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Hundreds of App Developers Want to Join New Apple-Defying Coalition (washingtonpost.com) 88

Posted by EditorDavid from the thinking-different dept.
The Washington Post reports: App developers are defying Apple in record numbers, according to a new coalition of companies aimed at breaking the iPhone maker's tight grip over its mobile software and the way it governs the App Store. The Coalition for App Fairness, which launched last month and counts as members video-game giant Epic Games, dating company Match Group and music streaming service Spotify, says the original group of 13 companies has grown to 40, and it has received more than 400 requests to join.

"The outpouring of interest we've received has exceeded our expectations," Sarah Maxwell, a spokeswoman for the coalition, said in an emailed statement. "As we bring on new members and hear their stories, it's evident that too many developers have been unable to make their voices heard." The soaring membership of the coalition represents a remarkable shift in thinking, as companies and individual developers take the risky step of speaking out in an effort to change the way Apple operates...

Developers say they worried that complaining about Apple would hurt their ability to get apps and updates approved. The company's App Store Review Guidelines once contained a warning for developers who might consider protesting Apple's policies: "If your app is rejected, we have a Review Board that you can appeal to. If you run to the press and trash us, it never helps," the guidelines once stated, according to a securities filing...

The Coalition for App Fairness aims to sway lawmakers to take action against Apple, either through new legislation or legal action. More freedom on iOS would lead to more innovation, app developers say.
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Hundreds of App Developers Want to Join New Apple-Defying Coalition More

Hundreds of App Developers Want to Join New Apple-Defying Coalition

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  • Good riddance (Score:4, Insightful)

    by S_Stout ( 2725099 ) on Saturday October 24, 2020 @02:41PM (#60644048)
    Have you seen the Google App Store? It's garbage. At least Apple has some standards. The 30% take though is rough. There should be a $ cap on that. Enough to weed out the scammers but at a certain point it's a Mafia style cut.
    • I don't have to use the Google app store. Therefore Google can make it as garbagy at they want. On the other hand, I have to use the ios app store so I don't even think I should have to see ads.
      • In practice, you do have to use the Google Play Store. This is because key components ship via their repository and aren't available through the other stores legitimately due to licensing restrictions.

        Sure, you can run pure AOSP but then you miss out on banking apps, Netflix, Widevine support and some messaging apps like Signal due to a dependence on Google proprietary APIs. A certified Android ROM needs Google Play Store to get essential updates and an uncertified ROM legally lacks the necessary compon
        • Open solutions don't come close to the same capability or convenience because of the way capitalism works. They make less money so no one can get investment to do a great job and actually compete.

    • You don't HAVE to use Apple's store. You could use TutuApp or any of the others. And no, you don't need to jailbreak your iPhone to use it.

      To install TutuApp for iPhone, follow the steps below.

      Open the Safari browser and go to https://www.tutuapp.vip/ [tutuapp.vip]

      Tap the Download VIP link at the top.

      When prompted, tap Install.

      Your iPhone will ask if itâ(TM)s okay to download a profile, tap Allow.

      Go to Settings > Profile Downloaded. Tap the Install link at the top right.

      Tap Enter.

      There ya go. The app makers who

      • Re:You could use TutuApp or any of the others (Score:5, Informative)

        by Powercntrl ( 458442 ) on Saturday October 24, 2020 @03:51PM (#60644150) Homepage

        These alternate iOS app stores use leaked enterprise certificates (that step where you "install a profile"), which Apple constantly revokes, as running a competing app store isn't kosher with Apple's TOS.

        This isn't the same at all as on Android, where you can simply change an option in the OS to allow 3rd party app installations, and then you can simply download APKs through the web browser, if you want. As for alternate Android app stores, Amazon seems to be doing pretty good with theirs.

        • > As for alternate Android app stores, Amazon seems to be doing pretty good with theirs.

          F-Droid is also pretty good though FLOSS might preclude the term 'store'.

          Works better with root or Android 11 (for auto updates).

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

          Google actually made it easier to use side-loading of apps in recent versions of Android too.

          You just to have to go into the settings and flip a well hidden switch. Now there is a prompt that takes you directly to the right screen where you can enable side-loading on a per app basis, so e.g. you only give the F-Droid app store permission to side load and not your browser.

    • Have you seen the Google App Store? It's garbage. At least Apple has some standards. The 30% take though is rough.

      It's a good thing Google only charges its developers 30%.

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by xlsior ( 524145 )

        Have you seen the Google App Store? It's garbage. At least Apple has some standards. The 30% take though is rough.

        It's a good thing Google only charges its developers 30%.

        The big difference is that on Android you don't have to use the Google app store. You have the choice to use the Samsung App store instead. Or the Amazon app store. Or you can self-publish and offer your app for direct download on your own website, or even start your own app store for that matter

        On Apple devices, there are ZERO alternatives because apple won't allow it.

