I don't know why anyone reads Ben Evans - he's a sycophant for big tech who seems to lack the ability to objectively reason about monopoly power.
i read him, he's great! take it back ;)
App stores, trust and anti-trust
41–50 of 94 posts
Re: App stores, trust and anti-trust
#42I am trying to understand why is this business model from apple not acceptable, from my point of view the way apple makes money on the apple store is with the 30% fees on transations. In exchange they give out tools, libraries and services for free. Do i get that wrong? with that in mind isnt the request of Epic something like: "We want access to all your platform and tools for free?"
If I have an ebook store and want to give iOS users a nice experience when buying books Apple will make the books more expensive with 30% and on top of that if I want to give my users information that they have the option to buy cheaper from my website I can't , Apple is preventing their users to get informed/educated on how to get cheaper stuff because this information costs Apple money. Btw you can have apps that d…
> If I have an ebook store and want to give iOS users a nice experience when buying books Apple will make the books more expensive with 30% and on top of that if I want to give my users information that they have the option to buy cheaper from my website I can't , Apple is preventing their users to get informed/educated on how to get cheaper stuff because this information costs Apple money.
Well i go back to my argument of isnt that like saying: "i like to use your ebook platform to sell my stuff, but i dont want to pay for it"
the fact that you switched from software to ebook does not change the fact that you want to choose to be able to sell without giving a commission to apple for the store they did set up
Re: App stores, trust and anti-trust
#43Earlier quoted context omitted.
Conversely, that's probably why a lot of software engineers do read him, because he reaffirms their beliefs that big tech is in the right.
i don't think the rank and file working for "big tech" are emotionally invested in whether their employer can stay a monopoly or not - if anything lack of competition among large employers means its easier to collude with each other to suppress compensation
Well, since a large part of the compensation is RSU’s why wouldn’t an employer of big tech want the monopoly to grow?
On the other hand if the company behind Candy Crush were complaining about not making enough on coins, no one would be taking their side.
Re: App stores, trust and anti-trust
#44Earlier quoted context omitted.
> This article is just repeating the same Apple messaging points they've given us. Unrelated, but this is just about my least favorite criticism of an argument. "Messaging points" are used/reused because they're usually the strongest arguments. By pointing this out, you're just saying "this person is just repeating the strongest arguments". Attack the argument, not its provenance!
I don't know, it would be great if any of these people had bothered talking to a lawyer or an anti-trust scholar, a provenance that would matter a lot to understanding this issue. For example, almost everyone here will learn more reading "Amazon’s Antitrust Paradox" ( https://www.yalelawjournal.org/note/amazons-antitrust-parado... ) to understand why Epic set things up the particular, exact way they did - because the…
> I don't know, it would be great if any of these people had bothered talking to a lawyer or an anti-trust scholar, a provenance that would matter a lot to understanding this issue.
By this logic, the vast majority on this forum have no business talking about this issue.
Re: App stores, trust and anti-trust
#45According to this article, billions of desktop operating systems users would not be able to handle their computers without destroying them with malware.
Which one are you more likely to do, install a random app on your phone from an untrusted author or your computer?
Re: App stores, trust and anti-trust
#46According to this article, billions of desktop operating systems users would not be able to handle their computers without destroying them with malware.
Which one are you more likely to do, install a random app on your phone from an untrusted author or your computer?
Recalling the days of Bonzi Buddy, I don't think the average consumer is more or less likely to do it on either platform.
Re: App stores, trust and anti-trust
#47This article is just repeating the same Apple messaging points they've given us. First off, the article's biggest point, the security sandbox, is not the issue at all with the App Store. The entire internet runs inside of a sandbox. Developers understand they must play fair on a device that is shared with other developers. I don't think I've seen anyone complain of this anywhere. However, what Apple has employed its…
> This article is just repeating the same Apple messaging points they've given us. Unrelated, but this is just about my least favorite criticism of an argument. "Messaging points" are used/reused because they're usually the strongest arguments. By pointing this out, you're just saying "this person is just repeating the strongest arguments". Attack the argument, not its provenance!
> Attack the argument, not its provenance!
Eh, it seems you didn't read past GP's first sentence.
Re: App stores, trust and anti-trust
#48Earlier quoted context omitted.
Which one are you more likely to do, install a random app on your phone from an untrusted author or your computer?
Recalling the days of Bonzi Buddy, I don't think the average consumer is more or less likely to do it on either platform.
Isn’t that the point? Bonzi Buddy could do a lot less damage on an iPhone than a computer and when you delete it, you can be sure that it didn’t leave anything behind.
And it’s not just BonziBuddy.
Even Zoom left a backdoor on Macs after you uninstalled it.
Re: App stores, trust and anti-trust
#49Why don't disgruntled app developers just pull their apps from the app stores? Everyone is using custom launchers on Android these days anyway, lets show big tec how much customers want to use custom launchers.
RIP your app on iOS if you remove it from the app store. There is very little an iPhone user can do if their phone isn't rooted.
How about: one developer puts a "launcher app" in the App store, and all the other developers use that to launch their apps?
Re: App stores, trust and anti-trust
#50Earlier quoted context omitted.
RIP your app on iOS if you remove it from the app store. There is very little an iPhone user can do if their phone isn't rooted.
How about: one developer puts a "launcher app" in the App store, and all the other developers use that to launch their apps?
That’s also against the rules.