Nobody asked Apple to provide check out, distribution and warehouse
They are doing it and forcing everybody to follow along with that because it's best for Apple
In the same way Facebook hosts your pictures because it's good for them
I'm sure companies like Twitter, Facebook, Microsoft, epic, Spotify, Google etc. etc. are perfectly capable of doing all of the above, Apple simply prohibits them from even writing in their apps "this is not the only way you could buy this app"
> They are doing it and forcing everybody to follow along with that because it's best for Apple
I’ll concede the point that Apple are looking after Apple. I’ll also concede the point that Apple don’t disclose enough about their restrictions to their customers. However, I still find their App Store and fees reasonably tolerable, as a customer. Apple’s approach falls in line with much of how I want my computing to work. They’re not perfect, but compared to Google and FB, they’re by far the more appealing supplier. Compared to Microsoft, I just find Apple’s stuff nicer to use.
PWAs are crippled on the iPhone and the fact that the only browser available is Safari is not encouraging for developers, so native it's the only option to have a good experience on iOS
Apple does want you to develop native apps, because to make native apps you have to buy Apple hardware, Apple developer licenses and Apple devices to test them
I’ve chosen not to develop (or learn how) iOS native apps. For now. Almost everything I want to do could be a web app and I’d take the cost of maintaining servers for shelf space, distribution and offline storage. I’d have to use email for notifications. Notifications are optional at point of consumption anyway so they can’t be relied upon, so this UX impairment is minor.
The PWA argument doesn’t work for me. Most of the features I might choose to use PWA abilities for can be implemented in other ways.
> I’ve chosen not to develop (or learn how) iOS native apps
I've chosen to skip writing mobile apps entirely, that doesn't mean that the company I work for can ignore their users on iOS hence they can't ignore Apple store policies
> Most of the features I might choose to use PWA abilities for can be implemented in other ways.
That's the problem
When the actor that controls 50% of the market doesn't fully implement some standard to drive adoption of their closed platform, development becomes more costly
And it reflects on both development time and price for the end user
Nobody asked Apple to provide check out, distribution and warehouse
They are doing it and forcing everybody to follow along with that because it's best for Apple
In the same way Facebook hosts your pictures because it's good for them
I'm sure companies like Twitter, Facebook, Microsoft, epic, Spotify, Google etc. etc. are perfectly capable of doing all of the above, Apple simply prohibits them from even writing in their apps "this is not the only way you could buy this app"