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layout: post
date: 2025-05-15
link: https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/05/10/benedict-evans-apple-developers-as-suppliers
title: Developers as Suppliers
cited: John Gruber (Daring Fireball)

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> I'm quite certain that everyone at Apple, right up to Tim Cook, would swear up and down that Apple _does_ value third-party developers and does _not_ treat them like they do suppliers.
>
> But ask iOS and Mac developers, small or large, whether they agree with Evans's succinct summary above. I don't know any who wouldn't agree that Evans's pithy take is largely, if not entirely, true. You'll have to ask them in private, though, because, like Apple's suppliers, they're afraid to speak in public about the App Store.