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Apple’s App Store fees are ‘highway robbery’ – House antitrust committee chair

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Re: Apple’s App Store fees are ‘highway robbery’ – House antitrust committee chair

#21
I don't think the pressure on Apple is going to let up. Smart phones are no longer a tech toy and have become a literal part of government and commercial infrastructure. Apple's arbitrary power over the platform is pissing off and embarrassing governments in the COVID era.

During COVID, governments around the world have been making major decisions based on mobility data from Apple and Google which shows trends of where people are visiting and what mode of transit they are using. The real-time mobility data from Apple and Google is far better than anything the government has itself. This is a big wake-up call to the governments that they have been basically supplanted by private companies. I'm sure no president or prime minister likes having to give a press conference where they have to say "According to Apple, we see good compliance with government regulations...."

Yesterday, the UK announced it was abandoning its own COVID contract tracing app and moving to the Apple model because they couldn't figure out how to make iPhones wake up via bluetooth (because that's a private API only available to Apple). A major western government is facing huge public embarrassment in a public health crisis over what comes down to not having permission from Apple to use a specific API in an app. That's the kind of thing that pisses off politicians, regardless of whether or not you think the UK followed the best technical path.

Combine all that with Apple now forcing companies to adopt their sign-in systems and payment methods in order to reach what is now part of the public infrastructure and Apple has created a situation where they've managed to piss off everyone across the political spectrum, from the hard-core free market people to the leftist public good people.

Re: Apple’s App Store fees are ‘highway robbery’ – House antitrust committee chair

#22
post #18
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So are we establishing that if you want to create a paid email service with a custom app without wanting to pay 30% of your revenue to Apple, you need to create a competing mobile ecosystem that can rival that of Apple's ($260 billion yearly revenue) and Google's ($162 billion yearly revenue)? How is this beneficial for innovation and for consumers?

What's beneficial for consumers is the fact that the Apple ecosystem exists at all. People pay because it's a good experience. Everyone is welcome to create good end-user experiences with open technologies like PWA, and distribute however they wish. It's strange to me to say on the one hand "we could not survive without the iOS customer pool, we need to make a native app because it's the greatest experience, but we d…

>Everyone is welcome to create good end-user experiences with open technologies like PWA

Everyone who isn't targetting Apple devices that is.

I'd also like to take this opportunity to remind everyone that it is not possible to publish an application on the Apple App Store without paying. Period end.

I also don't see why there's an expectation that Hey has to pay Apple for providing the app. They are trying to bring out an app to allow their customers on Apple devices to be able to use their service. It's not like they're just putting their app there for marketing because the App Store is absolutely horrible at any kind of marketing.

This is a bit like expecting Netflix to pay Comcast, AT&T and every other ISP for the priviledge of using their networks. Netflix's customers are already paying those companies just like how Hey's customers are paying for their Apple devices.

Re: Apple’s App Store fees are ‘highway robbery’ – House antitrust committee chair

#23
post #10

Apple may be robbers, but they're not trolling a public highway, they're demanding fees if you want to drive on the highway that they built. Build a better ecosystem around better devices, better software, better marketing, and better services, and you can also charge whatever you want, or make it free. That is competition. Wanting to drive on someone else's walled highway (which leads directly to eyeballs and open w…

Sure that method works up until a certain point, but with the size of apple now it becomes anticompetitive.

I mean, 30% app subscription fees, & not being allowed to tell your customer on your app that they'll get a cheaper deal from your website?

Perfect example of a greedy and morally questionable company

Re: Apple’s App Store fees are ‘highway robbery’ – House antitrust committee chair

#24
post #3

As much as I agree with the stance against I hate the coverage and the press this is getting with people evangelicizing the CEO. He's regularly referenced on this site by his initials (which even as a regular reader of tech news I had to look up) which comes across as cult of personality at best and astroturfing at worse.

>He's regularly referenced on this site by his initials

Yeah, it's his Twitter handle. Do you think people are evangelizing rms just because he refers to himself as that and that people are following his example?

Re: Apple’s App Store fees are ‘highway robbery’ – House antitrust committee chair

#25

Apple wants to own iPhone consumers so that anyone who wants access to that demographic must pay the toll and follow their rules. It's far too much power for one corporation. Nice to see authorities are starting to take the matter seriously.

