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The App Store is a monopoly: Here's why the EU is correct to investigate Apple

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Re: The App Store is a monopoly: Here's why the EU is correct to investigate Apple

#481

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rest assured that despite the somehow surprisingly recent blind support for Apple here, there are people too that want to own our devices. I can just hope that the EU is successful in stopping all of Apple's trickeries ranging from 2.5mm headset jacks, ports, OS slow downs, mysterious battery underperformance, app store, the list just goes on.

> headset jacks You want the EU to regulate whether a company wants to put a headphone jack in their devices? > OS slow downs iOS has gotten faster over time [1]. > mysterious battery underperformance It's common knowledge that this was an honest engineering mistake because as a phone ages, the battery cannot support the max voltage of the processor. Apple now lets you enable full performance with the understanding t…

> You want the EU to regulate whether a company wants to put a headphone jack in their devices?

> So you've suggested 4 things, 3 of which don't apply and 1 of which (headphone jacks) would be gross governmental overreach.

There is precedence for the EU mandating Apple change their hardware practices:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidphelan/2020/02/11/apple-ch...

> So you've suggested 4 things, 3 of which don't apply and 1 of which (headphone jacks) would be gross governmental overreach.

Here's a 5th one:

https://www.macrumors.com/2020/05/29/tile-writes-to-eu-accus...

Re: The App Store is a monopoly: Here's why the EU is correct to investigate Apple

#482

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course it does. Apple makes a huge amount of money from native apps. Apple also prevents web apps from competing with those native apps by restricting the capabilities in its browser and by not allowing anyone else to offer an alternative browser with more functionality.

So there should be a large amount of successful web apps on Android?

Sounds like it's more likely to happen on Android

https://9to5google.com/2020/07/13/google-and-microsoft-pwa/

...than on iOS

https://www.cnet.com/news/google-web-app-plans-collide-with-...

Re: The App Store is a monopoly: Here's why the EU is correct to investigate Apple

#483

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do the first two syllables in “monopoly” mean?

Mono means "one", poly means many, as in: one supplier (Apple) for many customers (iPhone users).

What a ridiculous divide-and-conquer definition of “monopoly.”

Apple is one supplier out of many in the mobile device space. “iPhone users” do not constitute an industry any more than “Windows Store users.”

By your logic I could just divide every service and every industry over and over, until everything happens to be a monopoly over some small uniform subset of users.

HN is a monopoly over HN users! Nike is a monopoly over people in the Nike store! Whole Foods is a monopoly over people visiting grocery stores at this Whole Foods address! Government, please control and regulate all of these out of existence!

Re: The App Store is a monopoly: Here's why the EU is correct to investigate Apple

#484

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And you trust the current politicians who were more concerned about Big Tech being unfair to conservatives than they were about antitrust. Did anything productive come out of the dog and pony shoe?

It is honestly frightening that HN wants to give the government more power over tech after what we've seen from Australia and forced backdoors.

It is honestly frightening that HN wants to give Apple more power over tech after what we've seen from their treatment of HEY, the butterfly keyboard, and the Magic Mouse 2 port.

Re: The App Store is a monopoly: Here's why the EU is correct to investigate Apple

#485

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The MacDonalds its not yours, while your iPhone is. There's a big difference between the two, and the key difference here is ... Property. But i like your example because its shows the mindset that the iPhone you bought, is in the end the property of Apple, not really yours, and that you are "fine with it".

You can do already do whatever you want with your phone from the point you receive it in the condition Apple sell it to you. But you cannot require that Apple do work to build support for third-party app stores. Property rights do not extend to forcing other people to do labour for you. If your phone doesn't come with support for third-party stores when you buy it then I don't see how it would be your right to have t…

> But you cannot require that Apple do work to build support for third-party app stores. Property rights do not extend to forcing other people to do labour for you.

You and I can't, at least not directly. But governments certainly can, if they deem it in the interest of the citizens they serve.

Re: The App Store is a monopoly: Here's why the EU is correct to investigate Apple

#486

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And guess what? I don’t have to use Comcast. Pretending everyone has that choice not to.

They definitely don’t have to buy Netflix through Comcast.

I'm legitimately curious what your solution is to sign up for Netflix if you can't use your ISP (Comcast, likely a monopoly with no alternatives).

I can't imagine calling up Netflix and attempting to sign up via telephone is feasible, nor is explaining to the average consumer the price is different because they're on wifi instead of data (and only their wifi, or select locations that use Comcast).

Re: The App Store is a monopoly: Here's why the EU is correct to investigate Apple

#487

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is honestly frightening that HN wants to give the government more power over tech after what we've seen from Australia and forced backdoors.

It is honestly frightening that HN wants to give Apple more power over tech after what we've seen from their treatment of HEY, the butterfly keyboard, and the Magic Mouse 2 port.

God forbid a company makes products they want?

How is the Magic Mouse 2 hurting you in any way?

Re: The App Store is a monopoly: Here's why the EU is correct to investigate Apple

#488

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is honestly frightening that HN wants to give Apple more power over tech after what we've seen from their treatment of HEY, the butterfly keyboard, and the Magic Mouse 2 port.

God forbid a company makes products they want? How is the Magic Mouse 2 hurting you in any way?

https://www.creativebloq.com/news/worst-apple-design-ever

Re: The App Store is a monopoly: Here's why the EU is correct to investigate Apple

#489

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> headset jacks You want the EU to regulate whether a company wants to put a headphone jack in their devices? > OS slow downs iOS has gotten faster over time [1]. > mysterious battery underperformance It's common knowledge that this was an honest engineering mistake because as a phone ages, the battery cannot support the max voltage of the processor. Apple now lets you enable full performance with the understanding t…

> You want the EU to regulate whether a company wants to put a headphone jack in their devices? > So you've suggested 4 things, 3 of which don't apply and 1 of which (headphone jacks) would be gross governmental overreach. There is precedence for the EU mandating Apple change their hardware practices: https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidphelan/2020/02/11/apple-ch... > So you've suggested 4 things, 3 of which don't appl…

In your first source: letting the EU regulate the charging cable would have been provably dumb and absurd. Lightning was years ahead of Micro-USB when it was released and served as inspiration for USB-C. Just another example of how government overregulation would harm innovation and industries.

The second source is Tile complaining about the privacy warnings in iOS 13. It’s laughable. Customers are turning off abusive always-on surveillance thanks to iOS 13 notifications and this is hurting Tile. Working as intended.

Re: The App Store is a monopoly: Here's why the EU is correct to investigate Apple

#490

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course it does. Apple makes a huge amount of money from native apps. Apple also prevents web apps from competing with those native apps by restricting the capabilities in its browser and by not allowing anyone else to offer an alternative browser with more functionality.

So there should be a large amount of successful web apps on Android?

There are many successful web apps, period.

Just not on iOS, if they need the "wrong" functionality.

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