Apple rejects developer's horoscope app, says App Store has enough
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But Apple didn't care. They don't give a shit when people clone apps and try to mislead customers by making apps that have almost the same name as another app.
Apple should focus on getting rid of scam apps and blatant rip-offs.
Who cares if there are 100s of horoscope apps on the store? It's not like shelf space is limited. As long as an app doesn't harm or mislead customers, I don't see why Apple should reject it.
Since they have a walled garden, they have a clear responsibility. A system of empowered consumer advocates should have the power to force them to live up to this responsibility.
>It's not like shelf space is limited. Hard disagree. If you add infinite shelves, you make it too hard to find valuable apps.
I am all for the walled garden, but Apple is instead making a walled crapstore.
I had to double-take to see if this was really a statement from Apple... It was.
Naturally if you trust one dev for one job, and not to ruin the app, you will likely trust them for another, category saturation be damned. I don't see much benefit for users when the manufacturer dictates what developers are not to build for users based on some archaic first in best dressed system from 2008.
These days they’re not necessary anymore but this one was a great one:
https://apps.apple.com/nl/app/flashlight-by-rik/id384021568?...
Dimming the screen
Different colors on the screen
Calculation of how long light will last
SOS signaling
Strobe setting
Light in response to some kind of input, like audio or camera
Blinking light with adjustable frequency
Yeah, there's probably more features that could be put into a flashlight app.
There's tons of flashlight apps which only do the on/off switch and the only differentiation is how they try to get money off of you or what data they want to steal.
I honestly don't know if I understand any reasoning behind it. I would buy an iPhone tomorrow if I could get a web browser or keyboard that weren't effectively skins of the default/included one.
That it is a more lucrative market than what Android had built with their more open ended approach is an interesting look at what the general public prefers from their mobile devices.
Personally, I’m not looking for my phone to be a side project, I want it to work without putting in any effort.
Nobody would force you to use non Apple shit, when an alternative sore would exist you can ignore it, when a better browser will exist you can ignore it, when alternative better chargers exists you can still buy the Premium Apple charger.
Apple fans should kiss Google ass because they can use the lazy excuse when Apple uses censorship "use an Android and side load apps if you don't like it".
If Apple sold two iPhones, one that allowed only apps from the App Store, and one that allowed apps from anywhere, I'm pretty sure most people would buy an iPhone that allowed 3rd party apps.
The current state makes me a bit sad. I've been a long term Apple user, and I'm pretty sure my next phone is going to be some Android, because as much as I like the quality of Apple's products, I just no longer want to accept Apple's restrictions.
I don’t think it’s even that. Like the GP I just don’t care as long as what I need is available (and it is).
As a developer it’s a different matter, despite liking the platform I won’t be putting any apps in the store.
Is that also true for Firefox, Chrome on iOS?
At this point, I really think Apple is sabotaging Safari on iOS. Here is a comparison with Chrome on Android: https://caniuse.com/?compare=ios_saf+15,and_chr+94&compareCa...
For any single app store — no matter who is running it or how — there has to be a line drawn somewhere about what should or shouldn’t be in it.
(At the least you’re probably going to want to filter out illegal apps… but the line between legal and illegal is complex, uncertain, changes over time, and is different in different jurisdictions.)
It’s fine — desirable even — for Apple to have wide leeway to decide what they want to have in their store.
They just shouldn’t be able to stop people from shopping at other stores.
Long live the walled garden for Apple.
More like long live F-droid as there's no way in hell I'm voluntarily locking myself into Apple's high-quality, nice and shiny walled garden where basically they fully control the device and what I'm allowed to install on it, while renting it out to me for a fee and can scan it for whenever content they want (CP pics today, Tank Man pics tomorrow).
The level of quality apps on F-Droid is ironically much higher than anywhere else, and they're all ad-free, privacy focused and most of the time open source as well.
Once you acknowledge this you have to accept that original complainant would have the same problem everywhere.
Nobody will want his trash in their store.
And the threat of alternative app store competition would of course also limit the censorship and abuse of power Apple/Google can pull in their app store practices.
The point is once they are curated then the people writing yet another garbage horoscope app are still going to be out of luck.
>And the threat of alternative app store competition would of course also limit the censorship and abuse of power Apple/Google can pull in their app store practices.
Choosing what is in your store isn't an abuse of power.
Seems like it's got humorous horoscopes.
Given that the screenshots are all of just text on a screen, and the development took about a year, I wonder if the rejection is more about the app being 'low quality' rather than about it being just another horoscope app.
Regardless, it seems weird to reject an app because there are already apps in the store which are similar.
