Apple doesn't allow me to buy anything on my iPhone, as I got my phone in New Zealand, have a British Revolut CC card and phone number, then was in the Netherlands for a while, and am now living in Ireland.
I had to switch the region to Netherlands to install the (free) RyanAir app (why?!) which was rather annoying since then it started offering Dutch suggestions for stuff (which I don't want).
I can't add my UK CC to my account though as it's not a Dutch one, so I switched to the UK region, and then it errors out with "your account is not valid for use in the UK store. You must switch to the Dutch store before purchasing". Why ...? I don't know.
I had a similar problem with the RyanAir app: I switched to Dutch store and then got "your account is not valid for use in the Dutch store. You must switch to the New Zealand store". I forgot how I fixed that.
The reason they have all these restrictions is presumably so I can't use a cheaper store to but stuff.
While this isn't the sort of "broken" that the article talks about, effectively, the iOS store is broken for me. That's always the problems with these kind of restrictions: they also block legitimate use for people who don't fall neatly in your expected audience. I had similar problems ordering a new charger for my ThinkPad in NZ, as I had to use a NZ-based CC to get it delivered to a NZ address :-/
I find this kind of bullshit a super annoying way to waste my time. I never had these kind of problems with the Android store, and as soon as there's an updated Android phone that's not larger than some TVs I've owned (iPhone SE is good size) I'm getting an Android phone again (not that I have a particular love for Android, it's just "less bad").
I can't add my UK CC to my account though as it's not a Dutch one, so I switched to the UK region, and then it errors out with "your account is not valid for use in the UK store. You must switch to the Dutch store before purchasing". Why ...? I don't know.
Because content licensed for a particular geographic region.
I mix regions, too. It's not rocket surgery. You just have multiple iTunes accounts, which are as easy to create as buying an iTunes card while you're in that country and loading it into a new account.
I have US, UK, French, and Japanese iTunes accounts, and have no problems making purchases from any of them because each has an independent country-specific payment source.
You can have up to five on a device. It's something Apple has supported from the beginning.
Nothing you said is easy; it's all a massive PITA and incredibly user-hostile. I do appreciate the advice, but I just want to do normal things without jumping through hoops. I don't even use iTunes; do I have an account? Don't know, and frankly don't care either (I've given up on it).
Here's how everything else works: I see a price for something, I decide I want it, I fill in my CC number, and I have it. No need to go to a physical store and juggle accounts and credit cards and whatnot.
Nothing you said is easy; it's all a massive PITA and incredibly user-hostile.
1: Scroll to bottom of iTunes screen. 2: Click the flag. 3: Choose new country. Doesn't sound that dramatic to me.
I don't even use iTunes; do I have an account?
If you don't have an Apple account, then what is it that you're complaining that you can't make a purchase from? iTunes and Apple accounts are the same thing.
I can't add my UK CC to my account
The account that you say you don't know you have? You're going to have to make up your mind when you rant.
> 1: Scroll to bottom of iTunes screen. 2: Click the flag. 3: Choose new country. Doesn't sound that dramatic to me.
Which doesn't fix anything since then it errors and says I need to use the Dutch store.
> If you don't have an Apple account, then what is it that you're complaining that you can't make a purchase from? iTunes and Apple accounts are the same thing.
I creates an Apple account; so that an iTunes account? iTunes is for buying music, no? I don't even have iTunes on my phone. You seem to think that it's normal that people know all this stuff like "Apple account is also your iTunes account", but that doesn't follow at all.
> The account that you say you don't know you have? You're going to have to make up your mind when you rant.
I can't add it if it's in the Dutch region, so I switch to UK region, add it, and then it says my account is only valid for the Dutch region when I actually try to make a purchase.
The purchase I wanted to make were Irish ordinance survey maps for hiking, which is not tied to the Netherlands at all, so you tell me...
I could be wrong, but I think that's more because of restrictions from the countries themselves than Apple. I don't think Apple would put unnecessary restrictions in if not for the legal requirements from various countries.
From what I’ve heard, much of that kind of awkward regional nonsense is left over from the origins of iTunes as a music store which required heavy amounts of country specific logic dealing with per region restrictions as a result of licensing deals.
