interesting article about Apple business practices

[jack_norton]

https://www.iflowreader.com/Closing.aspx

We bet everything on Apple and iOS and then Apple killed us by changing the rules in the middle of the game.

Why I am not surprised anymore to read such things? I'm glad there will never be a Ren'Py for Apple iOS.

[Taleweaver]

Sometimes I wish back to the good old days when people practising business that way were just tied to the next tree by the neck.

[Snowflower]

Oh wow, that's terrible!

Honestly, Apple is like a big business tycoon who has some MAJOR power. Years and years ago, Apple wasn't that big.

[Auro-Cyanide]

I always knew they were sneaky. And I have a mac now too, I still don't trust them. But I don't trust any of those companies. Or the government. Or people in general...

[Voight-Kampff]

I'm glad there will never be a Ren'Py for Apple iOS.

I'm not. I would still dearly love to see Ren'Py for iOS. After all, I do believe that Apple has relaxed their stance on third party "helper" programs in such a way that it would make the concept feasible again.

More than most people, I consider Apple to be an inherently fickle and draconian company. But despite that, I recognize that they manage to do a lot of things right (as evidenced by their recent ousting of Google for the most valued brand in the world). I think it would be ill-advised to pin all of one's hopes on making JUST an iOS game. As you point out, Apple can give a project the heave-ho after it's already completed. But I think it would be equally ill-advised to never even consider tapping into the $153 billion dollar juggernaut that is Apple.

[jack_norton]

Heh, yet none of my games (some even in top30-40 in their category like Books/Adventure Games) made any decent money on iPad/iPhone...

[Voight-Kampff]

Heh, yet none of my games (some even in top30-40 in their category like Books/Adventure Games) made any decent money on iPad/iPhone...

Never said that a person couldn't make money without Apple. I'm just saying it'd be nice to have the option.

[Riviera]

I have to agree. The only portable system I can play a decent amount of VNs on IS my iTouch. I have a PSP and a DS, but the vast majority of their VNs are in japanese, and I'm not far enough along in my studies to be able to read the majority of the kanji in them.

So for VNs it's either that or my computer. I'd get some of the Lemma VNs on my iTouch, but I've already bought the ones that are actually available on it for the computer. I do have Ripples, though, because I hadn't had a chance to play it on PC before I saw the iTouch version.

I've been considering springing for Flower Shop, just because I think it's like the web version, like a VN?

Eh, regardless... yes, Apple has gotten really bad. I've never liked how restrictive they are with their products... you have to do it their way or jailbreak their stuff. It's that simple. From the minute I got my first iPod I hated that I didn't have any real ability to add songs unless I synced it or opened up disk mode. Now I don't even have disk mode on my iTouch, they took that away. I've heard they used to be very hard on people who wanted to make iOS games as well, putting tons of restrictions on them almost like Nintendo used to way back in the day. It's nice that that at least is relaxing.

[jack_norton]

Well I know, you talk from the consumer perspective, while I was talking from the developer one sorry

[Elenakiara]

Hehe, Apple has really gone all dictator-ish with their power. xD From a marketing and business perspective, that's what a business wants to try and achieve... because the brand equity and control mechanisms mean that a business can make a lot of money. From a human and buyer perspective, since they have all the power, I feel really uncomfortable with that. :/

In my university, more and more people get Macs, iPads and whatnot, mostly because it's seen as 'cool' and 'easy'. For my computers, I always bought HP's, Acer's and just other ordinary ones. I had an ipad once that my dad won at a conference, but I had to sell it since it just didn't connect with me. I hated being tied down to the itunes on one of my computers and having to buy stuff through them... I counted and figured that it would cost me way too much to maintain.

When my cellphone contract will finally expire, as much as my dad wants me to get an ipod smartphone for the next contract (just so I can be a 'cool' daughter ^^;...), I'm going to get something with android, since it's much less restrictive. Fight the power! xDD

[Riviera]

Well I know, you talk from the consumer perspective, while I was talking from the developer one sorry

True, true. Although the fact that both sides have a lot of negative things to say is not really a good thing.

EDIT: So as not to add a spam post just for this:

[PyTom]

I think an iOS port of Ren'Py would be possible from a technical perspective - the Android port takes us most of the way there, and I think I could modify Python to the point where the rest becomes possible. (The big problems would be creating a statically-linked python, but I suspect I could solve them.) The i-devices are a bit underpowered when compared to their android equivalents, but I'm not sure how much that would matter, since they're largely single-tasking.

What prevents me from spending the time is that I really don't like the idea of requiring third party approval to run a program on a computer they own. If Alice makes a program, and Bob wants to buy it, and Alice and Bob can agree on a price (including free), then I don't think a third person - call him Steve - should be able to prevent that transaction from taking place.

In a medium where many classic works could be arguably considered controversial, I think this is important.

I don't mind app stores, as long as there's a way around them. I'd have no moral qualms about doing the work required to get Ren'Py running in the Mac App Store, Steam, or whatever. At the same time, I'm in no rush to deal with approval processes and so on - and I think it's kind of evil that I'd have to give Apple a hundred bucks just to see what I have to do to get into the mac app store. (I can't help but think Apple is trying to profit off potential developers - they're turning very evil.) So this sort of thing isn't really a priority for me.

[cantstraferight]

I've not got any esperiance with iOS.

Is it apple that hadles the money transactions for these ebooks? Also are they stored on an apple server?

If the answer to both of these is yes, I can understand why apple would want a cut of the money.

[PyTom]

Is it apple that hadles the money transactions for these ebooks? Also are they stored on an apple server?

If the answer to both of these is yes, I can understand why apple would want a cut of the money.

Yes, and when that's the case, I don't begrudge them a share. The problem is that (unlike the open platforms, like Windows, Mac, Linux, and Android), the developer has no choice in the matter. On PC, I can (at least theoretically) choose between selling on Steam and selling to you directly and keeping more control and money. On iOS, I don't have that choice.

[Voight-Kampff]

The problem is that (unlike the open platforms, like Windows, Mac, Linux, and Android), the developer has no choice in the matter. On PC, I can (at least theoretically) choose between selling on Steam and selling to you directly and keeping more control and money. On iOS, I don't have that choice.

That's not entirely true. There is the Cydia App store for jailbroken iOS devices. Plus, developing for jailbroken devices does grant one access to private APIs that Apple would otherwise jealously hide away.
Granted, one would be dealing with just a fraction of the iOS user base with Cydia. But, the point is that there is a choice.