        • Close. The reality is you need to suffer the policies of all three, Google, Amazon, and Samsung to reach out to the broadest market of Android users. It's not technically difficult to publish on all of them, very little needs to change in your code, but you're going to get screwed in three slightly but equally bad ways.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

            So do what Epic did for Fortnight, just offer a download on your website. Or if you are open source try F-Droid.

            What you mean is that you have to suffer the policies of the app stores if you want them to handle part of your marketing and distribution. You want their services but you don't want to take the contract they are offering.

            • Consider than I'm not Epic, just some rando on the Internet. If I offered an app on my website, would you download it? (I wouldn't)

              I think everyone is taking a wait-and-see approach to see if Epic can pull it off. Even if they do, a lot of it has to do with them having significant weigh that most publishers do not have. It will be interesting if we see several alternative app stores pop up that are fairly trivial 1-click installs.

          • Not being carried in Google's app store if you won't follow their policies is not being screwed specifically because Android permits sideloading. Not being carried in Apple's store if you won't follow their policies is being screwed specifically because iOS doesn't. It really is that simple.

            Now, it would be incorrect to say that you compete on the same level if you're not in an app store, but that's up to you. You should be free to play by your own rules so long as you don't expect to be promoted by the app

      • Have you seen the Google App Store? It's garbage. At least Apple has some standards. The 30% take though is rough.

        It's a good thing Google only charges its developers 30%.

        IF YOU CHOOSE TO USE THEIR APP STORE!!! I can load apps on my Pixel from anywhere I want to . That's not an option for IOS.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by fermion ( 181285 )
      So this means I only have 10 notes app instead of 100. Listen, I get that apple takes 30%. But if an app developer sold their app for $3 that credit card processors would take almost much that too. Go to google and see if that works out. The reality is that a lot of the stuff I want is not on Google, so my $300 android tablet is mostly unused.
      • Comment removed based on user account deletion
        • Retail is the biggest scam on the planet, for simplying buying wholesale and then selling to the public they add about 50%. I dont like Apple for their own greed, but they are simply copying what others have done for years. THose shoes you buy , guess what the shoe store bought them for half the price, same for the bananas and basically everything else. Yes i know about their costs...but still its a big tax either way you see it.
        • Apple should allow consumers the option to buy a jail break freedom. No more support but you can mess around however you like. Apple hardware is sold with software and expected fees from apps, services. Charge more for an open device use at your own peril. Few would choose but then put to rest the lock in argument. Apple worries about these rogue devices hurting their image much like knock offs do for others. But support for freedom an ideal Apple should embrace not totalitarianism, for a fee of course. App

    • Have you seen the Google App Store? It's garbage. At least Apple has some standards.

      So you add a little option for showing curated results only. This isn't rocket science. The problem with Apple is they hate giving their users choice.

    • Speaking as somebody with a Pixel phone and an iPad, you're full of shit. If anything, I have a preference for the android app store.

      - Much better web browser selection, especially firefox, which is the only mobile browser that actually has web extensions - unless you got it through the crapp store.
      - Much better utility selection (take for example tasker, which has a lot more capabilities than you'll ever find in ANY automation app for iphone, and all of the wifi analyzers available in the apple app store s

    • Have you see lseen the app store and the garbage apps in it? Literally 80% of both stores are garbage. There is no 'quality x control on the istore sides from 'did it crash'

    • Re:Good riddance (Score:4, Interesting)

      by SkonkersBeDonkers ( 6780818 ) on Saturday October 24, 2020 @08:15PM (#60644698)

      I will never as long as I live understand the mentality of "30% is too much." First of all, who is anyone to say how much is too much? It's certainly lower than the markup used by many brick & mortar retailers, not least of which includes grocery stores where manufacturers actually have to pay them up front for shelf space. Or clothing retailers where markups of 200 and 300 percent are so common as to not even raise eyebrows. It also was what pushed other digital retailers like Sony, Microsoft and Amazon to lower their cut of digital sales which used to be as high as 70% so that now 30% has become pretty standard. And it's orders of magnitude better than what traditional music and print publishers offer even today to their artists.

      Consider Epic's biggest complaint, that Apple is taking a 30% cut of the sales of their in-game currency, a "product" which is essentially sold at infinite markup since technically speaking it costs them nothing to produce. And sure they've got development costs in their game, but let's be serious here, no one thinks that is more than a small fraction of the billions they've taken in from it.

      And who else, well we got the Match group that is basically a poster child (if it was a wanted poster) for the notions of defrauding customers and enabling stalkers. And then there is Spotify who pay's its musicians some of the lowest royalty rates in the entire world.

      In short, you've got a few big crooks that have convince some other small time crooks to go after a company that did nothing more than provide them a platform to make their money.

      • In short, you've got a few big crooks that have convince some other small time crooks to go after a company that did nothing more than provide them a platform to make their money.

        And according to Epic in their lawsuit the App store and iOS is tremendously lucrative for them, much more lucrative than Android. iOS customers spend a lot more. Epic just wants a bigger slice of that big pie Apple made it possible for them to make.

