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

Tim Cook’s Fortnite trial testimony was unexpectedly revealing

theverge.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 851 posts

Re: Tim Cook’s Fortnite trial testimony was unexpectedly revealing

#31

Post by adflux »

wccrawford wrote: post #4

Other news on this has quotes from Tim Cook saying that they'd have to find a way to track purchases on IOS and bill developers so that Apple still gets their cut when using other payment processors. For me, this is way over the line. If they want to charge developers to be on their store, fine. I don't have a problem with that. And charging for using them as a payment processor makes sense. Charging for using Apple…

Charging people to make use of their IP is fair IMO. Its similar to paying taxes, even if you don't use the services the taxes are for. The user benefits from Apple maintaining their OS, so has to pay. A citizen paying taxes benefits from all the services the country offers, so he pays taxes.

Re: Tim Cook’s Fortnite trial testimony was unexpectedly revealing

#33

Post by aero-glide2 »

exporectomy wrote: post #10
aero-glide2 wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not give customers the choice to run other app stores? Imagine if all the software on your laptop must be downloaded from the windows store..

Sometimes less freedom is a good thing. It frees the customer's mind to let an organization they trust make the tedious product evaluations for you. We do it all the time with retail shopping where we enjoy the curated decisions of the shop's owner instead of a giant bazaar.

I own the hardware (the floor space of the store). Should I not be able to decide who sets up shop in my phone?

Re: Tim Cook’s Fortnite trial testimony was unexpectedly revealing

#34

Post by saurik »

hmate9 wrote: post #14
Nextgrid wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you explain that the majority of apps are contaminated by spyware like the Facebook SDK and dozens of other equivalents? (which for the record is in breach of the GDPR and Apple could be considered complicit if they allow this while at the same time requiring all apps to comply with local laws and has removed apps who break or could be used to break the law before) How do you explain scam apps that deliberatel…

I would match rather sign up for a subscription through the iOS ecosystem, where I can easily and realisably cancel that subscription through Apple themselves as opposed to entering my credit card info and figuring out how to cancel for each and every application differently.

FWIW, people usually like to support lots of payment options, particularly ones that already have the customer's payment details on file and that the customer likes using, so as long as you are OK with the realization that people who pay not through Apple are going to pay like 10-25% less (depending on any number of factors, as Apple is honestly offering non-0 value) than you (which I honestly doubt, but you need to remember that a key part of this isn't the functionality but the cost: a ton of the money you are paying is just going to Apple right now) I would be shocked if companies didn't throw in Apple's IAP as a (more expensive) option. Like: for my store (Cydia), I never required developers to use my payment options (as that would be a horrible and anit-competitive thing to do) but they did anyway because users liked them so much and they were easy for the developer and I actually solved problems they had (license transfer, some of the customer support, etc.).

Re: Tim Cook’s Fortnite trial testimony was unexpectedly revealing

#35

Post by celsoazevedo »

exporectomy wrote: post #10
aero-glide2 wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not give customers the choice to run other app stores? Imagine if all the software on your laptop must be downloaded from the windows store..

Sometimes less freedom is a good thing. It frees the customer's mind to let an organization they trust make the tedious product evaluations for you. We do it all the time with retail shopping where we enjoy the curated decisions of the shop's owner instead of a giant bazaar.

On the other hand, when Apple decides to block some app (eg: certain VPN apps in China) for reasons that aren't in your interest, you're screwed.

Being able to use a different app store (which may or may not be as "curated" as Apple's own store) or to simply download the app from the devs website and install it doesn't seem to be a problem for Android users. Or for Windows, Linux and even macOS (eg: is it that bad being able to install Steam?)

The thing is, most people will use the store that comes with the phone. I have F-Droid installed for some open source apps, but my parents have no idea of what that is. They use Google's Play Store, like most users... if Facebook wants them to use their apps, that's where their app needs to be.

Re: Tim Cook’s Fortnite trial testimony was unexpectedly revealing

#36

Post by pjc50 »

exporectomy wrote: post #10
aero-glide2 wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not give customers the choice to run other app stores? Imagine if all the software on your laptop must be downloaded from the windows store..

Sometimes less freedom is a good thing. It frees the customer's mind to let an organization they trust make the tedious product evaluations for you. We do it all the time with retail shopping where we enjoy the curated decisions of the shop's owner instead of a giant bazaar.

But we do allow more than one or two shops to exist.

Re: Tim Cook’s Fortnite trial testimony was unexpectedly revealing

#37

Post by cs2733 »

exporectomy wrote: post #10
aero-glide2 wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not give customers the choice to run other app stores? Imagine if all the software on your laptop must be downloaded from the windows store..

Sometimes less freedom is a good thing. It frees the customer's mind to let an organization they trust make the tedious product evaluations for you. We do it all the time with retail shopping where we enjoy the curated decisions of the shop's owner instead of a giant bazaar.

I'm with you on this... and then remember the many useful tools that are only available outside the app store.

BTW, Have you seen the app store catalog for macOS on apple silicon? Still very sparse.

Trusting one company to provide the whole stack is not necessarily practical, even for the average user.

Re: Tim Cook’s Fortnite trial testimony was unexpectedly revealing

#38

Post by foolmeonce »

emsy wrote: post #26
akg_67 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree that it disproportionately benefits Apple but alternative is free for all like Android and all responsibilities fall on end user (not possible when you have from very young users to very old users, both unsophisticated and sophisticated users).

I just don’t buy the argument that end customers will lose out. The Apple AppStore will still be the default and available. People that want alternatives can get them at their own peril (like responsible adults, can you imagine?). And what percentage of people actually use alt app stores on Android?

Further, the Play store is evidence against supporting the company store concept at all and not an explanation for why an exclusive one should be allowed if it doesn't immediately induce vomiting.

Re: Tim Cook’s Fortnite trial testimony was unexpectedly revealing

#39

Post by jrsj »

aero-glide2 wrote: post #3
Hamuko wrote: post #2

Tim Cook's line of argument seemed a bit weird to me. On one hand he's saying that he doesn't know if Apple's customers would be able to distinguish between Apple's good and holy curated store and Epic's filthy shitheap of porn and blackjack, but he's also saying that Apple's customers definitely want Apple's App Store as-is. > Lawyer says, “if people really value Apple’s curation and Apple’s App Store, even if there…

Why not give customers the choice to run other app stores? Imagine if all the software on your laptop must be downloaded from the windows store..

Because my grandma is clueless and I give her an iPhone so she doesn’t install malware like she managed to on her Android phone

Re: Tim Cook’s Fortnite trial testimony was unexpectedly revealing

#40

Post by tomp »

Hamuko wrote: post #2

Tim Cook's line of argument seemed a bit weird to me. On one hand he's saying that he doesn't know if Apple's customers would be able to distinguish between Apple's good and holy curated store and Epic's filthy shitheap of porn and blackjack, but he's also saying that Apple's customers definitely want Apple's App Store as-is. > Lawyer says, “if people really value Apple’s curation and Apple’s App Store, even if there…

You're making Tim Cook sound stupid and/or evil, but he does have a point.

> If customers really value real, safe drugs, even if there's multiple drug suppliers (some offering fake, unsafe drugs), people should still go to a pharmacy?

> It seems like a decision that they shouldn't have to make.

> Will people not be able to distinguish between safe drugs and fake unsafe drugs?

> They've never had to do it before.

Post reply on HN