> Most Android users use the Google Play Store.
This as you must be aware, is because first class alternative stores are not possible on Android.
> Facebook does not run their own separate Android app store, even though they could
This as you must be aware, is because first class alternative stores are not possible on Android.
> Apple is a master of dark patterns and social engineering, and can easily convey the safety of the App Store without stooping to heavy-handedness that would trigger regulators.
This is made up and has no validity.
> I find your lack of faith in Apple to be most disturbing. It's easily imaginable for Apple to re-frame the entire game so that they are the ones who are encouraging third parties...
More fantasy. After years of public statements to the contrary this is not realistic.
> You are refusing to acknowledge that when someone is scammed, the scammer is the one who holds the greatest fault for doing so. By doing so, you are passing the buck up the the responsibility chain.
They may hold the greatest fault, but facilitating scammers and then blaming them is kinda silly.
Apple is taking responsibility for reducing scams. Let’s not stop them.
> Apple's App Store enforcement standards have been slipping compared to previous years.
A claim with zero evidence.
> Its clear that scammers are far less limited than back when Apple was more diligent at stopping malicious apps from being on their own platform.
A false conclusion. There can be simply more scams being attempted and so more slipping through. Indeed this would be expected in a growing market.
> And you seem to be the only one who believes that Apple cannot extend protections even to hypothetical Apple-powered third party app stores.
The only one along with everyone else who understands computer science.
> At the end of the day, they control the operating system. They would always have ultimate control.
Obviously not, for two reasons.
1. Nobody in history has ever produced a perfectly secure operating system.
2. No anti-trust regulator would allow Apple to block apps installed by other stores.
> Finally, the original statement you are responding to is talking about the possibility of third party app stores that are more secure than the Apple App Store. Given the App Store's huge size and apparently slipping safety standards, it's certainly possible for new entrants to provide competition and offer an even better curated and secure experience than the one Apple provides. By preventing Apple from allowing the creation of such third party app stores, you are in effect the one forcing Apple to reduce protections, making their customers vulnerable.
This is of course nonsense.
Stores won’t compete on security. They’ll compete for customers using all the usual mechanisms - buying exclusives, tying their stores to other services and products, heavy marketing, and discrediting their competitors.
Even if a store did exist that was less scammy than Apple’s, it simply wouldn’t have everything a customer wanted anyway.