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Apple admits it ranked its Files app ahead of competitor Dropbox

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Re: Apple admits it ranked its Files app ahead of competitor Dropbox

#21

Post by webmobdev »

GeekyBear wrote: post #16
crazygringo wrote: post #2

These are exactly the kinds of issues antitrust legislation needs to be updated to handle. I have no issue with a company running a store and selling its own products within, but it has to provide a level playing field. It's good they fixed it -- that the VP in question didn't know it had been done and then nixed it -- but this shouldn't even be legal in the first place.

>selling its own products The Files app is bundled with the OS, but not installed by default. It's not exactly "sold" as it's free and isn't ad supported either. It's hard to find a profit motive here. Google, on the other hand, has long allowed you to bid on your competitor's product name so you will show up ahead of them in the search results. They also have a history of scraping other people's content and then mor…

> It's hard to find a profit motive here.

Promoting the use of iCloud - when your space runs out, you will consider paying for it.

Re: Apple admits it ranked its Files app ahead of competitor Dropbox

#22

Post by GeekyBear »

webmobdev wrote: post #5

Developers of ios (and soon macOS) platform have no one to blame but themselves for situations like this. Alarm bells should have been raised among us developers when Apple suddenly asked everyone to shell out $99 for the "privilege" of making an app available on the "App Store", and treated it as something normal. And later, more so, when Apple demanded a percentage cut too on every sale you make from your app. It i…

> Alarm bells should have been raised among us developers when Apple suddenly asked everyone to shell out $99 for the "privilege" of making an app available on the "App Store", and treated it as something normal.

Somebody has absolutely no idea how high developer fees on proprietary platforms used to be.

>Double Fine's Tim Schaefer pegged the cost of submitting an Xbox 360 patch at $40,000 in an interview with Hookshot Inc. earlier this year

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2012/07/microsoft-comes-under...

Re: Apple admits it ranked its Files app ahead of competitor Dropbox

#23

Post by webmobdev »

mensetmanusman wrote: post #6
webmobdev wrote: post #5

Developers of ios (and soon macOS) platform have no one to blame but themselves for situations like this. Alarm bells should have been raised among us developers when Apple suddenly asked everyone to shell out $99 for the "privilege" of making an app available on the "App Store", and treated it as something normal. And later, more so, when Apple demanded a percentage cut too on every sale you make from your app. It i…

Who do you think could organize a guild of the app developers?

  - To begin with existing open source foundations and activists. The Free Software Foundation easily comes to mind.

  - In a democracy, political parties - they already are behind most unions and merchant / business associations and even major non-profits.
(Approaching a political party may be controversial for some, but remember that political parties are also an institution in a democracy. And we will need political will and legislative backing to assert some of our rights. And it doesn't matter if there are more than one such organisations - there is no one size fits all solution for everyone).

Re: Apple admits it ranked its Files app ahead of competitor Dropbox

#24

Post by GeekyBear »

webmobdev wrote: post #21
GeekyBear wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>selling its own products The Files app is bundled with the OS, but not installed by default. It's not exactly "sold" as it's free and isn't ad supported either. It's hard to find a profit motive here. Google, on the other hand, has long allowed you to bid on your competitor's product name so you will show up ahead of them in the search results. They also have a history of scraping other people's content and then mor…

> It's hard to find a profit motive here. Promoting the use of iCloud - when your space runs out, you will consider paying for it.

>Promoting the use of iCloud

The Files app transfers files back and forth between SMB shares, local flash drives, and any of the major cloud services.

iCloud is not required at all.

Try again.

Re: Apple admits it ranked its Files app ahead of competitor Dropbox

#25

Post by codesternews »

webmobdev wrote: post #20
donmcronald wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Alarm bells should have been raised among us developers when Apple asked everyone to shell out $99 for the "privilege" of making an app available on the "App Store". And later, more so, when Apple demanded a percentage cut too on every sale you make from your app. I'm 100% against the way the app store works right now, but I don't have a problem with the idea of those two things if they were implemented in a better…

Yes, artificial monopoly is the major issue here. With respect to the "$99" annual fee, the issue is that it isn't a good deal at all when a developer wants to offer the software for free - most open source developers don't even collect any donation, and it is doubtful if many of them can even raise $99 every year. This is where regulation is definitely needed - big tech should not be able to force us to pay and use…

Even they show now popup and permission on mac. It made lots of app and developers living miserable. They are showing popups for permission every where.

