"We have 150,000 APIs to create and maintain"
Really? API calls maybe, and a lot of them are barely documented in my experience.
Judge in Fortnite case holds Tim Cook's feet to the fire
141–150 of 375 posts
Re: Judge in Fortnite case holds Tim Cook's feet to the fire
#142Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't see this as an accurate comparison. You can already rent a space right next to Walmart and open your own store if you like. Yes, I may have to pay a landlord, but again, there's competition among owners of land that keeps rents at a market rate. You can think of the space within an ecosystem as virtual land. Apple has a monopoly on this virtual space. They can charge whatever they like, there is no competitio…
> I don't see this as an accurate comparison. You can already rent a space right next to Walmart and open your own store if you like. Opening a store in iOS is not "next to" it's "inside of". > The argument of choose another phone is different, because it requires spending a large amount of money for the right to entry. To many people this is cost prohibitive. This makes no sense, first because Androids tend to be ch…
The level of specificity in debates around these subjects is kind of moot. The trajectory of growth of these companies and their impact on our everyday lives make it obvious they will be regulated to ensure fair competition. Whether it happens today, or 10 years from now... it will almost certainly happen, I'm very confident in that.
I don't plan to hash out the legal language of a proposed law in a HN comment, but "platforms" will probably be defined in some way and be required to allow competition. An app store is nothing other than a market that can either be competitive or not, depending on how it's regulated.
It was considered sensible to implement anti-trust laws to protect consumers in the broader markets, I have no doubt that when a privately created market reaches sufficient market share and impact, they will be subject to anti-trust laws as well.
As a thought experiment, imagine 99% of the population uses iOS... now the private market of an app store becomes the de-facto public market by virtue of adoption. The same can be said for social media, where a single app can control 90% of discussion (depending on country and medium of discussion). There is no world in which these things will not be regulated as "public spaces" once they reach sufficient scale.
The question is just when does the scale become sufficiently large, and when do the rules cross the line into anti-competitive behavior. They are close but maybe not quite far enough to get regulated yet.
Re: Judge in Fortnite case holds Tim Cook's feet to the fire
#143The best result for customers is that there are alternate ways of putting apps on their own phones that do not require apple's permission. Then the customers that trust apple to protect them will just stay with the app store. The customers that try the alternate ways may find problems, but they will also find enormous positive changes in their ability to do new things on their phone. Personally, I would like the abil…
I'd like to use these unbelievably powerful portable computers like general purpose computers. Develop applications right on device! My dream.
That does not sound desirable at all for anything other than basic toys..
Re: Judge in Fortnite case holds Tim Cook's feet to the fire
#144Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's more like, if you buy a Ford car, does Taco Bell owe 30% to Ford when you use their drive through? Or can Ford forbid Taco Bell from operating drive through stores of their own, and require Ford owners to go through Ford's own all purpose drive through stores?
Should Taco Bell be legally required to let MacDonalds set up stall rent-free in their stores?
This is a false analogy.
People who purchased a phone, own that phone. Apple doesn't own it anymore.
Thats the difference. McDonald's own the store. But they don't own your car.
And similarly, Apple does not own your phone, but they go to great efforts to prevent you from using other app stores.
Re: Judge in Fortnite case holds Tim Cook's feet to the fire
#145Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm confused, don't we allow this level of control with video game consoles? (Heck Sony and Microsoft also take 30% cuts) What's the difference other than form factor?
In practice, the difference is that consoles tend to be sold at loss, they wouldn't exist if it wasn't for the 30% cut. And in my experience, another big difference was that when I had consoles, I could easily borrow my friend's games, or buy cheaper games used. I don't know how it works with digital goods on modern consoles, but Steam actually has a feature to lend your library to a friend, so there's precedent.
If customers don't buy consoles unless sold at a loss, they value them less than making them costs. Which means they shouldn't be made.
Re: Judge in Fortnite case holds Tim Cook's feet to the fire
#146Earlier quoted context omitted.
Most phone users aren’t interested in developing software on their phone. They aren’t interested in developing a better systemd. They have no idea what malware actually is. All that is going to happen if Epic gets their own store is Epic will be collecting the 30% rather than Apple, and the user will get apps that are poorly designed, chew battery, and don’t conform to the UX standards that Apple has set (eg: accessi…
> Keep your grubby mitts off the Apple ecosystem. But it is actually you who want to control how other people use their own phone, that they own. If you don't like Epic's store, just don't use it. Problem solved. That way, people who want to trust apple get what they want, as well as people who want to trust other app stores. Everyone wins, right? Why do you care so much about how other people use their own phone?
> If you don't like Epic's store, just don't use it. Problem solved.
That only holds up until something you need is exclusive to a store that you don't want to use.
Re: Judge in Fortnite case holds Tim Cook's feet to the fire
#147Earlier quoted context omitted.
Most phone users aren’t interested in developing software on their phone. They aren’t interested in developing a better systemd. They have no idea what malware actually is. All that is going to happen if Epic gets their own store is Epic will be collecting the 30% rather than Apple, and the user will get apps that are poorly designed, chew battery, and don’t conform to the UX standards that Apple has set (eg: accessi…
The point is opening it up so users have a choice. Third party stores will emerge, and it is up to the consumer, not Apple, to decide whether the extra features are worth the new apps being a little rough around the edges like they are on Android. If it's as bad as you say, the new stores will not be successful anyway.
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Re: Judge in Fortnite case holds Tim Cook's feet to the fire
#148Earlier quoted context omitted.
The kind of ecosystem/business model that Apple has created is so fundamentally different from everything else that real world analogies just don't work. We should avoid using them in this debate.
It's more like, if you buy a Ford car, does Taco Bell owe 30% to Ford when you use their drive through? Or can Ford forbid Taco Bell from operating drive through stores of their own, and require Ford owners to go through Ford's own all purpose drive through stores?
When we have self-driving cars, can Ford, Tesla, etc., require businesses to pay them a stipend to allow our cars to drive to those stores?
"No, you can't drive to Walmart; Walmart isn't in the destination store. You may drive to Target."
Re: Judge in Fortnite case holds Tim Cook's feet to the fire
#149Earlier quoted context omitted.
Most phone users aren’t interested in developing software on their phone. They aren’t interested in developing a better systemd. They have no idea what malware actually is. All that is going to happen if Epic gets their own store is Epic will be collecting the 30% rather than Apple, and the user will get apps that are poorly designed, chew battery, and don’t conform to the UX standards that Apple has set (eg: accessi…
The point is opening it up so users have a choice. Third party stores will emerge, and it is up to the consumer, not Apple, to decide whether the extra features are worth the new apps being a little rough around the edges like they are on Android. If it's as bad as you say, the new stores will not be successful anyway.
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Re: Judge in Fortnite case holds Tim Cook's feet to the fire
#150Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why do users care about this choice? What are some top experiences available to Android which aren't available to iOS customers? In fact, isn't it often the other way around? iOS gets things and Android doesn't? Or are users seeing awful prices for the app store? Where are Customers complaining the most?
Well I can imagine if 3rd party stores were allowed, I could have a Steam client on an iPad for example, and share my library of games without paying for it a second time for iOS.
But there’s no Steam on Android either even though they do support third party app stores.