[a13o]

I don't get the point you're trying to make, nor do I understand your framing.

Historically using the first-party app stores for distribution & payment processing has been more profitable than doing those things on your own. The second it isn't, people won't use app stores anymore. There's nothing intrinsically good or bad about any of these technologies. They're all a means to an end - profit.

We are headed into the next era of mobile apps. Developers who initially found the app store taxes appropriate during the smartphone boom, are now looking to renegotiate the terms as the market stabilizes. There isn't enough growth to go around anymore and make everyone's shareholders happy, so everyone in the supply chain between developer and user will go to war over what's there and what's fair.

This will slowly pick apart all the unjust contracts preventing developers from pursuing alternatives. And as these contracts fall, other distribution technologies will gain momentum. It may be other app stores installing apks and ipas onto phones, it may be PWAs. It doesn't really matter.

[scarface_74]

You still don’t get it. If you look at the vast majority of money made in the App Store - 90% of it is casino style games with in app purchases. The app stores are used by those developers because they have direct access to the users wallets. No accepting credit cards outside of the App Store is not the answer.

There are plenty of ways to fund App Store purchases that don’t involve credit cards and parents aren’t going to give their kids their credit card numbers.

The other big revenue source from mobile - doesn’t involve money going through the app stores at all. They are services surfaced through apps where users already don’t pay through the App Store - like Netflix, Spotify, Microsoft office and all of the B2B apps.

Neither Apple nor Google care about the little Indy app developer.

You keep talking about “unjust “ fees. I’m talking about developers of casino style games that make almost all of the money in the App Store - this came out in the Epic trial.

It’s not about the little guy - no one cares about the little guy - including Apple.

[a13o]

What exactly don't I get? You're replying to a thread where I highlighted just one social casino company that makes over half a billion annually, doing exactly what you claim they won't do - hedging against walled gardens by investing in infrastructure to support direct relationships with customers. This space full of very big players absolutely will diversify away from app store payment processing if they find a more profitable path elsewhere. They don't care what technology they use.

I haven't talked about unjust fees I've talked about unjust contracts, which prevent forming a direct relationship with customers, aka export your business off the app stores. Once you build the business there they don't want you taking it anywhere else. And they'll wield their influence over smartphone hardware to keep developers complacent. There was just a big antitrust case about this, and the walled garden lost. The losses will continue. The big developers with big resources will use these new pathways to extract more revenue at Apple's expense. Nobody is talking about little guys except you.

[scarface_74]

They didn’t do anything to get away from the 30% App Store tax. They just chose another App Store - with same App Store tax.

They didn’t make a PWA.

And I don’t want a “direct relationship” with app makers for them to spam me. I use “Hide my email” for a reason.

And the “wall garden” didn’t lose the case.

Apple won on almost every account. The reason Google lost is that they changed the rules of the game after a consumer bought into their “open platform”