Thats why there is no income now for indie developers in appstore

Re: Apple admits it ranked its Files app ahead of competitor Dropbox

#26

Post by codesternews »

webmobdev wrote: post #5

Developers of ios (and soon macOS) platform have no one to blame but themselves for situations like this. Alarm bells should have been raised among us developers when Apple suddenly asked everyone to shell out $99 for the "privilege" of making an app available on the "App Store", and treated it as something normal. And later, more so, when Apple demanded a percentage cut too on every sale you make from your app. It i…

Lots of people raised voices but you need to understand they are small and no one wants to fight app while making leaving

Re: Apple admits it ranked its Files app ahead of competitor Dropbox

#27

Post by ksec »

gruez wrote: post #19
passivate wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We need to re-evaluate what "rights" mean in a digital age. Apple should not have a monopoly on digital stores on iOS. "Apple made it so they can do anything they want. Take it or leave it" - is not an acceptable position (in my opinion). >By that logic costco has no competitors whatsoever that sell kirkland signature products. Can you explain how you came to that conclusion and what 'that logic' is?

>Can you explain how you came to that conclusion and what 'that logic' is? Because the parent poster was applying arbitrary restriction on it (apps, but only ios) to make a point. I replied with the equivalent example for costco (grocery store products, but only kirkland signature).

Because you have both Costco AND Walmart Stores selling their own brand within the same state which allows heavy Store competition within the State along with dozen of others Stores?

The iOS state has 65% of users and 75% of App spending and it has one Store.

You can perfectly have your own retail brand when there are plenty of competition within the market. If you argue there is still another state with diverse choices, you are either hit with a Duopoly argument, or a monopolistic power argument where iOS have too much power within market economy.

People have been using these over simplify analogy with Xbox and Retail and there are not even the same.

Either way, there should be no denying there is something wrong with the way things are currently being handled.

Re: Apple admits it ranked its Files app ahead of competitor Dropbox

#28

Post by codesternews »

Apple has made life of small developers hard. Mac software and app industry has died. Even after notarising apps they show malicious popup to users.

Same practices has adapted by apple like search ad etc etc. They make competing services and steal ideas of developers and those app dies. For eg screen time for Moments app.

They have unfair advantage and small developers could not complete. Only handful of indie developers making money from appstore and rest apps have died.

They killed the industry.

Re: Apple admits it ranked its Files app ahead of competitor Dropbox

#29

Post by crazygringo »

Railsify wrote: post #4
crazygringo wrote: post #2

These are exactly the kinds of issues antitrust legislation needs to be updated to handle. I have no issue with a company running a store and selling its own products within, but it has to provide a level playing field. It's good they fixed it -- that the VP in question didn't know it had been done and then nixed it -- but this shouldn't even be legal in the first place.

Would that extend to grocery stores, where would you force walmart to put their own brands?

I don't see any uneven playing field when it comes to grocery stores.

The national brands and store brands are always next to each other on the same shelf. So there isn't any problem that needs solving. Also brands already pay for promotional positioning (like the ends of aisles), and when the store puts its own brands in those spots it loses out on those payments, and so is effectively paying equally.

So the field doesn't need any evening out there.

If grocery stores ever started putting the name-brand stuff in a back room that took twice as long to get to, then it might become an issue, but as of right now it's just not.

Re: Apple admits it ranked its Files app ahead of competitor Dropbox

#30

Post by webmobdev »

GeekyBear wrote: post #24
webmobdev wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's hard to find a profit motive here. Promoting the use of iCloud - when your space runs out, you will consider paying for it.

>Promoting the use of iCloud The Files app transfers files back and forth between SMB shares, local flash drives, and any of the major cloud services. iCloud is not required at all. Try again.

If you are ignorant about it, iCloud support is integrated into the Files App and is the most promoted on its support documents too - https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203052 and https://support.apple.com/en-in/HT206481 ... If you use DropBox app, you are obviously going to prefer DropBox cloud service over iCloud - that not only means a potential loss of revenue in the future but also the fact that they aren't tied into Apple ecosystem and can abandon it. Additionally, anyone not using the Files app also denies Apple the means to collect file metadata which are valuable to profile you.
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