Great article, Li. The only thing I would add is Apple’s core motivation is, I think, missing. Most of the things you’ve listed here are a proxy for the Apple’s core aim, which is to own the customer. The payment gateway, support requests, App Store, all of it. If you run a business on the App Store, you do not have a direct relationship with your customers. They are not your customers, they are Apples. Apple Pay is the biggest threat to businesses in the ecosystem owning the relationship with their customers. All of this is true for creators also. Thanks again for the article!
I've been thinking about this lately — what "antitrust" type legislation we might see imposed on Apple — so I appreciated your educated opinion. I agree about payments and sideloading, generally. I wonder if the US will impose any of those as laws. We shall see!
I'm looking forward to selling my products in Walmart and only paying the Visa/MasterCard fee. Walmart deserve nothing, why should I pay anymore?
Apple have built out an ecosystem, the review process, customer support - and built up trust with their customers. As a consumer I'd probably spend about 10% of what I spend on the app store if I had to give my credit card to third parties without protection from Apple. The app store reputation would disappear overnight, stolen credit cards from third parties failing to use basic protections, overcharging, legitimate refunds refused, declined payments etc.
unless the app store fundamentally changes, both through economics and technology, it'll be "lock-in"; it's culturally purpose-built that way.
time for a new one.
Great article, Li. The only thing I would add is Apple’s core motivation is, I think, missing. Most of the things you’ve listed here are a proxy for the Apple’s core aim, which is to own the customer. The payment gateway, support requests, App Store, all of it. If you run a business on the App Store, you do not have a direct relationship with your customers. They are not your customers, they are Apples. Apple Pay is the biggest threat to businesses in the ecosystem owning the relationship with their customers. All of this is true for creators also. Thanks again for the article!
I've been thinking about this lately — what "antitrust" type legislation we might see imposed on Apple — so I appreciated your educated opinion. I agree about payments and sideloading, generally. I wonder if the US will impose any of those as laws. We shall see!
I'm looking forward to selling my products in Walmart and only paying the Visa/MasterCard fee. Walmart deserve nothing, why should I pay anymore?
Apple have built out an ecosystem, the review process, customer support - and built up trust with their customers. As a consumer I'd probably spend about 10% of what I spend on the app store if I had to give my credit card to third parties without protection from Apple. The app store reputation would disappear overnight, stolen credit cards from third parties failing to use basic protections, overcharging, legitimate refunds refused, declined payments etc.
Stop jumping on the bandwagon.