It is not leftover, it applies to applications as well as music and videos. Apps can price themselves per region, or even not be available outside of set regions. There can be multiple reasons for this including third party content licensing or support reasons.
I’m unhappy because Apple has prevented me from using my phone how I want to. I recognised Spotify’s published complaints against Apple 2-3 years before they spoke out. I vowed to never use or buy Apple Music, Apple Watch, HomePod, and even a new iPhone because Apple were degrading my experience with Spotify compared to their own services. They deliberately created an unfair playing field on their platform in order to make more money.
This problem is the same. How can Spotify compete with Apple in a completely separate industry like Music when Apple takes a 15-30% cut? How can Netflix compete? Apple is using their position to expand into other areas of business.
This is bad for competition, and what is bad for competition is generally bad for people.
Sure, Apple has a great, safe experience with the store and in-app purchases, but that is no reason to prevent other flows. Why can I not decide for myself whether to use an App’s “alternative” payment system?
Apple doesn’t take a cut of a Spotify subscription. Spotify hasn’t allowed in app subscriptions for years.
Can I sideload music and integrate it with my Spotify library like I can with Apple Music? Can an artist get included in the Spotify library without giving them a 30% cut?
Apple is introducing cellular streaming in WatchOS 5 and music intents with Siri in iOS 13.
This problem is the same. How can Spotify compete with Apple in a completely separate industry like Music when Apple takes a 15-30% cut? How can Netflix compete?
Netflix also stopped allowing in app subscriptions recently.
I feel like you missed the point. The choices are: give Apple 30%, or do not even so much as hint to the users that they can subscribe on the website. Either option cripples the service compared to Apple’s service.
No, the parent poster said that Spotify and Netflix had to give Apple a cut. Not only do they not have to, they don’t anymore. The parent post stated something that was factually incorrect.
Seeing that Spotify still grew steadily after not allowing in app subscriptions. It doesn’t seem like their growth was harmed.
> I’m unhappy because Apple has prevented me from using my phone how I want to.
We’re you unaware of that before you bought your device? If you buy a vacuum cleaner and discovered it doesn’t toast bread, are you blaming the vacuum maker?
You know what you get when you buy Apple, there are hardly surprises.
Well yes, I was surprised. I purchased my iPhone ~5 years ago, before they really got started selling services, and information about this issue was not really broadcast back then as far as I can remember.
I used to be happy, but now, not so much due to the increasing trend of subscriptions. Yes I know developers have a living to make, but when you end up potentially paying $50 a year for an SSH client it no longer works for me. Why not charge a realistic one-time fee for an app and then I'll gladly pay.
Does this have anything to do with Apple and their walled garden though? To me it sounds more like a business opportunity to make a SSH client and sell it at a realistic one-time fee to people like you (and me by the way) who are sick of subscriptions. But can’t that be done within he current ecosystem?
One issue is that apps seem to require much more ongoing maintenance just to continue working on iOS. Most of the Windows software I bought 10 or even 20 years ago would probably still work on my current PC, but apps I bought only a few years ago are no longer working for me or have become unavailable on the app store because the developer stopped putting in continuous effort to keep up with iOS.
Imagine if they had a refund process like Android. I'd buy way more stuff. But because I can't try an app and make sure it's not fake or advertises it does x but really only does y I'm scrooge mcduck. I've bought way more apps on Android because of this.
There is a refund process[0]. I generally don’t play games on my phone or use non-essential apps so I haven’t used it often but it has always worked for me.
Great! Let the iOS App Store compete in the free market on its own merits. I suspect it will do quite well—it's installed on all phones by default, and consumers trust it (for good reason).
The App Store should not be the only way to get software on an iPhone, sans literally hacking the device.
But it does. There are other phone platforms I could buy. Flagship android hardware is quite nice, and similarly priced. And in the past Apple has outcompeted to death windows phone and WebOS and Palm OS and BlackBerry, all of which had more open app distribution models.
I want to Apple to be the benevolent dictator of what software is on my phone, And I am willing to pay higher up prices, and put up with missing features in order to protect their revenue stream in exchange for that.
