This makes no difference, because I can’t remember the last time I installed an app other than for the occasional airline.

From 2008-12 it was genuinely exciting to see what new apps were being released every day. Mobile games from that era had cultural impact. I bought $2 apps without a thought.

But Apple incentivized monetization above all else and killed that excitement. Now you can’t find a tip calculator that doesn’t charge a monthly subscription. A popular flight tracker is $60/year (or a $300 purchase). A flash card app costs the same. Apple’s curated list of “essential utilities” includes a birthday countdown that costs $5/wk.

I know every app will cost me hundreds over the span of just a few years for marginal utility so I simply stopped buying them. And I wonder if Apple’s push for more ad revenue is a symptom of that trend.

The same thing is happening on the Android side.

If you've made a game, it doesn't matter how high quality it is, how many awards it has won, etc.

The only thing that matters is that it's live service, that it doesn't "have an end", that it can drive engagement and perpetual revenue.

Quite a few testimonies from game devs: according to them, Google representatives pretty much told them this.

See also: the requirements to constantly update your app/game even if it's a "finished product" that does not inherently require any updates.

Yeah, I miss those days, I would actively browse the "Top 50" of the different categories and find cool new stuff (especially games). I really miss that time period of when I got the 3GS and this stuff was all new and _actually good_. Since then, more and more cool apps and games have come out, but everything around those has become crappier and more exploitative, and far less pleasant to use :\

> that costs $5/wk

Allowing weekly subscriptions is so comically evil.

It only exists to trick people into overpaying since 99.99% of subscriptions are priced on a monthly basis, so hopefully you don't notice that it says "wk" instead of "mo".

I agree, and my experience is the same as yours. However…

> This makes no difference

It makes no difference to us personally, but it does make a large difference to other people, many of whom may be friends and/or family we support. And it is another step in the shit road Apple is walking on, which will continue to affect us.

> This makes no difference, because I can’t remember the last time I installed an app

consumer manipulation en masse does impact you even if YOU don't fall for it.

Subscriptions changed the psychology completely. Even when an app is objectively good, you're forced to evaluate it like a service contract

We are a dying breed.

A whole new generation has never known an App Store without ads.

To them this is the norm.

It’s because no one bothers with pay once apps anymore the only way to get customers is free app and tricking them into a subscription. Entire system raced the price people would pay for iOS software to 0

> This makes no difference

Every step in the wrong direction makes a difference, and IMO it makes sense to keep saying that it's wrong. Throwing your hands in the air and saying "oh well, we're fucked anyways" doesn't help either.

No one likes it that you can't distinguish an ad from an organic result. Regulation to make ads more visually distinct would be widely welcomed. It can be done, why the hopelessness?

I get where you're coming from and your examples are egregiously expensive, but do we really want to live in a world where software is valued at a $2 one-time payment? We shouldn't be engaging in a race to the bottom like that.