3 ms·

I have to say: I have had to call apple quite a number of times for product issues. I have almost always left a happier customer. I know folks who work in CS

I have to say: I have had to call apple quite a number of times for product issues. I have almost always left a happier customer. I know folks who work in CS at Apple. They put up with a lot of nonsense from end users (they have good work stories for sure). They are paid well (living wage), they get stock options, and all of them LOVE their job. Customer support and loving your job is fuckin rare. I have done CC processing in the past. Candidly the 5-7 percent you pay to do it yourself has the hidden cost of managing charge backs. As a small developer that's NOT something I want to do for a personal/side/small project. The apple users love it because they KNOW they can call, cancel and get a refund... (and when they dont it's probably because they have been abusing the system, but I digress). SO here is a company that makes a high quality product, charges obscene margins based on brand, doesn't fuck over it staff (apple employee you pee in a bottle lately, you making good money?), has rabidly loyal customers, and seems intent on not turning them into a product or handing their shit over to the government... I'm not sure from where I sit, where I have a right to complain about the 30 percent transaction tax.

echelon 3y ago
> I'm not sure from where I sit, where I have a right to complain about the 30 percent transaction tax. I didn't choose for Apple to win 50% of US mobile and for the other company to also have draconian rules about deploying software and taxing it. I don't care how much Apple hand holds grandma. Mobile is a hellscape for developers and other companies. The idea that distributing your software should subjugate you to paying taxes to a private company (one that can compete with you) is surreal. Moreover, mobile is what most consumers use now. You have to be present on mobile to reach them. Web should have been enough, but it isn't. And to make it worse, it's knee-capped to suck on mobile. It's impossible to enter this market and compete on hardware, so we won't get any reprieve unless regulators put a stop to this. We need to be able to deploy software at zero cost. Without scare walls or adversarial advertising. Or mandates to use certain software choices. Or mandatory reviews. I'll stop bitching about Apple and Google when that happens.
- kiratp 3y ago
  > I don't care how much Apple hand holds grandma. Mobile is a hellscape for developers and other companies. As a developer and founder, grandma before developers. Every time. iOS is the first platform my family can just run with safely.
  - echelon 3y ago
    If Standard Oil could make that same point, it would still be orthogonal to the issue of one company's undue control over commerce in dozens of unrelated fields.
donor20 3y ago
You look at developer behavior on the larger internet and you realize the value Apple provides their customers precisely by “screwing” over developers. Tracking, bait and switch trial offers, impossible cancellations etc etc

echelon 3y ago

> I'm not sure from where I sit, where I have a right to complain about the 30 percent transaction tax. I didn't choose for Apple to win 50% of US mobile and for the other company to also have draconian rules about deploying software and taxing it. I don't care how much Apple hand holds grandma. Mobile is a hellscape for developers and other companies. The idea that distributing your software should subjugate you to paying taxes to a private company (one that can compete with you) is surreal. Moreover, mobile is what most consumers use now. You have to be present on mobile to reach them. Web should have been enough, but it isn't. And to make it worse, it's knee-capped to suck on mobile. It's impossible to enter this market and compete on hardware, so we won't get any reprieve unless regulators put a stop to this. We need to be able to deploy software at zero cost. Without scare walls or adversarial advertising. Or mandates to use certain software choices. Or mandatory reviews. I'll stop bitching about Apple and Google when that happens.

kiratp 3y ago
> I don't care how much Apple hand holds grandma. Mobile is a hellscape for developers and other companies. As a developer and founder, grandma before developers. Every time. iOS is the first platform my family can just run with safely.
- echelon 3y ago
  If Standard Oil could make that same point, it would still be orthogonal to the issue of one company's undue control over commerce in dozens of unrelated fields.

donor20 3y ago

You look at developer behavior on the larger internet and you realize the value Apple provides their customers precisely by “screwing” over developers. Tracking, bait and switch trial offers, impossible cancellations etc etc