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Apple can be frustrating with the App Store because they will have policies that are plainly wrong, morally if not legally, and still try to convince you that you’re the crazy one. Increasingly this is what I hear from Apple: “I’ll only be a dictator on day one.” Hubris + total control is dangerous.
@manton I’m hearing this more and more. It’s disappointing, because Apple has so far been a bright spot for personal privacy online. But I can’t tell if this change is a selection bias on my part because I’m increasingly talking to a different crowd of people.
Did you just run into a specific policy that seemed morally, ethically, or legally wrong?
@benpate I haven't run into many problems myself, although we've been careful to avoid the edge cases. This is mostly a response to Apple's new policy of taking 27% from payments outside the store and auditing your bookkeeping if they think you aren't complying.
@manton I’m sure you realize how expensive it is to develop an operating system and developer tools. How many employees does Apple have working on these?
This is Apple’s chosen method of monetizing the platform.
Remember when end users paid $129 for each version of the OS? Remember when developers paid $500 to $3500 a year for the developer program? Remember what the market share was like back then? No one wants to go back to that. 27% is more than fair for what you get from Apple here.
> Remember when end users paid $129 for each version of the OS? Remember when developers paid $500 to $3500 a year for the developer program?
I want to go back to that. It was a more honest transaction. ($3,500/yr wouldn’t even be the highest my employer pays in dev tool licenses.)
We’re in a problematic era where people are even less willing to pay for software, and the result is privacy abuses (i.e., getting the money a different way), and indies unable to make it.