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Tim Cook’s Fortnite trial testimony was unexpectedly revealing

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

#211
post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Customers have that choice today. On the Android platform.

Which is partially why Apple makes it very hard to move to Android. No iMessage, Calendars, Contacts, iTunes Purchases, etc.

You can very easily link your iCal with Google Calendar, and likewise sync your contacts with your Google account. I know because I've done both.

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

#212
post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is why Apple holds back important APIs from their browser, years after they are available in other browsers: fast 3D graphics, offline storage and compute, push notifications, to name a few.

Good. The "browser is a mini-OS" metaphor has proven to be an absolutely terrible experience for both developers and end-users. Time to find another way.

Let the market decide? If it's so obviously terrible it will fail.

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

#213
post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Epic is free to sue who ever they whish. That means nothing. The argument was that 3rd party app stores would somehow affect apples appstore quality. That's false. If apple would allow installing apps from unknown sources and just give ugly warnings then, thus letting 3rd party appstores on ios, it would have no effect on qpple appstore content.

> The argument was that 3rd party app stores would somehow affect apples appstore quality. That's false. With Apple in control, the developer faces the choice to play by Apple's rules, or lose out on the money to be made in their walled garden. With Apple no longer in control, the user now faces the choice to play by the developer's rules, or lose out on the app. That said, I'm actually not a fan of the walled garden…

>With Apple in control, the developer faces the choice to play by Apple's rules, or lose out on the money to be made in their walled garden.

>With Apple no longer in control, the user now faces the choice to play by the developer's rules, or lose out on the app.

Android has proven this is not true. Google has the same policies as Apple and does allow alternative app stores. Turns out the world works in a common sense way and everything turned out fine.

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

#214
post #119
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hope multiple App Stores don’t become a thing on iOS. The reason I like iPhone is that I am assured that apps I download from App Store are not shit and curated by Apple. Apple has vested interest to keep apps made available to be clean and not going to compromise iPhone. Android play store, in comparison, is full of crap and free for all, basically buyer (or downloader) beware. Phone is used by too broad of user g…

I don't get this argument. How can an alternative app Store affect the quality of the Apple app Store ? The alternate app Store is not gonna come installed by default. No one is gonna mistake the alternative app Store for the apple one. Apple is gonna make sure of that. Apple can even put up loads of warnings and dark UI stuff when installing an alternate app Store to dissuade the "noob" users.

> "No one is gonna mistake the alternative app Store for the apple one"

You've never heard any stories like "I put FireFox/Chrome on my parent's desktop and next time I went back they were using IE and said they didn't notice"? Or same with apps installed from an App store between real and imitation?

> "Apple can even put up loads of warnings and dark UI stuff when installing an alternate app Store to dissuade the "noob" users."

Why would they need to do that if "no one" is gonna mistake them?

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

#215
post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The counter-argument runs like this: Third party developers want to get their apps onto the iPhone, because the platform has a lot of users, and there's a lot of money to be made. However, they will be forced to play by Apple's rules, which (according to the argument) is good for the customer, as the custodian of the platform has a vested interest in keeping them happy. Now, if 3rd party stores were allowed, Apple's…

Counter-argument to what? As Android shows, allowing 3rd party appstores has 0 effect on the main appstore offering.

Android's third-party app stores have been majorly gimped for a long time unless they were installed by the manufacturer. Further, they don't even have great reach even if they're installed as such, as evidenced by Epic wanting Fortnite back on the Play Store despite it being available on the Galaxy store.

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

#216

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…

I have seen this time after time, that when the question of Apple store comes up, a top-rated comment always makes a comparison with game consoles to argue it is all fair. I don't personally believe the comparison makes sense, but many on HN do. So I am going to ask, how is this different from PS/Xbox/etc? If the game consoles still 'own' the device after you have bought it, e.g. when PS disabled Linux installation f…

> So I am going to ask, how is this different from PS/Xbox/etc?

Game consoles are specific-purpose computing devices: they play video games with a secondary use of running other entertainment apps (netflix).

Phones are general purpose computing devices: they are use to do practically anything that a computer can do; check email, look up navigation, buy things online, check bank balance, create and edit photos/videos.

There is an entire universe of apps that don't make sense on an Xbox. Why would your bank create an Xbox app, or why would Adobe port over a version of Photoshop for the Xbox? They wouldn't. And that's the difference between the two.

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

#217
post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are other ways if you're honestly trying to be fair. eBay for instance could have made 10% of (price+shipping) exempt assuming 10% was the nominal fraction before abuses.

I never understood why eBay didn't resell shipping to their sellers. They could have gotten very favorable rates from the carriers with that kind of leverage.

You’re also not really lying commission on the shipping when you factor in the discounts they provide and what they charge the customer. There’s some cases where you get screwed a little but it’s not as bad as a lot of people think. I still make money on shipping if it’s beaver and goes out priority.

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

#218
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hope multiple App Stores don’t become a thing on iOS. The reason I like iPhone is that I am assured that apps I download from App Store are not shit and curated by Apple. Apple has vested interest to keep apps made available to be clean and not going to compromise iPhone. Android play store, in comparison, is full of crap and free for all, basically buyer (or downloader) beware. Phone is used by too broad of user g…

>I hope multiple App Stores don’t become a thing on iOS. I hope Apple will also force only 1 browser, 1 text editor, 1 video player, 1 search engine, 1 bank/payment system. I hate PayPal so everyone should use Apple Pay because I want so, please Apple force them all to use what I like! /sarcasm

I wish this was actually sarcasm for most people. I legitimately don't understand why this group of people believe this is a good thing.

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

#219
post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately, Apple has to maintain this rule because otherwise developers will implement workarounds to avoid charging in the App Store altogether. Remember when eBay charged a commission on the sale price but not shipping? Suddenly $50 items became $1 with $49 shipping -- so eBay had to charge the commission on the shipping too even though it didn't seem "fair". Same here -- every app would turn free, and charge t…

This is bull. Apple deserves a "rent", and not a "cut". They are providing infrastructure and services, and they deserve a minimum rent for these, which they already take. But Apple should not take cut on every purchases made through the app. It makes no sense. AWS does not take a "cut" on every Netflix subscription bought. They just charge for the storage and traffic. This is how App Store should function.

I find it telling that you use AWS as an example because they are different than the apple model, while ignoring all the companies using the exact same model as apple, including how Epic charges developers to host content on the Epic store.

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

#220
post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately, Apple has to maintain this rule because otherwise developers will implement workarounds to avoid charging in the App Store altogether. Remember when eBay charged a commission on the sale price but not shipping? Suddenly $50 items became $1 with $49 shipping -- so eBay had to charge the commission on the shipping too even though it didn't seem "fair". Same here -- every app would turn free, and charge t…

This is bull. Apple deserves a "rent", and not a "cut". They are providing infrastructure and services, and they deserve a minimum rent for these, which they already take. But Apple should not take cut on every purchases made through the app. It makes no sense. AWS does not take a "cut" on every Netflix subscription bought. They just charge for the storage and traffic. This is how App Store should function.

Bull. Without apple the iOS ecosystem wouldn't exist.
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