Apple owes Apple a lot more if you click a link and subscribe through the web or YouTube, but you don’t have a native app
Major companies are also out. Both YouTube and Netflix decided to not allow their iPad applications to run on it, so that’s why they don’t have a native app. You can use their websites through Apple’s browser, but if you want to play 4K footage, you have to use a different browser. Unless you want to watch Star Wars while sitting in a desert, you might not miss the apps on the Vision Pro.
The Vision Pro app story in recent weeks has been a subdued one. He writes there is a low developer enthusiasm due to factors such as the 30 percent cut in the App Store and the fact that the company may only have made 80,000 units of the product at launch. The price of entry for Vision Pro might be too high for some independent developers who do not want to spend a lot of money, as evidenced by a post written by Paul Haddad.
You’d think the recent end to the Apple / Epic dispute would have made things better since Apple was required to allow developers to link out to other places users can pay for apps. But Apple changed its terms to say that, actually, even if someone clicks the link and subscribes through the web, developers still owe Apple a commission. It is 27 percent instead of 30 so it will not change anyone’s mind. The message was clear: if you sell a product through the App Store, Apple will get its cut one way or another.
Do We Really Need a Mobile Web App? Why Does Apple Care about Browser Extensions? What Do Mobile Platforms Really Mean? The Case of Safari
If you believe the open web is a good thing, and that developers should spend more time on their web apps and less on their native ones, this is a big win for the future of the internet. (Disclosure: I believe all these things.) After nearly two decades of mobile platforms systematically downgrading their browsing experience, the problem is occurring. You can make homescreen bookmarks which are only a way to access some web apps, but other features on your phone like offline modes, cross-app collaboration, and other built-in features don’t apply to those web apps. After all this time, you still can’t easily run browser extensions on mobile Safari or mobile Chrome. Apple also makes it maddeningly complicated just to stay logged in to the services you use on the web across different apps. It shows that mobile platforms treat browsers the same way they treat app platforms.
There are a number of reasons for hope including: Apple added multiple profiles, external webcams support for the iPad, and some other native features to Safari, which at least shows the company is aware that there is a native version of the browser. It was for a long time that it felt like Apple would simply ditch the browser if it were given the choice. But the company appears to be still invested in making Safari work. (All the Safari-focused antitrust pressure is probably helping move things along, too.)