Don't count your chickens... Politicians love to grill CEOs in front of cameras and then do nothing about the issuea they find so they can grill them all again next year.

Re: Apple’s App Store fees are ‘highway robbery’ – House antitrust committee chair

#26

I don't think the pressure on Apple is going to let up. Smart phones are no longer a tech toy and have become a literal part of government and commercial infrastructure. Apple's arbitrary power over the platform is pissing off and embarrassing governments in the COVID era. During COVID, governments around the world have been making major decisions based on mobility data from Apple and Google which shows trends of whe…

I don't agree that Apple should bend over backwards. IMO contact tracing opens up a new can of worms and is a doorway to more draconian measures that will erode privacy for private citizens.

Re: Apple’s App Store fees are ‘highway robbery’ – House antitrust committee chair

#27
post #10

Apple may be robbers, but they're not trolling a public highway, they're demanding fees if you want to drive on the highway that they built. Build a better ecosystem around better devices, better software, better marketing, and better services, and you can also charge whatever you want, or make it free. That is competition. Wanting to drive on someone else's walled highway (which leads directly to eyeballs and open w…

To continue with the bad highway comparison, apple don't own the phone, the phone owner does. Apple don't own and run the infrastructure behind the 3rd party apps, their developer does.

So, back to the highway, you pay a 30% cut to drive on the highway they don't own for them to run a car dealership without allowing anybody else to run one and reviewing cars offered in the dealership with an arbitrary process.

Taking 30% off buying an app, why not. It's insanely expensive but that's their dealership.

Taking 30% off subscriptions makes absolutly no sense.

I'm really happy that someone start to look into it and if they are not happy with it they can always do what they told many other business to do "change their business model"

Re: Apple’s App Store fees are ‘highway robbery’ – House antitrust committee chair

#28
post #15
post #9

If you could choose between a fee decrease to 15% or the ability to sideload apps bypassing the store, which is more important? To me, the only reason I avoid iOS is specifically because I cannot install my own apps without using the store.

I don't really see how Apple would be able to justify the 30% cut if sideloading was possible.

Hmm, like Google does ? Even that isn't a panacea, see Epic giving up on distributing Fortnite by itself.

Re: Apple’s App Store fees are ‘highway robbery’ – House antitrust committee chair

#29
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

#mafiatax

This is a ridiculous meme. If you enjoy the mafia's services, don't be surprised if they ask you to pay. But it's your choice to go to them (ask to be put on their platform and sell to their customers). You can make your own internet corner shop, set up payments and distribution, ignore the Apple platform, and never worry about their #mafiatax.

That choice isn't a real choice though, as it's the consumers' choice to buy an iPhone not the businesses. Businesses only have a real choice about who their customers are when there is free access to the market. The issue here is precisely that you cannot set up your own internet corner shop and ignore Apple, as that means you have no access to consumers who use Apple. Internet distribution channels are inherently open and borderless, until companies like Apple artificially restrict the market.

Re: Apple’s App Store fees are ‘highway robbery’ – House antitrust committee chair

#30
post #22
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's beneficial for consumers is the fact that the Apple ecosystem exists at all. People pay because it's a good experience. Everyone is welcome to create good end-user experiences with open technologies like PWA, and distribute however they wish. It's strange to me to say on the one hand "we could not survive without the iOS customer pool, we need to make a native app because it's the greatest experience, but we d…

> Everyone is welcome to create good end-user experiences with open technologies like PWA Everyone who isn't targetting Apple devices that is. I'd also like to take this opportunity to remind everyone that it is not possible to publish an application on the Apple App Store without paying. Period end. I also don't see why there's an expectation that Hey has to pay Apple for providing the app. They are trying to bring…

> I'd also like to take this opportunity to remind everyone that it is not possible to publish an application on the Apple App Store without paying. Period end.

I'd also like to take this opportunity to remind everyone that the same is true for games on the Xbox, PlayStation and nearly every mainstream games console for the past thirty years. Pretty much every games console software title included a healthy cut for Nintendo, Sega, Microsoft, or Sony. And if you didn't have the explicit blessing of these companies, you couldn't publish your games at all. Period end.

Where was your outrage then?

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