That's why I don't want to even go into mobile development - pretty much the whole market is gated by two oligopolists who have random capricious policies and can - and do! - destroy thousands of hours of your work without even properly stating a reason and without any recourse. You work for years, you put your thought and love into something, you release it, people are happy to use it - and then some (probably severely underpaid and overworked) anonymous, or ever worse, a mindless misconfigured ML routine, pushes a button and poof! - it's all gone. That's an insane world to live in.
Google just deleted my nearly 10-year-old free and open-source Android app
431–440 of 607 posts
Re: Google just deleted my nearly 10-year-old free and open-source Android app
#432Earlier quoted context omitted.
Apple charges $100 a year which provides some money. Their 30% charge can’t possibly be mostly a tax in the way you’re saying. Don’t they lower their cut of iAPs to 15% after first year? Likely still making a profit on that. What additional things is Apple doing for the additional 15% to 30% at first for iAP subscriptions, or for normal purchases, or for one time iAPs? I’m not saying Apple is wrong to make as much pr…
Apple has made over $40 billion from the App Store since it launched, and paid out over $100 billion to developers. The $100/yr developer account fee is an anti-spam measure, not an actually significant revenue source. Apple and Google App Stores combined currently generate almost $100 billion in revenue per year . This is the biggest and best revenue source available on the planet for smaller developers. Easy end-us…
> Easy end-user side loading, and third party app stores is a direct attack on this ecosystem and will damage the livelihoods of developers who will have no way to fight against massive increases in piracy that will result.
Windows developers seemed to be doing pretty well, even without an app store...
Re: Google just deleted my nearly 10-year-old free and open-source Android app
#433The easiest way to identify a monopoly is to look at how badly a company can treat its customers and still get away with it. My company has a half dozen stories like this about Google in the last year alone. Know what Google is doing to its AdSense partners on a massive scale? They wait until your site has just under the earnings when they have to write you a check, then they terminate your AdSense account for “polic…
This also makes me feel even more strongly that the FTC should really clamp down on these very strict app stores. https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/documents/amicus_briefs/app... Both the App Store and Google Play stores I think are basically illegal monopolies. I should be able to install whatever app I want, without having to jailbreak my phone and deal with warranty nonsense from the manufacturer. Just like my comp…
The FTC Is pretty clear[0] on what constitutes anti-competitive behvior, and a monopoly alone is not anti-competitive. Quote from the linked page:
"Section 2 of the Sherman Act makes it unlawful for a company to "monopolize, or attempt to monopolize," trade or commerce. As that law has been interpreted, it is not illegal for a company to have a monopoly, to charge "high prices," or to try to achieve a monopoly position by what might be viewed by some as particularly aggressive methods."
So under their definition of anticompetitive monopoly behavior[1] (which is actually illegal). They call out that behavior with valid business justification (my own example: protecting their brand) is fine, even if it restricts competition.
Side note: today I learned a new word! "Duopoly" (a market controlled by two players). Monopoly law _does_ apply to duopolies[1].
* [0] https://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/competition-guidance/guide-a... * [1] https://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/competition-guidance/guide-a...
Re: Google just deleted my nearly 10-year-old free and open-source Android app
#434Earlier quoted context omitted.
>What you're saying is I don't want to wear a seatbelt when driving my car. As others have said there may be more apt analogies...sticking with the car theme, it may be closer to a market where you buy a Ford and then you can only fill your Ford up with Ford gas from a Ford gas station. That market doesn't exist for clear cut reasons, but if it did you can bet Ford and other car manufacturers would claim the same thi…
I worked in the computer printer industry a ways back. The printer companies tried to make this argument with respect to blocking generic ink cartridges from being used on their printers. They argued that they needed to limit to the manufactuerer's cartridges to guarantee a good user experience.
I've never had a good experience with printers, no matter the ink type.
Re: Google just deleted my nearly 10-year-old free and open-source Android app
#435I propose a new heuristic called "The HN PR Law" or something to that effect: no response from a company on a negative PR incident should be taken seriously after an article on said incident hits the front page of HN. Given Google's track record and the ranking of this post, they'll probably reinstate the app within a few hours, and I propose that we act as if they had not - only acting on issues after they have been…
I like Apple's approach. When some scammy dev ran to the press with a sob story, Apple would expose all the shady shit the dev was doing. Sorry, but 99% of these whiney stories are the developer's fault. Don't violate the terms of service, and don't be shady. It's not that hard.
