Apple very pointedly does _not_ offer total customer management. As an iOS developer, I don’t know who my customers are; I can’t contact them; I can’t offer them a refund, demo, or promo code; I can’t have any kind of relationship with them whatsoever. It’s infuriatingly archaic and useless. Whatever that system is, it certainly isn’t “total customer management”.
It's pretty clearly "Total customer control" not management.
Apple has pulled off a really nifty trick of convincing (cough abusively forcing... cough) companies to concede full control of the customer/business relationship to Apple.
From my point of view, you're not really selling anything on the Apple App store - you're giving Apple the right to resell your digital products.
In exchange they keep all analytics data. They keep full control of customer contact and communication. They dictate the terms of the sale, including place and payment method. They control everything.
Your customer is Apple, and they are just as abusive to their "vendors" (app developers) as Walmart is.
Calling it a "Marketplace" is a sham - The core definition of a "Marketplace" is
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arena of competitive or commercial dealings
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And the Apple store is no more a "marketplace" than Walmart.
> From my point of view, you're not really selling anything on the Apple App store - you're giving Apple the right to resell your digital products.
In my understanding that that’s the contractual relationship the developer and user enter into with Apple.
Personally I think this isn’t all bad considering it provides a uniform experience for the user, which lowers cognitive load for the user and might makes the user more willing to purchase. Once they know what app purchasing is like, they can confidently purchase more apps. And they know that no matter who develops an app, in the event of a dispute they will deal directly with Apple.
This is true. I should have used the term “billing management.” The opaqueness you mention I like to think of as a firewall between the developer and the user in terms of billing. I can truly say to the user: “I’m sorry, but I can’t help you with that.” Many times that’s bad, many times that’s good, and not because I don’t want to deal with users but because I like when users have uniform, familiar experiences that they understand. The clearly divided responsibilities (developer
provides software, Apple provides billing) helps maintain focus on product.
I suppose it’s customer management in the sense that they are not your customers, they are Apple’s customers. Apple is providing you access to sell your app to Apple’s customers through Apple’s store.
That sounds like a problem, but as a customer, I see that as a feature. I do not want to be mailbombed by everyone who has ever written an app I used for some time in the past.
And there are other features that I’d like as a customer that Apple will not let developers offer. More payment options, for example. Why not have the choice of multiple app stores and let the market sort them out? We’ll see the best ideas adopted by all.
The other side of the coin is the app can’t refund from their side, nor stop your subscription or fire you as a client either. They need to wait for you to do it, which can brew complicated situations.
