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Apple and Google stores are classic rent seeker behavior.
Deny them profit.
this post was submitted on 12 Aug 2024
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You don't have to use the Google store though.
Apple forces you to the their app store, and they have a huge list of requirements they impose on apps to which dicks around developers
You don't have to use Google's store, but they've done a lot of anticompetitive shenanigans to snuff out competition and ensure they remain the dominant storefront.
After Google saw how much money Apple was making, they seemed to immediately regret having Android be an open platform. It was a convenience when they acquired the product early on because they could bring it to market quickly, but they've done everything in their power since then to close it up.
They've even start hoovering up stuff that was sideloaded so that it integrates into their store.
They tried to "update" my VLC but since my binary was signed by F-Droid it fails... and fails... and fails... No way to tell them to stop trying.
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Not only do they force you to use the App Store, developing an app for iOS is a nightmare. Without special tools you must have a mac and a $100/yr apple developer license.
After having to deal with that shit at my old place of work I've moved to never touch app development again.
Yep. Totally agree.
I only ended up with a Mac because edge kept hijacking my chrome tabs every reboot
But, it costs far more than a PC, and honestly, the hardware capabilities are worse
At least the M3 chips I think now have ray tracing. But still no nested VT so I can't even run the windows android emulator in parallels
Also, I keep coming across weird Mac os bugs with windows handling and device handling
I actually used to sell them. And got in an argument with a national sales manager over running windows on them. Apple released boot camp a week later and suddenly he returned to repeat the same arguments I used against him. Never got an apology
I don’t think this difference matters that much in Patreon’s case. Convincing users to sideload an app on Android is likely much harder than just getting them to visit the Patreon website on their phone and subscribe to users that way. Heck, they could probably make the mobile site virtually identical to the app anyway.
they could probably make the mobile site virtually identical to the app anyway.
That's why they tried to kill PWAs too.
You also don’t have to use the Patreon iOS app. Most people just use the services and don’t search for alternatives. If you’re on Lemmy then you’re not in the “most people” category by default.
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The "platform economy" is just another term for digital landlords.
Fuck 'em.
Techno feudalism is the term, look it up
Oh I know, I just thought using landlords would be a more concise term since most people don't know the term techno-feudalism as widely.
I'll definitely try to incorporate it in my writing more though, it's a term that I think should be known much more widely.
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lol, the irony is patreon is also a platform. Its platforms all the way down. They take 12%. If Apple wanted to be the good guy, they’d take 30% of patreon’s 12%.
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The fee will only apply to memberships purchased on Patreon’s iOS app starting November 4th, 2024.
Good, I hope they shed light on Apple's shitfuckery.
Yeah, I actually think this policy is 100% correct and, if more services did this instead of eating the costs, we could have a real discussion about the harm caused by arbitrary fees.
It will likely result in Apple seeking a special deal with Patreon to avoid this mess though. It's really not a good look for Apple especially as they cater themselves to the creatives market.
they cater themselves to the creatives market
LOL only in advertising.
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Until recently, apps were not even allowed to charge less outside their apps than on the app store or to link to outside stores.
They were allowed to charge less, just not mention or link to it in any way. Proton has been doing it for a while that the Apple in-app purchases are roughly 30% higher.
Being as this is very similar to the apple epic legal fight that epic lost earlier this year, I doubt apple will make a deal. My understanding is that patreon can cave, choose to pay 27% commission, or make their own store.
Though skimming the news around epic's attempts to make a store, you "can" make a store in compliance with EU and UK laws, but apple made it kinda impossible to actually do and epic is fighting it in court again?
So patreon seems to have read the lay of things and said I guess we just have to make the best of a shitty situation and communicate everything to try to limit the pain.
It's almost like apple feels like they have the power to do whatever they want because they've created a market where they don't have competition...
Yeah this is well overdue
This is a given for many kinds of services. Always purchase subscriptions on another device or direct through their website - never use your Apple devices' app store.
I'm just worried for the content creators on patreon. Their choices are a significant reduction in income, jacking up prices and pricing out some of their patrons (thus reducing their income), or if patreon pulls from apple there's a significant reduction in visibility and additional hurdles (thus reducing income).
So it seems that no matter the outcome, creators suffer the consequences of the Apple tax.
Fuck apple. Rotten to the core. Class action lawsuit in the very least.
Vote. We need House, Senate, and President to not be corporate fascists so that we can impeach at least 2 or 3 supreme court judges, replace them with rational human beings, reverse the overturning of Chevron Deference, and then let a stronger FTC gut these fucking companies.
Self dealing, competition buying, corporate fascists. The lot of them.
What we can work on is awareness. If iOS users are aware, they can choose to simply go to the website directly and make the purchase, instead of using the app. They can still use the app for consumption.
Yep, that's what everyone I know with Apple devices have always done. I used to have a Nexus 7 (rip) and an iPhone, and the prices on the App store were always higher than the prices on Android Market (rip).
I'm wondering why it's being pointed out now by everyone, but I'm not gonna complain if it leads to some sort of price parity regulation across platforms.
Fuck apple. Rotten to the core. Class action lawsuit in the very least.
We're well past class action territory. They've already been required to allow third-party app stores by the EU. They're simply not complying and no one is doing shit about it.
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Someone's looking to get in on some anti-trust action.
I thought Apple's app store practices were found to be legal in the Epic Games trial? (unlike Google's)
Which is kinda ridiculous since Apple's practices are what Google does but worse.
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I'm okay with paying 30% where the return on investment is worth it. Both the Appstore and Google Play do literally nothing for you, except distribution, and payment processing. These really don't deserve to take such a big cut, and I don't really want to hear any more excuses in their favor
Both the Appstore and Google Play do literally nothing for you, except distribution.
I mean distribution is not "nothing". They have to maintain the app store, and process payments, and filter (most) malicious software.
It's just not worth anywhere near 30%, not to mention the flurry of ads all over the place.
At least with Android it's completely possible to have a third-party app or app store and charge using their own payment processes without ever touching the Google Play store.
Apple is a whole other level of control and anti-competitiveness, and they've been profiting off of it for decades with no intervention in sight.
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This is not about the App Store service's quality, this is about option. They could charge 50% for all I care, if we had the option to buy iOS apps from another store other than Apple's.
This couldn’t have come at a worse time, given their DOJ suit.
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