Apple Is Holding Back the Creator Economy
every.to
every.to
I spend tens of hours every week online and not even a minute of it on Apple's App Store. So no, it's not "a part of the basic infrastructure of the Internet", rather a service that exists thanks to the Internet.
I don't get this article. The author claims that enormous control and suffocating fees stunt the work of creatives, while at the same time not acknowledging the existence of a myriad other options. Don't like Apple? Don't use its services, and that's it.
> Apple’s gatekeeper status is holding back the growth of the creator economy.
Then move to something else?
> But now the App Store is not one small outpost for developers and creators to make a living. It is an unavoidable, ubiquitous forum for commerce.
It is not. This is the view of someone who only knows about Apple's ecosystem.
Sadly the iOS platform is pretty popular (25-50% in most developed countries), and a walled garden par excellence, so ignoring it is ignoring a decent part of your potential market.
Gee, if only there was a platform in this digital gulag that didn't have this limitation! Imagine the possibilities!
Oh right, it's green, and it's not so cool. Who cares about it anyways, right?
As for the Web, it is a couple of years away of turning into ChromeOS.
Aww shucks, my app is a game for kids though and 90% of the youth are on an iPhone. Maybe though all I have to do is release it for Android and they'll all see what's really cool and come piling in!! Right?
Let's get real though. I would have a better chance of getting to everybody if I lobby the government to force Apple to open up. The way I see it they shouldn't be allowed to decide for half the US or 90% of US youths that some app should or should not exist.
Really? I would have thought people would be hesitant to buy expensive devices for everyday use for kids. Do you have a source showing the distribution of that particular market? Not saying you're wrong, just that it sounds weird.
https://www.ben-evans.com/benedictevans/2020/8/18/app-stores
https://appleinsider.com/articles/20/10/06/us-teen-iphone-ow...
https://www.statista.com/statistics/266572/market-share-held...
https://www.techspot.com/news/74108-over-80-us-teens-iphone-...
https://www.counterpointresearch.com/us-market-smartphone-sh...
https://macdailynews.com/2019/05/16/apple-iphones-installed-...
Well, if I can charge more than $999 and people are paying - I will do just that. Charge more for the same amount of whatever.
It seems like if you got famous outside the platform, they will be flexible with you. Although, the Wikipedia article says binding of Isaac is still banned
The other issue is that I don't ever want to have to use anything but google, apple or PayPal for anything recurring because I never know how hard it is to cancel. Sadly I am often forced to.
Comparing the distribution of megabytes of packages vs physical packages with all the associated real world logistics? Really? One is drastically easier and cheaper.
The camera on the first iPhone was terrible! I had a Nokia N95 at the time, and the quality just blew the iPhone out of the water. The iPhone's camera was so bad instagram had to come along with extreme filters to get a decent sort of image out of it, although, look how that turned out...
Also, saying the App Store "is an unavoidable, ubiquitous forum for commerce" really just isn't true. I manage to avoid it fairly successfully.
And crying about a $1000 cap on in app purchases as being harmful? Please, you're killing me.
1st world problems.
Safari? That's where they are doing real harm to the economy. It's 1000x worse than IE ever was. At least you _could_ move on from IE when it stagnated. Apple won't even allow real browsers on iOS. It crosses the line between limiting consumer choice to strangling it out to keep users trapped in their walled garden. The market can't solve the problem, the government needs to step in and twist their arm IMHO.
On the flip side, it's not a free lunch. Developers will have to spend money to get users on boarded outside of the App store.
With that said, I agree that 30% is too much and makes Apple look greedy.
Until the user provides payment info (via in App or payment site), use an semi-aggressive email drip campaign to steer users to the payment website.
Some percentage of user will find (and use) the App Stores payment process. The hope is that those that due use the website make the campaign payoff in the long term.