issues aside.
- ric2b 3y agoRight, so you'd use the app store by choice, so why should Apple force you to?
- maccard 3y agoThe first move that will come out of this will be a Meta store for "all your meta products". You won't have the choice of Instagram on the App store or Instagram on the Meta store, you'll have Instagram on the Meta store. This won't be a choice for users, this will be a choice for large developers.
- jdkoeck 3y agoYour point is moot because Apple forces you to use its own app store, where using their payment platform is mandatory. If there were alternative app stores, I would have no qualm with this restriction. Let Apple's store compete with others, it will come out on top if it's really the best. The larger point is this: in a free market, if you have a bad experience with a product (like NYT Cooking in your example), you can bring your business elsewhere. That's how it works, and that's what Apple is interfering with.
- maccard 3y agoWhy does the free market arugment apply on apple's ecosystem but not the mobile ecosystem? There are alternative app stores with alternative ecosystems - if you have a bad experience with your iPhone, replace it with an Android and use the open ecosystem there.
- dns_snek 3y agoBecause the entire mobile market is a duopoly and asking someone to switch platforms that they might have invested 15 years of their life into isn't reasonable. Think of all the data, hardware (smart watches, tablets, trackers, speakers, smart home gadgets), app & in-app purchases that one would have to forfeit to switch platforms. They explicitly carved out their own market by making it a tightly integrated walled garden that's closed to outside integration, it seems hypocritical to now claim that users are free to leave at any time. They're not and that's by design.
- maccard 3y agoHow come it's reasonable to force someone who _doesnt_ want the app store to be opened to competition to change? I don't want the Meta store where Meta decide what level of API access their apps get). I explicitly choose the iOS ecosystem _because_ of this. If you want the alternative, you have a choice right now with Android. If this changes, then I _dont_ get a choice. Your choice removes my only option of a curated app marketplace in favour of a marketplace that will allow for billion dollar companies to set their own rules on how I interact with their apps, rather than me delegating that to one trusted gatekeeper.