Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Modi government to set up app store alternative to Google Play, Apple App Store

deccanherald.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

161–170 of 369 posts

Re: Modi government to set up app store alternative to Google Play, Apple App Store

#161

Post by IshKebab »

fwn wrote: post #148
IshKebab wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

PWAs are not as good as real apps though.

I use them wherever I can because they allow me to block ads, analytics and other unpleasant elements like nudges, etc. But I'm far from an expert. What would be the benefit of a non-pw app?

* You can use all the device APIs, not just the ones that have been exposed as web APIs.

* They're way faster and less janky.

* You don't to use endless workarounds to disable typical web behaviour when you don't want it.

PWAs are probably suitable for basic apps that just display information, e.g. an app for an event, or a pub or whatever. You would be insane to try and make a "real" app like Snapchat or Google Maps as a PWA though.

Re: Modi government to set up app store alternative to Google Play, Apple App Store

#162

Post by surendrajat »

PaulHoule wrote: post #157
raghavtoshniwal wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah alternate app stores exist but when something like this is driven from a nation stare, the Indian govt will most likely mandate inclusion of their AppStore on Android and iOS. Once it is loaded on by default, you suddenly gain 800 million strong distribution channel. It would be a no-brainer for devs to put their app on the strore. The same case could not have been made for Amazon's and Samsung's store.

Won't Apple just refuse to sell iPhones in India?

No. It won't.

Re: Modi government to set up app store alternative to Google Play, Apple App Store

#163

Post by rishav_sharan »

Far too many optimistic voices here and that scares me. I don't see this app store being about providing alternatives. that's just a talking point.

This app store is all about forcing every android sold in India to have a system installed govt driven app, which will report back to the govt on tons of private information about the device and owner. Information that Indian govt will be too incompetent to keep safe and given its authoritarian nature, should never have access to.

This is an authoritarian nightmare abut to happen. Modi wants India to move in the direction that China chose. And this scares me a lot.

Re: Modi government to set up app store alternative to Google Play, Apple App Store

#164

Post by akritrime »

whimsicalism wrote: post #132
akritrime wrote: post #98

I am not sure how I feel about the government being directly involved in creating the app store. On one hand, I believe the government should take measures to nurture the local startups and app, to give them a fair chance at growing. On the other hand, I don't think an app store created and managed by the government will have the right incentive to be competitive against foreign players and may just end up spiraling…

> may just end up spiraling into a hot bureaucratic mess Many publicly traded corporations are not that much different. I am confident that an app-store is not that hard of a task relative to the revenue Google et al are extracting from mit. If the govt can run a postal service competitively, then I don't see why what is basically a glorified file hosting service + reviews would be impossible. If anything, I think we…

If you want to register a company in India, its a convoluted maze of red tapes. While there have been a lot of improvements, the experience still leaves a lot to be desired (anecdotally). And while the govt postal service is exemplary, its hardly the norm. Yeah it is a glorified hosting service with reviews and I am not worried about the technical capability of the government, I am worried that the 'babu' culture of India will make this simple thing needlessly complicated.

Re: Modi government to set up app store alternative to Google Play, Apple App Store

#165

Post by keanebean86 »

PaulHoule wrote: post #157
raghavtoshniwal wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah alternate app stores exist but when something like this is driven from a nation stare, the Indian govt will most likely mandate inclusion of their AppStore on Android and iOS. Once it is loaded on by default, you suddenly gain 800 million strong distribution channel. It would be a no-brainer for devs to put their app on the strore. The same case could not have been made for Amazon's and Samsung's store.

Won't Apple just refuse to sell iPhones in India?

That would result in a somewhat strange situation considering Apple is trying to move at least some iPhone manufacturing to India.

https://9to5mac.com/2020/08/17/indian-iphone-production-begi...

