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I love Apple, they enabled me to turn from a waiter to a startup founder to a sold startup to a Google employee to a lifestyle I could never have imagined or go

I love Apple, they enabled me to turn from a waiter to a startup founder to a sold startup to a Google employee to a lifestyle I could never have imagined or gotten otherwise. I was writing iOS apps when it was iPhone OS, and there wasn't an SDK. I don't recognize these sniping negative off-topic comments that have become a regularity on articles about the App Store over the past 3-6 months. Way back then, we were extremely suspicious of the 30%. And we had no idea that would metastasize into, inter alia, not even being able to mention there's another way to pay. We never, ever, in a million years, would have imagined ads in the Settings app, for all users, pushing you to sign up to be billed for Apple's competing service(s) that don't have to pay the 30%. Or Apple saying they they needed 30% from payments for real-life services, like say, concert tickets.* I accepted the "it's an appliance and safety is paramount and people could do payment scams" argument back then. We're 15 years past, and there's plenty of scams on the App Store proper. I don't fault Apple for this, like all gatekeepers, the scale got far past what anyone imagined and it's an impossible problem. If Sony was requiring 30% from every video producer played on your TV, and they couldn't even mention there was a way to save 30% by simply calling a toll-free number, it'd be obviously wrong at some point. Certainly now. That's where Apple is. * there is an exemption for 1:1 services. There's absolutely 0 rationale for that, leaving me to guess that it is because 'concert tickets' are easier to bully in the court of public opinion than 'taxis'

kmeisthax 3y ago
You're thinking like a business owner. The people writing these sniping comments about the EU are acting like cult members, because Apple is a cult that happens to be in the form of a for-profit corporation. To you, 30% is someone your margin and then some. To Apple fans, it's a tithe that must be paid to the cult leader.
- troupo 3y ago
  It has less to do with Apple, and more to do with Americans worshiping at the altar of corporations. Anything that curbs the unfettered unlimited unchecked power of megacorps is seen as personal assault on the very idea of freedom, or free market , or some other such ideal.
- refulgentis 3y ago
  Excellent point - that's probably why the conversations were so much more vivid and interesting too -- we were all actively trying to figure out how to square A) building cool things for people B) being able to eat C) uncertainty if, as in the words of Stevie J, a rogue app could take down Cingular's network. In reality, my primary concerns ended up being I used the App Store payments system so I had to give up 30%, meanwhile our well-funded competitors just did a "external account subscription". Now, I've left Google, and I'm building an app that integrates multiple AI services. User places deposits and we charge out of the deposited amounts. I feel ugly and complicit in user abuse by having to charge a 30% premium over the actual cost, without being able to even mention there's another option

kmeisthax 3y ago

You're thinking like a business owner. The people writing these sniping comments about the EU are acting like cult members, because Apple is a cult that happens to be in the form of a for-profit corporation. To you, 30% is someone your margin and then some. To Apple fans, it's a tithe that must be paid to the cult leader.

troupo 3y ago
It has less to do with Apple, and more to do with Americans worshiping at the altar of corporations. Anything that curbs the unfettered unlimited unchecked power of megacorps is seen as personal assault on the very idea of freedom, or free market , or some other such ideal.
refulgentis 3y ago
Excellent point - that's probably why the conversations were so much more vivid and interesting too -- we were all actively trying to figure out how to square A) building cool things for people B) being able to eat C) uncertainty if, as in the words of Stevie J, a rogue app could take down Cingular's network. In reality, my primary concerns ended up being I used the App Store payments system so I had to give up 30%, meanwhile our well-funded competitors just did a "external account subscription". Now, I've left Google, and I'm building an app that integrates multiple AI services. User places deposits and we charge out of the deposited amounts. I feel ugly and complicit in user abuse by having to charge a 30% premium over the actual cost, without being able to even mention there's another option