tobybeagle

22july2013 said:

carnegie said:

22july2013 said:

Is Apple required to let Epic back on the store even if Epic relents and wants to pay 30%?

The court may order it to, but as of now it has not so ordered Apple.

Apple has informed Epic that it will deny a reapplication (by Epic) for at least a year. So at this point, Epic doesn't have the option to just undo the hotfix and make Fortnite compliant.

The court was considering, but rejected, the idea of putting fortnite back on the store with the alternate payment system. It was not considering forcing the product back on the store if the alternate payment system was removed. I was talking about a different scenario entirely. Your second paragraph is a completely new news item to me. I find your point fascinating. I’m going to see if I can confirm that.

My question remains: can Apple stop a third-party software developer from using the App Store if it simply doesn’t like the developer? Similarly, could Walmart refuse to sell Samsung products just because they don’t like Samsung?

Well, depends on what you mean by "like". Walmart refuses to carry all sorts of products if the vendor doesn't or can't meet Walmart's requirements. 

I've been reading about this topic here as well at other sites and I'd like to add some thoughts:

When you buy a smartphone, you do in fact own the phone, but you don't own the operating system. Before Apple, you had Windows Mobile, Nokia, Palm and BlackBerry. As I recall, the enduser agreed to the terms and conditions to the use of operating system. If the enduser didn't like them, then the only option was to return the device and get their money back.

Installing apps on these devices was hit or miss at best. Some carriers restricted what apps were available and where you could get them. If an app bricked your phone, you had to deal with the developer directly and often the app may be in conflict with another app and you'd end up going down a rabbit hole trying to resolve the issue.

Apple came up with another model which basically tells the carriers "you manage your network and we'll take care of the phone." At the time, this was unheard of.
Then, Apple leveraged its success with iTunes to develop the iOS App Store which is a huge success. 

From a developers perspective, Apple provides the development tools, support, hosting and a curated potential customer base which minimizes the potential for credit card fraud, removes the need for each developer to have a CC merchant account and presumably pays the developer on time. For this, Apple charges 30% on the app purchase and 30% on in app purchases. The developer gets to decide what price to charge for their app, as well as in app purchases. I would presume the developer knows his cost structure and would price their app so the developer can make a profit. The developer doesn't have to deal with all the other issues of running an online store and can concentrate on developing apps.

I would think that developers have read and understood the terms and conditions of their developer agreement as well as the implications that agreement entails. If it makes business sense to them, they move forward; if not then they would find another venue for app development.

Epic is just a bunch of greedy folks who are willing to renege on their agreement to make some extra coin, and really don't care about the consumers.

Do I have issues with the App Store? You bet. I'd like to get my money back from several apps I've bought that, IMHO, did not deliver what was advertised. My recourse is to review the app and express my dissatisfaction and think twice before I purchase another app from that developer.

What I like most about Apple's approach is I don't have to be concerned with an app stealing my data, bricking my phone. At the end of the day while it is a "computer in your pocket" its primary function is a phone.

Thanks for reading.

ajl said:

 🤔 Is there something I'm missing at all?

Yes. There are a number of professionals who go 3rd party memory solutions. Back in the day when I sold SUN systems, I had a customer at Army Research Labs who would buy big buck SUN servers and workstations but wouldn't buy RAM from SUN because of the price. Instead he would max out his systems with memory from Kingston. Had another customer at NOAA who did they same as well as several customers who worked in the various "alphabet agencies". They had massive budgets for IT equipment and would think nothing about spending $10+ Million for a SUN E10k server, and would still buy 3rd party memory. In fact, there was an internal gov't blog about various systems performance with 3rd party memory. These same customers would think nothing of spending a few grand a year for a support contract for their equipment.

On the commercial side, I had many, many customers, (GE, Oracle, ALPA, Teamsters, UPS to name a few) who did the same thing. 

fastasleep said:

$17? That'll buy a couple decent whiskeys. I'll take whatever they give me. 

Leaving AT&T and theird "Unlimited" plan, having been grandfathered in from Cingular and my first iPhone back in the day, and switching over to T-Mobile, has been one of the most refreshing changes in my life since leaving Bank of America for my local credit union. Like somehow getting out of dealing with the mob.

T-Mobile doesn't advertise as being actually unlimited, but they "may" throttle you after like 28 gigs or something, which I've never even come close to reaching. That, plus allowing tethering (!) which wasn't allowed with AT&T, free international data roaming (which was a very expensive nightmare even to manage with AT&T) and other benefits costing me only 2/3 of what I was paying AT&T = a win all around.

I made the same move some time ago and I am so glad I did. I use a ton of data on T-Mobile, especially when the internet goes down for a week. I have my iPhone, my iPad Pro and my Watch. Very pleased with the price and service.

The NSA can byte me!