On 8/14/20 9:46 AM, Sean Cole (Pi) via use-livecode wrote:
It's all a pointless debate. Apple can do what it likes with THEIR
*platform*! if YOU_choose_ not to agree with their policies for use on
THEIR platform, YOU can_choose_ to go elsewhere.
We can't all choose.
Remember Mylan, the drug company that bought EpiPen, an emergency device that saved lives? It
used to cost about $90 and after obtaining the patent the new company increased the price to
$600 per unit. People who required it to save their life could no longer afford it. It was not
available elsewhere. This was not illegal but it was highly unethical, and in this case,
dangerous. (Mylan was charged with racketeering.)
Apple controls the only outlet for iOS apps. Some of us have no choice in which mobile platform
we develop for, our clients demand that we build for both.
I built a mobile app that reads NFC tags for use in hospital equipment tracking and the Android
app has been in use for almost 2 years. But Apple's rules prohibited us from releasing it for
iOS because they did not allow apps to read the UUID of NFC tags (you could read the data
partition but not the manufacturer's ID.) Hospitals could potentially have tens of thousands of
tags with no data, just the manufacturer's IDs. I contacted Apple dev support and they advanced
my inquiry up a couple of levels to a tech who seemed to sympathize but said we'd be out of
compliance and would be immediately rejected. My client reluctantly purchased used Android
phones for our test hospital because virtually all employees had iPhones. The client also did
surveys of hospitals in the US and found that almost all employees used iPhones. Hospitals were
very interested in the product but were demanding iOS apps for their workers. We couldn't
accomodate them.
I like to think my discussion with Apple dev support had an impact because some months later
the restriction was lifted.
There is often no choice to be made. Sometimes iOS users don't even know what they're missing.
My Android runs several network analyzer apps that give me comprehensive info across a wide
spectrum of network features. IOS has nothing like it; last time I looked, Apple doesn't allow
apps to access more than just the most superficial wifi information.
--
Jacqueline Landman Gay | jac...@hyperactivesw.com
HyperActive Software | http://www.hyperactivesw.com
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