News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Apple Has Removed Dash from the App Store. Parent comment

Re:Apple Has Removed Dash from the App Store by fattire on Wednesday October 05, 2016 @07:48PM (#12648979)
The choice is that if you're going to develop software for sale to the public, you can choose to develop software for sale in another market which is not so restrictive and oppressive. Other platforms and marketplaces exist, and money can be made there. To contemplate the actual possibility of sweating for years building a business, slaving over software, creating marketing campaigns, and a brand and fighting to beat out the competition, all while knowing that at any point for any reason Apple may decide to pull the plug and leave me with absolutely nothing-- no sellable product and no other avenue to sell it-- sounds like a pretty obvious choice: Don't ever get in business under circumstances like that unless there truly is no other choice.

Stories like this from Dash (and others) is a real-living and breathing worst-case scenario... it makes the choice to not participate in this marketplace all the more obvious to me.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Apple Has Removed Dash from the App Store by jomamaxx on Wednesday October 05, 2016 @09:28PM (#12649430)
"The choice is that if you're going to develop software for sale to the public, you can choose to develop software for sale in another market which is not so restrictive and oppressive."

The smartphone 'market' is an oligarchy, ergo, it's not really a free market, and those kinds of principled positions just don't hold.

It's pretty reasonable to argue that Apple's arbitrary control of the AppStore is an anti-competitive practice.

If the market were commoditized, like, the choice you have for where you want to 'eat lunch' or 'buy a car' - it would be different.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Apple Has Removed Dash from the App Store by qyv on Wednesday October 05, 2016 @08:51PM (#12649262)
Just goes to show that selling App's in a walled ecosystem is NOT the exact same as building a software business. You lose so much control over your product, you essentially become commission-only contract software developers. Publishers have been pushing for this kind of control for a long time.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Apple Has Removed Dash from the App Store by 7Z7 on Thursday October 06, 2016 @07:57AM (#12651691)
You trade that loss of control for the convenience of not having to distribute/host/manage money or returns/etc.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Apple Has Removed Dash from the App Store by Steko on Wednesday October 05, 2016 @09:02PM (#12649310)
People work and go into business and otherwise partner with people who can capriciously screw them over all the time, that's how businesses work. You can put a certain amount of things in contracts and internal procedures but ultimately you need to trust your partners/boss/employees not to screw you over. The App Store is no different and many people build their businesses around it because it is a huge market and Apple has built up a lot of trust that mistakes (presumably like this) are corrected and AFAIK they do not go around wantonly destroying people's businesses.
[ Parent | on HN ]