{"id":29253,"date":"2020-06-19T20:00:10","date_gmt":"2020-06-20T00:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/?p=29253"},"modified":"2021-06-18T07:10:47","modified_gmt":"2021-06-18T11:10:47","slug":"highway-robbery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2020\/06\/19\/highway-robbery\/","title":{"rendered":"Highway Robbery"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nilay Patel<\/a> (tweet<\/a>, MacRumors<\/a>, Hacker News<\/a>, David Heinemeier Hansson<\/a>):<\/p>\n

Apple is acting like a monopolist and a bully, according to the chairman of the House antitrust subcommittee.<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

“Because of the market power that Apple has, it is charging exorbitant rents — highway robbery, basically — bullying people to pay 30 percent or denying access to their market,” said Rep. Cicilline. “It’s crushing small developers who simply can’t survive with those kinds of payments. If there were real competition in this marketplace, this wouldn’t happen.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

The 30% is a lot, and there are certainly problems with the guidelines and conflicts of interest, but the larger problem is that the App Store is the only way to distribute software. iPhone is not a gaming console. Phones are the new personal computer—more than that for many people, really—but you don’t get to choose what apps to run on them. Even if you find the app yourself via the Web, even if you trust it, even if it’s sandboxed, even if no money is changing hands, you can’t download and install it unless Apple approves of it.<\/p>\n\n

Toyota doesn’t prevent you from installing your own tires or hanging ornament. Your electric company doesn’t ban certain devices from receiving power—or require a percentage of whatever you produce using its energy. Your Web browser doesn’t prevent you from viewing certain sites. But, somehow, people have accepted that a sort of network neutrality for your phone or tablet would not only infringe on Apple’s rights but would put you at risk.<\/p>\n\n

Jason Fried<\/a> (tweet<\/a>):<\/p>\n

Money grabs the headlines, but there’s a far more elemental story here. It’s about the absence of choice, and how Apple forcibly inserts themselves between your company and your customer.<\/p>\n

Does the world’s largest company really get to decide how millions of other businesses can interact with their own customers? In fact, Apple’s policy distances you from your customer.<\/p>\n

When Apple forces companies to offer In App Purchases in order to be on their platform, they also dictate the limits to which you can help your customer. This has a detrimental impact on the customer experience, and your relationship with your customer. It can flat out ruin an interaction, damage your reputation, and it can literally cost you customers. It prevents us from providing exceptional customer service when someone who uses our product needs help.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

David Heinemeier Hansson<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

Now Apple is telling us how to design our products too! They don’t just want to dictate distribution, they also want to dictate product design, and define what an “acceptable” email client is.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Steve Troughton-Smith<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

Apple would like to think people are just upset about their tax rate, but it’s not just that — it’s about interfering with perfectly reasonable apps for self-serving reasons and pretending they’re protecting customer interests, and channeling ‘innovation’ down pre-approved paths<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Daniel Jalkut<\/a>:<\/p>\n

I’ve come around quite a bit on the subject of Apple’s stronghold over developers with the App Store. I now believe side-loading, and perhaps even the ability to install 3rd party STORES should be a requirement for consumer and developer protection.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

Daniel Pasco<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

App store policies - and the pricing drought - have unquestionably eradicated innovation. Most people that could do something significant are reticent to do so as it’s extremely rare to be able to make enough to sustain a product, let alone make a profit.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Michael Love<\/a>:<\/p>\n

One can certainly take the position that it’s not<\/em> robbery, but in 2008 I paid Palm\/Microsoft $0 for the privilege of writing mobile apps for their platforms, and in 2010 I paid Apple 30% of my revenue.<\/p>

They didn’t greatly increase my sales, they didn’t greatly decrease my customer support burden, they just came in with a new platform, lured all my old customers over to that platform and then demanded I fork over 30% to keep selling to the same people I was already selling to.<\/p>\n

My personal experience of the App Store has been very, very similar to the Mafia protection metaphor that \n@dhh\n has been pushing, there’s nothing unfair or vitriolic about calling it what it is.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

Kyle Howells<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

I own multiple physical hardware products (cameras, drones, remote control cars, light bulbs), which are very expensive paper weights without their bluetooth companion apps.<\/p>\n

Apple can put those companies out of business and take away my access to my stuff by rejecting their app.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

John Gruber<\/a> (tweet<\/a>, Hacker News<\/a>):<\/p>\n

Even if you think Apple is doing nothing wrong<\/em>, it’s not healthy or sustainable if the developers of a huge number of popular apps are only in the App Store because they feel they have<\/em> to be there, not because they want<\/em> to be there, and if they feel — justifiably or not — that Apple is taking advantage of their need to be there. Tim Cook rightly loves to cite Apple’s high customer satisfaction scores as a measure of success. I think if Apple measured developer satisfaction scores on the App Store, the results would be jarring.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

Previously:<\/p>\n