iOS and IpadOS aren't good, it's third party apps and devs that make them so much better than android

[Love-hate 🍏 relationship]

I don't know how you guys feel about Ios and its bigger brother ipadOS which is basically a bigger ios with a few tweaks

for the price of these devices, which is extremely high, especially in EU where an iphone 14pm/ ipad pro 12.9 128gb would cost literally 1500 euros, I find the OS rather underwhelming


while ios does many things better than android , it isnt that amazing in itself, and lacks a lot lot of features.

same goes for ipadOS, i'm not saying that it should be a mac replacement, but windows management is a joke, so are background tasks, files.app, file system (sandboxing) etc etc . and unlike on macOS , you cannot used third party apps to "fix" apple crap, given how little permissions apps get on ios

what makes apple platforms good , imho, is how amazing third party apps are

-new features get pushed out faster than on android, even google's own youtube which got 1080p premium bandwidth while android is left in the dust

-apps are way more polished and beautiful, with little tweaks and attention u don't see on other

-they make good use of hardware (lidar for example, while TOF sensor on android never got a single good app making use of its 3d depth mapping)


Which kinda pisses me off given how apple disrespects third party devs (apart from giving them good SDKs and APIs to work with)

-making them wait sometimes a month or more before accepting updates

-forbidding in-app purchases to redirect to their own site, forcing app store purchases/subscriptions in order to get even more money by charging 15/30%

-on top of that, if a dev wants to push an app through the app store, he needs to pay a 100$/year license,even for indie/alone dev , which is enormous

 

[Helmsley]

while ios does many things better than android , it isnt that amazing in itself, and lacks a lot lot of features.

I think for most people, an OS doesn't have to be "amazing". It just has to work and be reliable.

For me, iOS does everything that I need it to. The reason I continue to buy iPhone is because I love the design and the brand.

I suspect most people, me included, don't even use most of the features anyway. In fact, I'm sure I saw a study confirming that...I'll try finding the link.

 

[Love-hate 🍏 relationship]

I think for most people, an OS doesn't have to be "amazing". It just has to work and be reliable.

For me, iOS does everything that I need it to. The reason I continue to buy iPhone is because I love the design and the brand.

I suspect most people, me included, don't even use most of the features anyway. In fact, I'm sure I saw a study confirming that...I'll try finding the link.

Makes sense

Although I didn't mean to talk about features only, but rather the whole optimisation thing

And the way it's designed , for example ergonomics are terrible on IOS , everything on top and left end of the device , back gesture is poorly implemented and doesn't work in many apps, and is also very hard to reach (left side ) , and many many other UX issues

As well as sound source design, being unable to play the previous song/sound without re opening the app

Etc

 

[Abazigal]

Which kinda pisses me off given how apple disrespects third party devs (apart from giving them good SDKs and APIs to work with)

I suspect this all goes back to the 1997 Apple Keynote at Boston, where Microsoft appeared and announced they would be supporting office for the Mac, to boos from the crowd. I think this is why Steve Jobs was initially opposed to the idea of third party apps on the original iPhone, and why the App Store seems inherently hostile to any sort of sustainable business model for app developers - because Apple values control (even more so than profits), and the humiliation they likely suffered at said keynote likely made them even more determined to never again be at the mercy of any third party app.

That's why they had no qualms about booting Fortnite off the App Store, and I suspect they will do the same thing to Facebook or Google if they tried similar shenanigans.

Good SDKs and APIs work to Apple's advantage because great apps help sell more hardware, but at the same time, it is also in Apple's best interests that apps be made available for as low a price as possible (nobody really wants to have to spend another $100 on an app after already blowing $1k on an iPhone).

But at the same time, while the iPhone and iPad would not be anywhere near as useful as they are without 3rd party apps, it was also Apple that created the market for third party apps as a viable business in the first place.

While emphasising that I mean absolutely zero disrespect to developers, let's see what advantages the App Store model brings. Through the iPhone, Apple has aggregated the best customers in the world, making it lucrative for developers to create iOS apps (though the low barriers to entry has made competition stiffer and commoditised apps, making it harder for the genuinely good ones to stand out from amongst the pack and run a sustainable business). The latest casualty seems to be the Apollo app developer, with Reddit possibly charging a fee for API access in the future, and an upfront cost structure simply not being all that sustainable in the long term.

iTunes makes it extremely safe and easy to purchase and download apps, which in turn leads to users buying way more apps than they otherwise would have under the conventional PC model where we had to navigate to individual websites and key in our payment details. Not forgetting that it's way harder to pirate apps on iOS (because of the difficulty of sideloading apps) compared to android or PCs.

In this regard, I don't feel it is unreasonable for Apple to charge developers a cut for their role in facilitating transactions between both parties. We can debate on what the "right" commission ought to be, but it's hard to argue that Apple doesn't deserve anything for their efforts here. It's the same for IAPs, where iTunes make it way more likely for users to purchase something directly within the app, rather than navigate to an external website or interface. Simply put, 70% of a larger sales figure still brings in more money than 100% of a smaller number of sales, and software is unique in that they typically don't have variable costs.

Allowing developers to leverage the App Store to access a larger user base, then directing users outside of the App Store in order to keep 100% of proceeds for themselves, I feel, is analogous to jumping over the turnstile at a train station in order to use their public transport for free. While Apple makes more than enough money to subsidise the App Store, I feel there is no justification for the App Store to be a loss leader, and it only works when everybody who can pay their share, does pay their share (bearing in mind that a lot of apps, especially free or ad-supported ones, don't actually generate any form of revenue for the App Store beyond that annual $100 developer fee).

One exception I would make are subscriptions. Currently, it's 30%, reduced to 15% cut subsequently. I feel that from the third year onwards, Apple could probably lower it to maybe a token 5% (to cover payment processing with a little extra). Apple got their cut for the initial transaction, but if the user sticks on beyond the first year, credit goes to the developer for delivering a great service, not Apple.

I do agree that there is always the risk of app updates not going through for whatever reason, and that is one area Apple really needs to improve on (perhaps by hiring more people to work for the App Store). But there really is little incentive for Apple to change when they hold all the power in this relationship (though they do seem to have been taking baby steps of late).

 

[contacos]

I sort of agree. I use both (iOS and Android) and there are a lot of features that should have been "copied" from Android many years ago but on the other hand, I absolutely cannot stand how 3rd party Apps on Android do not follow a unified design language for the most part. This already starts with basics such as the App logos, they can be all over the place (I know you can technically theme everything on Android but eh, in German you would say "kein bock"). I also cannot get used to the keyboard on android but that is more of a personal issue / habit from iOS

However, Apple also needs to invest a little more time / money into their own Apps. I feel like it has been years since there have actually been any changes to many of their built in apps like Calendar etc. it would already help if they'd break away those apps from the system itself and thus, not require a whole new iOS built just to update Safari, the Weather App or whatever