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Re:Spotify and Google Announce User Choice Billing by FredPret on Wednesday March 23, 2022 @07:37PM (#30784946)
But the very concept of being an mobile app developer was brought to life by Apple, and later Google. 15 years ago, you could not really be a pro app dev. Now, you can, but with a 30% cut. You are strictly better off. And if you think the 30% is too much, do something else.

These companies created something that grew into a foundational element of modern life in about a decade. That’s amazing and should be awarded with trillions of dollars. The market should reward this corporate behaviour extremely well, and punish the IBMs and GEs and Boeings harshly.

As an aside, Apple et al are also not resting on their laurels, and keep pushing the envelope. My 2 y.o. + iPhone is literally better than on the day I bought it. I’m more than happy to pay more for apps / subs to get this.

Re:Spotify and Google Announce User Choice Billing by munk-a on Wednesday March 23, 2022 @07:48PM (#30785016)
The developer who made a useful website with a link to their paypal has been mostly obsoleted by app developers. Small tool development isn't a novel creation of modern mobile devices - it's just the packaging of these into bespoke binaries that have highly regulated distribution channels. A cynical person might assume that part of the reason Apple hated flash so much is that it threatened to stunt the upcoming app market. To lend some credence to this position, things like Kofi have taken off in recent (on my scale) years as HTML5 gained enough traction to essentially duplicate the functionality of flash without any of the security issues - I personally think this is what led to the feature to save websites as apps on iOS and that is something that doesn't threaten Apple much with their network advantage, but has the potential to cut into their revenue if it gets popular enough.
Re:Spotify and Google Announce User Choice Billing by yywwbbn on Wednesday March 23, 2022 @08:32PM (#30785256)
The problem is when that innovative company becomes the new IBM/GE/Oracle and starts treating every client as nothing else but a revenue stream instead of focusing on creating new and innovative products. I don’t think Apple/Google are there yet but they are clearly moving into that direction.
Re:Spotify and Google Announce User Choice Billing by dantheman on Thursday March 24, 2022 @12:14AM (#30786328)
When that happens they die - does anyone care what IBM, GE, or Oracle do? All their customers are working to get off their platforms.