      • I will never as long as I live understand the mentality of "30% is too much."

        It's very simple. Being forced to pay 30% is too much. Apple may have created the platform, but it's the rights of the users that matter most, and those rights are interfered with when third party software sources are prohibited. The devs should be able to choose whether they want to pay 30% to be distributed through the Apple App Store, or want to go it alone. And Apple should be forced to permit the latter because of the interests of the users.

        • Re:Good riddance (Score:4, Insightful)

          by SkonkersBeDonkers ( 6780818 ) on Sunday October 25, 2020 @09:13AM (#60646180)

          So the obvious solution there would be Apple allowing 3rd party app stores right?

          Except that Epic is also suing Google claiming that while Android supports 3rd party app stores, they aren't economically feasible (meaning most people won't use them even when available).

          Ultimately what Epic really wants is for Apple to be forced to carry Epic apps in the Apple App Store at terms that Epic dictates which in practice Epic has made clear that would involve using their own payment system that users would be forced to use and in signing up hand over way more personal data than Epic is currently allowed through Apple's payment system.

          I'll promise you that whatever the final resolution of this case turns out to be, it won't be a judgement made in terms of what's best for the users, it will either be what's best for Apple or what's best for Epic/et al.

        • It's very simple. Being forced to pay 30% is too much.

          You seem to be a victim of some sort of self-delusion that you are somehow being forced to Develop Apps for the iOS App Store.

          Their Store; their Rules. It really is just that simple.

          • Their Store; their Rules. It really is just that simple.

            Contracts can't supersede the law. It really isn't just that simple.

            • Their Store; their Rules. It really is just that simple.

              Contracts can't supersede the law. It really isn't just that simple.

              LOL and where is written the law that governs how much a store can mark up products?

              Does it apply to every Free2Play game there is too? In that they sell their in-game currencies that have literally zero intrinsic value for what amounts to an infinite amount of markup.

            • Their Store; their Rules. It really is just that simple.

              Contracts can't supersede the law. It really isn't just that simple.

              Point to the exact paragraph in any law that the Apple App Store violates.

              I'll wait...

  • app developers (Score:4, Funny)

    by Anonymouse Cowtard ( 6211666 ) on Saturday October 24, 2020 @02:49PM (#60644066) Homepage
    In Soviet Russia, Apple eats YOU!

  • Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Saturday October 24, 2020 @02:52PM (#60644070)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • You can choose to not buy that device, or to sell it.  You don't get to command apple to build the device in a certain way.
  • While Apple’s cut is high, they provide significant value to customers beyond the role as a payment processor. I actually like using Apple Pay, and there is no way I would enter my credit card information manually for the dozens of different apps I use. That said, I did sign up for Spotify via their website because it isn’t sustainable for them to acquire customers via the app store.

  • For the last 10 years "innovation", along with "great", has been an encoding of 'steal more of the customers' personally identifying information and resell it on secondary markets'. Has this app developer coalition (which funnily enough sounds like a... union) made any statements about how they propose to protect buyers' identify and information after Apple's restrictions are relaxed?

  • Here's hoping that eventually, maybe by 2024, they. Shall. Prevail. [youtu.be]

  • Previously there were 2 and that record was broken?

    • The only thing let is Linux, and that's only if people look at their own security and do something about it. Otherwise we're doomed. This is the future that so many apocalyptic authors have preached about for decades. We'rte all fucked.

  • 400 Whiners out of nearly a million? (Score:3)

    by NoMoreACs ( 6161580 ) on Saturday October 24, 2020 @10:25PM (#60645040)

    How many Developers are there on the iOS App Store?

    It looks to be almost 800,000.

    https://techcrunch.com/2019/11... [techcrunch.com]

    1% of that is around 8,000. That is the approximate number of App Store Devs. That comprise 99% of the Revenue.

    So, if 30 are actually in this "coalition", then that represents around 0.375% of the top-earning Devs. (Assuming all of the whiners are in the top 1% for App Store Revenue). Even if all of the 400 who allegedly "expressed an interest" in the "coalition" were from the uppercrust of App Store earners, that would still only be a measly 5% of the total App Store Devs. who are dissatisfied.

    Big Fucking Deal. Doesnâ(TM)t sound too scary to me; especially since the Epic v. Apple case so far isnâ(TM)t going too well for Epic.

    They wanna Coalition? Let 'em Collate! Not one in a thousand will have the balls to truly pull a dumbass stunt like Epic, anyway. They simply can't afford it!

  • It's evident that Epic failure needed more PR and they went to press again.

  • It's next to impossible to have software developers intentionally abandon a platform, but it seems to me that if Apple charges too much they will.

    The folks at Apple are smart. That's how they maintain the numbers and margin that they currently enjoy.

    If they charged too much for developers to make a profit, they would re-figure their fees.

    As it is, they charge as much as they are able to. They probably say "That's Business."

    In the end, it's Apple's users who will make the final decision. If Apple produc
  • don't take 30% whenever you selling something on their sites?

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