> I want to Apple to be the benevolent dictator of what software is on my phone, And I am willing to pay higher up prices, and put up with missing features in order to protect their revenue stream in exchange for that.
You could still exercise that preference even if Apple opened its platform to (easy) side-loading or other app-stores: you'd just choose to use only Apple's route for software installation.
If the Apple App Store is only one of many ways to install apps on an iOS device, then there's no issue with Apple charging whatever fees it wants. The problem here is the anti-competitive nature, since all roads lead through that same App Store -- you have to choose another phone entirely to avoid the Apple tax.
> They are competing in the free market. Users are free to not use their software and there are many other choices.
Users are not free to use other software on Apple hardware.
The operative question is how we define the market. Is the operative market "all smartphones," or are iOS devices distinct enough to qualify as a market of their own?
The answer isn't clear to me, especially because there are a variety of soft barriers. Even if "all smartphones" is the relevant market, phones are expensive; it takes on the order of $1k to walk away from an iPhone X in favour of an equivalent Android device.
> You seem to be objecting to the manner in which they compete.
I absolutely am! There is such a thing as unfair competition. As I see it, Apple is using their existing dominance to create barriers to entry for new players.
I'm free to avoid Amazon too, but as increasing amounts of society move to Amazon as the de-facto web store for everything, how reasonable is it to fully boycott them? Sure it's possible, but it would be a substantial life commitment.
Both Samsung and Huawei build more phones than Apple does. There are more Android phones than iOS phones, so exactly who has market dominance? No one is forcing you to buy Apple products. I'll take a more secure and privacy focused platform.
Many of us are boycotting Amazon by accident, I don't think it's a substantial life commitment. What have you wanted to buy from Amazon that you can't find elsewhere?
Seriously. If not for Apple's ability to keep apps from fucking with device performance and battery life (too badly, anyway) and to make their OS and overall app ecosystem relatively secure & reliable, I might as well save money and buy Android. Then just not use my phone anywhere near as much, and be less happy when I do, I guess.
if the alternative is a malware-infested google play store where every second app phones home 900 times a day or whatever, i think i'll pass.
I'm making my iOS walled garden choice with open eyes.
I'm happy to sideload apps if they're worth it; so far the only one i found that I cared enough about to do this with was Blink, and i wound up buying it on the app store afterwards so the developers could get their cut.
I’m not objecting because I know the alternative of not using a walled garden (Windows and Android) and I have wasted too much of my life dealing with its issues. I’d pay 25% more if I had to because the time it has saved me and my family is priceless.
Your views don't change even after learning that most of your purchases that are to support developers are being skimmed by 30% ? (similar situation to Steam but at least their development tools are nearly bug free, and really help development)
The problem here is that they also charge 100 or $50 just to start developing on their platform...
> Your views don't change even after learning that most of your purchases that are to support developers are being skimmed by 30% ?
Why would that matter in the slightest? If I'm a developer and I figure I need to make $4 off every sale, I just price my app at $6. It will make apps cost more to the end-user, of course; the end-user can then decide whether they want to pay in cash to Apple (via app purchases) to develop iOS, or pay in lack of privacy to Google to develop Android.
What makes me angry about this sort of post is that _right now I have a choice_ -- if I want to pay with money instead of privacy, I choose Apple; if I want to pay with privacy instead of money, I choose Android. Articles like this are clearly meant to _take away my choice_, leaving "pay by privacy" the only option available to me.
So did you buy software from retail when they were taking 60%? Do you buy music when the artist only gets pennies? Do you use Spotify where the artist gets even less?
Do you realize that it costs thousands of dollars to develop for either the Playstation or Nintendo and you have to sign an NDA? Do you buy console games?
Because there are many on here who consider paying $100 for being able to distribute on the App Store outrageous. They don't realise that just putting in 1 hour of your development time to create something usually costs more than that.
The point is, you don't need to pay to develop an app, you only need to pay for submitting it into the app store. So perhaps I should have added a disclaimer to my statement and not just limit it to precisely what I expressed.
I did not intend to make a statement about the submission fee.
