NYT: Apple Moves to Tighten Control of App Store

[Maggie Leung]

Originally Posted by RockdaMan

It'll blow over.

It won't happen just because you keep saying so. Consumers will decide Apple's fate.

[RockdaMan]

Originally Posted by Maggie Leung

Consumers will decide Apple's fate.

Then, like I said, this will blow over. Again, this is a business thing: Apple stays out in front of it's users and keeps them content like few others.

Many thought the lack of flash on iOS was serious as many think this is. Many thought that going with ATT was just as serious as many think this is. Many thought the draconian app store policies were just as serious as many think this is.

Apples management just executed its way through those problems and I can't see them hitting a brick wall on this one. In fact, it will probably affect less of their users than the aforementioned "problems" did.

Those few who object, like you, have the freedom to move on and should do so.

[RockdaMan]

Just saw this:

Apple was the only big name in mobile that didn’t show up at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this week… but it didn’t stop the iPhone 4 from winning the show’s Best Mobile Device Award.

According to the judges, the iPhone 4 won because “it has a great screen, sharp design, fantastic materials, and phenomenal ecosystem for app developers. In a tight race, the iPhone 4 built on the success of its predecessors to set the pace for smartphones.”

Like I said, that company won't have any problems with its consumers.

[Maggie Leung]

Originally Posted by RockdaMan

Then, like I said, this will blow over. Again, this is a business thing: Apple stays out in front of it's users and keeps them content like few others.

Many thought the lack of flash on iOS was serious as many think this is. Many thought that going with ATT was just as serious as many think this is. Many thought the draconian app store policies were just as serious as many think this is.

Apples management just executed its way through those problems and I can't see them hitting a brick wall on this one. In fact, it will probably affect less of their users than the aforementioned "problems" did.

Those few who object, like you, have the freedom to move on and should do so.

Android's momentum and range of devices give consumers more options than ever. It'll be interesting to see how Apple will balance not alienating consumers, app developers and vendors as it tries to maximize profits. Even successful companies can overreach.

Mobile devices have become user-friendlier over the years, which also weighs against Apple. The fact that someone as tech-limited as I am is willing to switch to Android doesn't work in Apple's favor, for instance.

Apple's key strength has been creating user-friendly access to content. The company is risking undermining that key feature with this current course. If I were a content provider, I might go along with Apple in the short term, to avoid losing market share, but I would be developing Web access so I could abandon Apple as quickly as possible, while holding onto my content buyers longer term. Even if content providers go along for now, they've gotta be wondering what happens the next time Apple decides to put the screws to them.

Apple has created a chilling effect with its current course -- among informed consumers, as well as content providers and app developers. That does not seem like a good long-term business strategy when Android is waiting to eat your lunch. Apple might gain short term, but short-term strategizing can bite. For one thing, it's much cheaper to keep existing customers than it is to attract new ones. And it will be harder to attract new ones if you've made content providers, vendors and app developers skittish.

[ficbot]

Here's the thing, I don't think customers will care if the app makers continue to stay in the market. If, for example, Netflix raises their price by a dollar to make up for the 30%, I think a lot of people would grumble, but pay it and be happy. Where I think customers *will* care is if Amazon/Kobo/Netflix/Whomever suddenly decide to just pull their apps rather than pay the 30%. I could take or leave the ebook apps since I liberate, then side-load to wherever I please, but I admit I do enjoy Netflix and Zinio, and if I could not use it on the iPad, those would be deal-breakers for me and I would cancel my accounts with them---and greatly miss what what they add to my iPad use. So it isn't just is this a deal-breaker for Apple, it's is it a deal-breaker for everyone else.

I suspect that anti-competition people will get involved at some point. It is ridiculous that people are buying a device to own and they can't do what they please with it. It would be like the toaster companies expecting the bread makers to send them 30%. I don't think Apple will get away with this.

And fwiw not all of us who use Apple products do so for vanity or 'fanboy' reasons. I have tried netbooks and and other mobile devices and for various reasons they simply do not meet my needs the way the iPad has. I use the iPad because it truly is the best device for what I want to do on the go. It has nothing to do with being a 'fanboy' or thinking I am better than people or anything like that.

[RockdaMan]

Originally Posted by Maggie Leung

Android's momentum and range of devices give consumers more options than ever.

True.

But they are not battling nor winning against Apple in the war for new customers. Apple iPhone sales have yet to peak and 8 of 10 subscribers upgrade to the newest model of the iPhone.

What Android has done is successfully convert many Blackberry, Windows Mobile (the predecessor, not the new) and dumbphone users to it's platform. Kudos to them for that.

