Hacker News Reader

Comment by icey | Hacker News Reader

Do you guys think that there is getting to be enough backlash about this that developers might start looking at targeting Android / Blackberry / some other smartphone platform?

I know it would make me pretty nervous dedicating all my time to iPhone development if I thought this is how Apple was going to do business.

View on HN

Developers knew what they were getting into; Apple has a history of opacity and secrecy. Look at the NDA debacle, the seemingly arbitrary app review process, or the way they silence dissent on the forums. Developers wrote apps knowing that Apple development is risky, and so they will continue to write apps; there won't be significant backlash.

The apple backlash is always quiet. People just pick the other option when building stuff and move on.

I knew that getting an app into the store was a bit tricky, and I also knew that the forums were... heavily moderated.

But it is a little shocking to me that huge company like Apple is playing these sorts of games with paying people. That's something I'd expect from a shady backroom sort of company, not a huge corporation like Apple.

I don't think there is an evidence that Apple is "playing games", they're just inexperienced at processing and delivering payments and thus are doing a bad job at it. As they say, never blame malice where incompetence is a sufficient explanation.

I don't personally see much difference between incompetence and malice when they've made it seem like they really don't care all that much about their incompetence.

It depends on if you're in it to make a living or if you're just doing it for fun. Few people have an Android phone, and there's no unified app store. The fact is that people are buying iPhone apps in droves. Even the worst development experience on the iPhone will probably make you more money than the best on Android.

Android was probably a bad example to list first. I think there's a huge Blackberry market out there that doesn't get much discussion.

maybe.

but the masses-at-large don't really know about, pay attention to, or care about the plight of the developers. if people keep buying iphones, iphone development will continue to be where the money is.

It would have to be one heck of a backlash

However bad Apple gets a developer is still talking about a couple months payments vs a decrease in their total income if you go to Android/Blackberry/etc... That's why Apple can afford to treat developers badly in the first place.

My only hope is that it might convince some developers the smartphone market needs a strong 2nd place which in turn might give them reason to target one of those platforms in addtion to their iPhone development.

It depends on how much they value being paid on time. These developers are waiting on money they already made. If they could make as much or more on another platform, wouldn't they have switched already?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com