Re: Modi government to set up app store alternative to Google Play, Apple App Store

#166

Post by colejohnson66 »

wtmt wrote: post #143

This is going to be a big mess. PayTM as a company isn’t known for respecting user privacy. The CEO’s brother was caught in a sting video saying they could sell any user’s information for a price (search online and you’ll find the video). All that these Indian startups care is for them to benefit and control everything. It’s not about equitable treatment. It’s more about regulatory capture and making sure that their…

> This is going to be a big mess. PayTM as a company isn’t known for respecting user privacy.

Controversial opinion here, but this is part of the reason I like that Apple makes (practically) all purchases run through them. They don’t sell my information, and they have an incentive to not change that.

Re: Modi government to set up app store alternative to Google Play, Apple App Store

#167

Post by colejohnson66 »

paxys wrote: post #107
bhaavan wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would argue that an App Store, on mobile has helped avoid virus, and malware on phones, unlike how Windows was able to contain it. Having a trusted App Store by a company, who understands security, and has a financial backing to commit to a secure system, is beneficial all the way down.

The credit for that mostly goes to the sandboxed nature of the OS itself rather than app store review.

Genuine question: I don’t see how Apple could keep the sandbox system and allow any app to be installed?

Re: Modi government to set up app store alternative to Google Play, Apple App Store

#168

Post by m-p-3 »

simonh wrote: post #154
raghavtoshniwal wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It would be messy for sure but there is somewhat precedence for it. WeChat operates its own AppStores and is subservient to the CCP. 'Running' your own AppStore is forbidden in the iOS terms of service but when you have the might of a billion people, some rules are okay to be broken.

WeChat mini-programs don't actually run as native code on the phone though. They're much more like web apps running on the WeChat back end, with WecChat acting as a browser to access them. Roblox does a similar thing, with interactive games from third parties running on the Roblox servers in the virtual environment. A third party app store where you install native code apps on the phone, directly accessing phone OS s…

The same thing could be said of game streaming apps like Stadia (all the game code is running remotely) but are forbidden in the App Store. It's hard to take Apple seriously when they do shit like this.

Re: Modi government to set up app store alternative to Google Play, Apple App Store

#169

Post by tomcat27 »

rishav_sharan wrote: post #163

Far too many optimistic voices here and that scares me. I don't see this app store being about providing alternatives. that's just a talking point. This app store is all about forcing every android sold in India to have a system installed govt driven app, which will report back to the govt on tons of private information about the device and owner. Information that Indian govt will be too incompetent to keep safe and…

authoritarianism is when a ex judicial company has so strong influence over regulations and those adjudicated arbitrarily and in-transparent and the effected party couldn't do a damn thing about it..

while it's not the best solution, there is merit to it.

one of the role of governance could be to help setup an environment for healthy competition. Well it took decades of work at NASA before one private player like space x created momentum outside government.

Re: Modi government to set up app store alternative to Google Play, Apple App Store

#170

Post by hairband »

raghavtoshniwal wrote: post #144
actuator wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am just puzzled about one bit of this, why the hue and cry few days back about this. Don't Android App stores like the Amazon one already exist? What's stopping these devs to even distribute the apps themselves? iOS is a different matter but Android has always allowed this. Not sure if they exist in India, but I have seen Android phones come with non Google App Store as well.

Yeah alternate app stores exist but when something like this is driven from a nation stare, the Indian govt will most likely mandate inclusion of their AppStore on Android and iOS. Once it is loaded on by default, you suddenly gain 800 million strong distribution channel. It would be a no-brainer for devs to put their app on the strore. The same case could not have been made for Amazon's and Samsung's store.

> Yeah alternate app stores exist but when something like this is driven from a nation stare, the Indian govt will most likely mandate inclusion of their AppStore on Android and iOS. Once it is loaded on by default, you suddenly gain 800 million strong distribution channel. It would be a no-brainer for devs to put their app on the strore.

What is the problem with this? If the device manufacturers don't want to preload the Indian Appstore then they can prevent sale of their devices in India. If they agree, and this is limited to India only, then what is the problem?

Post reply on HN