Do you see a way that Apple could be consistent besides letting every app in?
As it is now their rules are pretty vague.
Nearly everybody I know gets rejected the first time, unless you have a clearly high quality app.
I got mine accepted by submitting screenshots of people saying they were excited about it.
Pretty cool app by the way.
Have you tried to buy any electronics from Amazon/Ebay recently? Same products listed tens of times from likely same distributors (or maybe actually many distributors fighting for scraps?). Tiny differences in naming for SEO purposes flood the first few pages of results.
3 listings are better than 1 (for competition / keeping price reasonable). 100 listings are not better than 3.
Similar thing happens on appstore, just slightly different methods. You can't even search for the exact name anymore, because the ad and the first result will be something completely different.
There’s a ton of single use, very simple apps that only have super crappy alternatives left because Apple didn’t want to bother improving the Store app ratings and search functionalities. All the more after Apple in its infinite wisdom started banning apps that were “too simple” (like one single screen).
There’s a few of these apps that kept working through a few OS version updates but finally couldn’t run anymore, and it looks like my only choice is to remake them myself.
If instead of 10 we had 90 of these, there would be a fighting chance that more were still maintained or got open sourced.
Sounds like a solid business model if you control all 10 apps.
The music industry might be a good parallel. The record labels thought they were the gatekeepers, but the majority of the music industry is happening outside big record labels now. If you want the big corporate to choose what you listen to, you get boring manufactured trite. If you want innovation, competence and craftsmanship, look anywhere else.
Your argument is the number one reason HN sucks lately. If you don't agree, the other party must be stupid.
If you want complete free choice about which flowers you should choose for a bouquet, then go to the wilderness. It will take you a while to find what you're looking for and you'll likely come across a lot of crappy looking flowers, but it's a completely free choice.
If you want quality choices in a quick amount of time, then go to the florist.
Apple's app store is a walled garden. So, make that garden as good as possible. They hire "gardeners" for that reason.
In fairness I have an android, and it's worse there. Reviews are faked, and critical bugs or bad ui prevent usefulness. This is with both the free apps and paid apps.
I don't disagree with you either, I know exactly what the app store is, perhaps where we differ in opinion is how harmful such a ecosystem will be.
Please do so in the future.
> it just came across as a very shallow opinion
I aim for succinctness where I can.
But on iPhones, you can’t. There’s only one App Store , and that’s the problem.
Buying mustard on Amazon is closer to the issue, or products where many imitators compete like meal prep Tupperware or water bottles.
Big supermarket chains are the ultimate walled gardens our modern society and it's crazy they've been allowed to go through with their practices for so long.
Unless you're some 400 pound gorilla like Unilever or Nestle, trying to get your product on a supermarket's shelves resembles a mob shakedown. The margins they'll try to squeeze out of you are insane.
From my perspective as a customer there is no wall. I am free to go to any other market and pick from their mustard selection. Or I can grow and mill my own mustard at home. That would be like Apple allowing me to use competitor app stores and even install my own open source software.
Not if your market gets flooded with low quality products resulting in the loss of consumer confidence in your market.
The 80s video game crash was partly caused by that.
But I suppose the effects vary. I’m afraid to buy from Amazon due to reading about the amount of counterfeit products in their store but it hasn’t dampen Amazon’s sales.
P.S. In certain markets like games, clone games can be a problem. It disincentivize innovation. Why work so hard tuning and balancing a game with unique mechanics when a clone with the exact same gameplay will just come in and take your sales by undercutting you - since they don’t have the level of expense you do. A walled garden can protect games from cheap knockoff clones.
> We will reject these apps unless they provide a unique, high-quality experience.
I looked around for the site thinking there might a web version. Can’t find anything. All the top hits just return articles about the App Store rejection. I feel Apple made the right choice.
Unless I'm missing something it feels heavy handed and less likely to produce a competitive market.
(and yeah yeah - I should be able to sideload whatever I want, but this is a slightly different topic here)
Couple that with a % of every economic transaction that occurs within these walled gardens, these companies are amazing capital and gaining political influence at a faster rate.
Sorry bank we already have a banking app
Sorry Democrats the Republicans have already done a politics app
Apple has a point. Otherwise I would not be seeing tons of Calendar apps on the App Store.
This looks like typical quality over quantity control here. Nothing to see here.
Except there are no other marketplaces on which this developer can sell his app to iPhone users. That’s the issue. Apple has a stranglehold because they do not allow other app stores.
Generic we shouldn't. But if Google decided to do that, I can't see how one could object.