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> embracing the industry standards The iPhone has legendary levels of crapitude. Consider every app you use on the iPhone that is authored by Apple. Would you

> embracing the industry standards The iPhone has legendary levels of crapitude. Consider every app you use on the iPhone that is authored by Apple. Would you or its stakeholders still use it if you weren't forced to? Mail? Calendar? Safari? Photos? Music? Fucking Messages? No, no, no, no, no, no. Don't misunderstand me. I am talking about access to the exact same first party APIs and integrations Apple's software has, and giving it to third party developers. The functionality is so painfully basic, but nonetheless gated, of course a third party would be able to author something better. Like you think Spotify wouldn't give you Siri compatibility? It's just not allowed to. The App Store is just the crappiest of them all. I don't think people realize how fees and its absolutely horrible discovery is responsible for the shitty state of apps today. I have been in this business a long time, and have met a lot of people, and it is absolutely, 100% Apple's fault that App Store games suck, and Steam's don't. The device is as powerful as a Nintendo Switch nowadays!

mrtksn 3y ago
Safari, Photos and Music are apps that I legitimately like and enjoy using. I wouldn't use anything else. I'm generally happy iPhone user. From Apple's offerings, the one I don't like is iCloud because lacks any granularity whatsoever. I want my photos synced but I don't want to waste my space and bandwidth with the videos. I also would like to have full API access to everything so I can experiment with stuff. Also I want to be able to re-purpose my old iPhone but its too much locked down for the things I would like to do. However, I'm generally very pleased. I can't stand the Android experience, honestly.
- doctorpangloss 3y ago
  > I can't stand the Android experience, honestly. The average Android phone is like $180. You can't stand cheap phones, which is legit, but that's what "Android" is. I don't know if this is in the zeitgeist yet. People spend more on a pair of airpods as people spend on a whole Android phone. That works because 10% of a $1,400 phone is $140. It doesn't work when 10% of $180 is $18. Where is there space for a third party ecosystem if there's only $18 on the table? Android users used to be 2.5x less valuable than iOS, and maybe it's closer to 5x-10x now. This is essentially Apple's value proposition to developers: "We have the rich users." And it's true, that's valuable. But do they deserve 30% of every transaction, to the most disfavorable agents in every software category? The way Apple and Steam conduct themselves is apples to oranges. > Safari, Photos and Music The Photos app is profoundly shitty. Lightroom Classic is like 13 years old now. How long did we have to wait for Lightroom Classic's 2009 featureset? The sharing features are abysmal. Why not open the API to the same shared photos backend Photos uses? Apple doesn't charge for access to the API, it charges users for storage - what difference does it make to them? It only matters because they are smart people, they know their software sucks, and if they allowed that level of compatibility, people would immediately abandon Photos, and yes, there would be a cross compatible Photos-like experience with Android and desktops, it would be superior, and it would harm Apple's primary idea of forcing people to use their trash.
jv95 3y ago
You say these apps are shitty, but you haven’t posted any specifics. What is it that makes these apps so bad? I don’t mind any of the apps you mentioned. I vastly prefer the music app to Spotifys UI (at the least the last time I’ve used it which is admittedly several years ago). Mail notifications are sometimes buggy but I can read my mail just fine. Most calendar apps I’ve tried, even paid once, started spamming me with subscriptions. I do see the issues with photos, namely that Apple pretends that downloaded images are just as important as photos I took myself. > I don't think people realize how fees and its absolutely horrible discovery is responsible for the shitty state of apps today. […] it is absolutely, 100% Apple's fault that App Store games suck, and Steam's don't. AFAIK Steam fees are 30% as well at least for the average developer + 100$ for publishing a game. So I don’t think the fees are responsible for the shitty state of apps. I think it’s more about customers not wanting to pay for mobile apps in general. Looking at a few successful indie games, they tend to be free (and ad or iAP supported) on the App Store but are sold directly on steam. For example vampire survivors is free (+ Ads) on iOS but costs 5€ on steam. Other games release full price on IOS but the UI is so bad that it’s barely playable.

mrtksn 3y ago

Safari, Photos and Music are apps that I legitimately like and enjoy using. I wouldn't use anything else. I'm generally happy iPhone user. From Apple's offerings, the one I don't like is iCloud because lacks any granularity whatsoever. I want my photos synced but I don't want to waste my space and bandwidth with the videos. I also would like to have full API access to everything so I can experiment with stuff. Also I want to be able to re-purpose my old iPhone but its too much locked down for the things I would like to do. However, I'm generally very pleased. I can't stand the Android experience, honestly.

doctorpangloss 3y ago
> I can't stand the Android experience, honestly. The average Android phone is like $180. You can't stand cheap phones, which is legit, but that's what "Android" is. I don't know if this is in the zeitgeist yet. People spend more on a pair of airpods as people spend on a whole Android phone. That works because 10% of a $1,400 phone is $140. It doesn't work when 10% of $180 is $18. Where is there space for a third party ecosystem if there's only $18 on the table? Android users used to be 2.5x less valuable than iOS, and maybe it's closer to 5x-10x now. This is essentially Apple's value proposition to developers: "We have the rich users." And it's true, that's valuable. But do they deserve 30% of every transaction, to the most disfavorable agents in every software category? The way Apple and Steam conduct themselves is apples to oranges. > Safari, Photos and Music The Photos app is profoundly shitty. Lightroom Classic is like 13 years old now. How long did we have to wait for Lightroom Classic's 2009 featureset? The sharing features are abysmal. Why not open the API to the same shared photos backend Photos uses? Apple doesn't charge for access to the API, it charges users for storage - what difference does it make to them? It only matters because they are smart people, they know their software sucks, and if they allowed that level of compatibility, people would immediately abandon Photos, and yes, there would be a cross compatible Photos-like experience with Android and desktops, it would be superior, and it would harm Apple's primary idea of forcing people to use their trash.

jv95 3y ago

You say these apps are shitty, but you haven’t posted any specifics. What is it that makes these apps so bad? I don’t mind any of the apps you mentioned. I vastly prefer the music app to Spotifys UI (at the least the last time I’ve used it which is admittedly several years ago). Mail notifications are sometimes buggy but I can read my mail just fine. Most calendar apps I’ve tried, even paid once, started spamming me with subscriptions. I do see the issues with photos, namely that Apple pretends that downloaded images are just as important as photos I took myself. > I don't think people realize how fees and its absolutely horrible discovery is responsible for the shitty state of apps today. […] it is absolutely, 100% Apple's fault that App Store games suck, and Steam's don't. AFAIK Steam fees are 30% as well at least for the average developer + 100$ for publishing a game. So I don’t think the fees are responsible for the shitty state of apps. I think it’s more about customers not wanting to pay for mobile apps in general. Looking at a few successful indie games, they tend to be free (and ad or iAP supported) on the App Store but are sold directly on steam. For example vampire survivors is free (+ Ads) on iOS but costs 5€ on steam. Other games release full price on IOS but the UI is so bad that it’s barely playable.