Re: Google just deleted my nearly 10-year-old free and open-source Android app
#436The easiest way to identify a monopoly is to look at how badly a company can treat its customers and still get away with it. My company has a half dozen stories like this about Google in the last year alone. Know what Google is doing to its AdSense partners on a massive scale? They wait until your site has just under the earnings when they have to write you a check, then they terminate your AdSense account for “polic…
This also makes me feel even more strongly that the FTC should really clamp down on these very strict app stores. https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/documents/amicus_briefs/app... Both the App Store and Google Play stores I think are basically illegal monopolies. I should be able to install whatever app I want, without having to jailbreak my phone and deal with warranty nonsense from the manufacturer. Just like my comp…
> I should be able to install whatever app I want, without having to jailbreak my phone and deal with warranty nonsense from the manufacturer. Just like my computer, which I can also install whatever software I want on it.
I'm not familiar with Apple, but where do you see this problem in Android? "Allow installation of apps from unknown sources" is a one-button toggle in Settings, after which you can download an apk from anywhere you want and install it without issues.
Re: Google just deleted my nearly 10-year-old free and open-source Android app
#437Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah, that's what I got out of it too. As soon as I hit "FDA approved" I had to pause and consider that maybe Google isn't the bad guy here.
"FDA Approved" isn't a boogeyman term. It means the supplement was in fact reviewed/approved by the FDA, whereas dubious substances come with statements that their claims have not been FDA approved. Why the aversion to "FDA Approved"?
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Re: Google just deleted my nearly 10-year-old free and open-source Android app
#438Earlier quoted context omitted.
This also makes me feel even more strongly that the FTC should really clamp down on these very strict app stores. https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/documents/amicus_briefs/app... Both the App Store and Google Play stores I think are basically illegal monopolies. I should be able to install whatever app I want, without having to jailbreak my phone and deal with warranty nonsense from the manufacturer. Just like my comp…
> I should be able to install whatever app I want, without having to jailbreak my phone and deal with warranty nonsense from the manufacturer. Just like my computer, which I can also install whatever software I want on it. I'm not familiar with Apple, but where do you see this problem in Android? "Allow installation of apps from unknown sources" is a one-button toggle in Settings, after which you can download an apk…
This is correct you do not need to jailbreak an android to install 3rd party APKs.
Re: Google just deleted my nearly 10-year-old free and open-source Android app
#439The easiest way to identify a monopoly is to look at how badly a company can treat its customers and still get away with it. My company has a half dozen stories like this about Google in the last year alone. Know what Google is doing to its AdSense partners on a massive scale? They wait until your site has just under the earnings when they have to write you a check, then they terminate your AdSense account for “polic…
This adsense behavior isn't even new- they did this to me in 2005! My website had a trickle of ads, just enough to pay for my college books each year. When I went to cash out Google decided it was click fraud and stole my money, with absolutely no recourse. They're an awful company with horrible customer support. It's frustrating too, because my startup has investors who keep trying to get us to switch to GCP, but I…
Same experience for me around 2004/5. Low traffic site, when it was enough to cash out they shut down the account.
Re: Google just deleted my nearly 10-year-old free and open-source Android app
#440Earlier quoted context omitted.
It’s well established that regulations increase transaction costs and stifle innovation. Take FDA regulations for example. The cost of developing a drug for sale in the USA in orders of magnitude higher due to these regulations. In safety critical systems, we pay this cost because the alternative is that people die. However, even still, the regulatory system itself may also be responsible for many deaths, due to viab…
I think we have a different idea of what these hypothetical regulations would do. I see it as regulations forcing Google and Apple, as platform owners, to not abuse their enormous power over developers on their platforms. Much like common-carrier regulations. I don't see how that sort of regulation would massively increase costs to Google and Apple (who are profiting massively off their platforms anyway!) I also don'…
This is always the disconnect between what should be in the regulations and what ends up being in them every time.
All of them start with a legitimate problem and then we get policy that have a wider scope or details even dumber than what the companies are doing (see GDPR fining a small Austrian retail store $4k because they had a single surveillance camera too broadly pointed at a sidewalk). Often pushed for by competition and often only designed for big mega companies like Google not the small ones who would normally replace Google in the future with something better.
Most importantly unlike the companies and their policies which change and die, the regulations live long after the original problem has either faded in importance or every new better company comes around and are forced to jump through hoops because of Google's behaviour (assuming they even try).