Comment by bitpush
8 months ago
> The reason I believe the web experience is inferior is because companies put more resources into apps at the expense of the web.
The main reason is just a single company - Apple. They have been hell bent on nerfing Safari so that they can continue their rent seeking behavior on App Store.
If Spotify has a functional mobile website, they cant take 30% cut from their app. The way Apple does is 2 fold. 1) deliberating not investing $$ into Safari 2) claiming that you'll get malware from internet.
Both are hypocritical.
Yes that’s why there are so many great PWAs on Android and companies don’t make apps for Android and instead tell their users to use the web app…
And Spotify hasn’t had in app purchasing of subscriptions on iOS for over a decade. Apple has never once said you would get malware by using Safari.
Spotify was an example, but since you were harping on it. Why is it that on desktop everyone uses spotify.com to listen to music, purchase subscription but when it comes to iPhone, we have to install an app from the App Store.
Who do you think is stopping from that happening?
> Why is it that on desktop everyone uses spotify.com to listen to music
But … I don’t?
I download and install Spotify.app on my computer (at least my gf does on hers, I use Apple Music). Maybe I am the weird one? No I am not, I skimmed the Spotify subreddit and most use the app on PC/Mac: It has keyboard shortcuts, people find it nicer being its own program instead some browser tab, it is more lightweight, it provides offline play and crossfading and has (freemium and paid) higher bitrate than web. It is you who are missing out.
Well seeing that you could play music in the background from Safari since 2007, Spotify is the one forcing you to use an app
Apple makes no money from the Spotify app being on the iPhone and hadn’t for over a decade.
2 replies →
Google play store is no better
In this discussion, both can be bad faith actors.
It's not a defensive argument about "but he did it too"!
That's not how you get to a better solution to the problem at hand.
On iOS there is no effective way to install sideloaded apps, therefore this rent seeking behavior is even more hostile to the user.