[Maggie Leung]

Originally Posted by ficbot

Here's the thing, I don't think customers will care if the app makers continue to stay in the market. If, for example, Netflix raises their price by a dollar to make up for the 30%, I think a lot of people would grumble, but pay it and be happy. Where I think customers *will* care is if Amazon/Kobo/Netflix/Whomever suddenly decide to just pull their apps rather than pay the 30%. I could take or leave the ebook apps since I liberate, then side-load to wherever I please, but I admit I do enjoy Netflix and Zinio, and if I could not use it on the iPad, those would be deal-breakers for me and I would cancel my accounts with them---and greatly miss what what they add to my iPad use. So it isn't just is this a deal-breaker for Apple, it's is it a deal-breaker for everyone else.

That's why I would work around Apple if I were a content provider. If you can deliver your content without an Apple-controlled app, you could keep your iPad users, as well as sell to everyone else.

I dunno how many Apple users would be keen to sideload, by the way. Kinda undercuts Apple's convenience model.

[Maggie Leung]

Originally Posted by RockdaMan

True.

But they are not battling nor winning against Apple in the war for new customers. Apple iPhone sales have yet to peak and 8 of 10 subscribers upgrade to the newest model of the iPhone.

Nothing stays static in business, especially tech. There are plenty of former tech stars that have burned out. I don't see Apple flaming out overnight, but it's running a risky course. Like I said, it will be interesting to see how things unfold.

[Piper_]

Originally Posted by ficbot

I suspect that anti-competition people will get involved at some point. It is ridiculous that people are buying a device to own and they can't do what they please with it. It would be like the toaster companies expecting the bread makers to send them 30%. I don't think Apple will get away with this.

This just came down the wire an hour ago:

Antitrust regulators look at new Apple service: WSJ

According to the report, both the Justice Department and the FTC are interested in whether Apple is breaking U.S. antitrust laws by taking the cut after sending media companies' customers into the payment system for its iTunes store. They have not yet decided which agency will take the lead in the matter, the Journal said.

eta:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/...71H0KX20110218

I hope they get spanked and cry. Good people can love and defend Apple, and that's cool. But, just going by my personal code of fair dealing, anyone's pulling this move at this stage of the game is contemptible.

[RockdaMan]

This is the second or third of those government investigations that's on-going and nothing has changed yet. And it won't in this case either...by the time things are fully worked out between the government and Apple the success or failure of the endeavor will have been decided by the market. Sorry to disappoint you.

[RockdaMan]

In Piper post Reuters was quoting the WSJ, and going to the article itself we find some interesting information. I'm sorry the facts keep getting in the critics way:

Antitrust officials in the U.S. and abroad may be hard-pressed to conclude that Apple's 30% commission is excessive, antitrust experts said, partly because it will be difficult to determine a benchmark commission rate for digital subscriptions. "The European Commission has been reluctant in the past to second-guess pricing as it is a complex exercise, and the commission does not want to become a price regulator," said Damien Geradin, a professor of competition law at Tilburg University in the Netherlands.

To make a case against Apple, antitrust enforcers would have to show that Apple has market power and is abusing it. That depends on how they define a market. Apple's iPhone is the phone of choice for many affluent consumers, but it has only a 16% share of smartphone sales and a sliver of the broader mobile-phone market.

Apple accounts for about three-quarters of world-wide tablet-computer sales, but that share could fall fast as a slate of competitors become available.

Antitrust enforcers would also have to determine to what extent media companies need to be on Apple devices, or whether other alternatives are available. Making that determination won't be easy in a fast-changing market.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...#ixzz1EI6p6HMu

[wyndslash]

so i just read this whole thread from start to finish, and I must say, it makes me kind of want to go back to buying old-fashioned print books. at least i know that it's really mine and won't be taken away from me (in response to someone saying how hard it is to transfer digital libraries), but of course there's the lack of space, and i've more or less committed myself to getting the new kindle.

this whole situation with apple kind of reminds me of countries no longer wanting to be controlled by OPEC so they try to develop alternative forms of energy.

anyway, just a random comment and i don't want to be attacked D:

[Crowl]

Originally Posted by saoir

There's a lot of nonsense written about the new Apple conditions. If people use their iPhone or iPad to buy Amazon products then Apple are entitled to take a cut.

Apple have already got their cut from people buying the hardware, the presence of all these apps are a clear selling point for the product, take away those and the ipad would sell a lot less.

If they wanted to turn around and charge these service providers x amount for hosting their free apps then that would also be fair enough and make sense since that is the only thing they actually do for those companies if they don't need to use the payment processing stuff of apple.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by saoir

There's a lot of nonsense written about the new Apple conditions. If people use their iPhone or iPad to buy Amazon products then Apple are entitled to take a cut.

So if I use my Dell laptop to buy things on-line, you presumably also believe that Dell are entitled to a cut?

The logic of this position eludes me; what has the device manufacturer done which "entitles" them to a share of purchases made using that device?

[RockdaMan]

Its the online payment & procurement services. Its like paying postage...