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by philistine 410 days ago
> Apple has done nothing and continues to do nothing to engender any confidence in their platform as a development target.

You're missing the forest for the trees. Apple is very difficult to work with indeed, but they have a shit-ton of paying users. Still to this day, iOS is a better revenue maker than Android. Same for macOS compared to Windows. You want to make a living? Release on macOS. People there pay for software.
3 comments
johnnyjeans 410 days ago
> Same for macOS compared to Windows.

This hasn't ever been my experience. Maybe if you're in a really specific market niche where most of the userbase is on Mac. Only 5% of users on Windows paying for the software still absolutely dwarfs 100% of Mac users paying for it. We have more sales on Linux than we do Mac.

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wahnfrieden 409 days ago
I deploy to iOS, iPadOS, macOS and Mac accounts for around 25% of downloads
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oritron 410 days ago
> We have more sales on Linux than we do Mac

That's interesting, what's your product? There are a few pieces of software on Macs that I would love to pay for on Linux but the option isn't there.

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arvinsim 410 days ago
I don't believe this. For iOS, sure. But for MacOS? The number of people that uses Windows dwarfs MacOS.
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gjsman-1000 410 days ago
Dwarfs MacOS, sure; but the user base has been conditioned, like Android, to never purchase anything. Why would they purchase anything, when most of their time is spent in the web browser and maybe a few Adobe apps?

iOS is 27% of the mobile market; but total revenue through the App Store in 2024 was $103 billion. For Google Play, it was $46 billion. Double the sales, from a market 1/3rd the size. Whether we like it or not, the whole open platform of Windows being a breeding ground for viruses and piracy, and the ongoing cultural expectations that set, caused a direct effect on people's willingness to buy Windows software from unknown publishers without a third party (Steam, Microsoft Store) vetting them.

I expect it's highly situational. Don't expect to sell many games on Mac. However, I do find it interesting that services like SetApp exist on Mac, but nobody has tried anything with that level of quality on Windows. SetApp also hasn't shown any interest in expanding to Windows.

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newsclues 410 days ago
Paying users is the key.

I’d imagine that people have failed to attract users who pay on Linux or windows and developers know that people use their software via piracy.

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