Gooood case for a brave lawyer to make himself a name. He can try prohibit sales of all Apple products in the EU on the basis of the current anti-monopoly EC legislation using this as a case.
Apple now rejecting apps with Pebble Smartwatch support
101–110 of 414 posts
Re: Apple now rejecting apps with Pebble Smartwatch support
#102It's a bit tricky. I agree with most comments here that Apple is in the right to control what appear in the description and metadata. Not just from a competitive standpoint but in a way to make the it better for the user experience. That being said, in the Pebble case, I think it makes the user experience worst for the user. I.e. if I have a pebble watch and am looking for an iphone app that play well with it, I'd wa…
This is something that Apple has done, which is what is best for itself first and the user second. Now almost every company in the world does this but it does feel stronger in Apple's case due to it's walled garden approach.
Can Apple do this? Not if it was deemed a monopoly. The numbers don't show it as such. Should it act this way? This one non-Apple user hacker that doesn't feel the devices fit me personally and doesn't like the actions of the company for the past 35 years, says no. Consumers seem to say yes by their desire to support and purchase their devices.
This means more manufacturers and designers won't necessarily want to make them for iOS possibly. I don't think this would concern Apple. It is also hard to not follow the money that is available in the iOS world. So further straining in the developer with Apple relationships continue.
Re: Apple now rejecting apps with Pebble Smartwatch support
#103Re: Apple now rejecting apps with Pebble Smartwatch support
#104Not sure what really is the big deal here... Apple had I think such requirements for not mentioning any other products or even mentioning pricing in your product description aka "On sale today only for $0.99" will get the same rejection... It is ok to put a % So this is nothing new and just one Apple employee/reviewers that follow the rules from the guidelines... If the folks that were submitting the app try to resub…
Not mentioning pricing is a completely reasonable rule. It's there because Apple has stores in a lot of different countries priced in local currencies. "On sale for $0.99" will be nonsensical or potentially wrong (for places that use $ for the local currency but have different prices) in many of those places.
Requiring them to remove mention of Pebble support is almost the exact opposite. Rather than enforcing accuracy, they're requiring inaccuracy by forcing them not to mention a feature the app has.
Re: Apple now rejecting apps with Pebble Smartwatch support
#105Earlier quoted context omitted.
The difference is that Google has a near monopoly on search whereas Apple has no such monopoly on mobile platforms.
Apple has 100% monopoly on iOS platform.
And as I mentioned in another comment, Twitter has a 100% monopoly on the Twitter platform. This is a silly argument because an ecosystem that Apple created and maintains all the infrastructure for is not comparable to the "free market".
Re: Apple now rejecting apps with Pebble Smartwatch support
#106Earlier quoted context omitted.
The truth is that it goes far beyond the unfairness to this specific developer and far beyond whether the developer neglected to check the TOS 4 years ago. Apple is a vile anti-competitive monstrosity. These jerks needed to be slammed with a lawsuit long before this one single example of their flamboyant and abundant anti-competitive behavior.
The App Store is Apple's private property. As much as we disagree with its policies of mentioning Any Mobile OS Which Shall Not Be Named, we must allow Apple to do with its own property as it sees fit. This is the essence of liberty. As a developer, you are also at liberty to choose against developing for iOS if you disagree with Apple's policies.
> The App Store is Apple's private property.
Historically this hasn't been a hurdle for litigation. However, the floral language I used isn't only a result of the App Store - it arises from the many instances of this type of behavior. Take the interaction between iTunes and iDevices as another example. Want to use Winamp to manage your music? Tough. Want to get apps from another store? Tough. Want to browse your phone files with your OS native file manager? Tough. Want to develop apps for the device on anything but a Mac? Tough.
Other companies were litigated for merely pre-installing software on their OS (even though alternatives could be installed at a later date). In many cases with Apple alternatives aren't a possibility whatsoever (unless you violate DMCA).
Re: Apple now rejecting apps with Pebble Smartwatch support
#107My guess is that in Europe they could get an anti trust lawsuit. Comparing it with internet explorer on windows anti trust lawsuit from EU, Microsoft was forced to acknowledge and provide choice of competitor platforms that where compatible with the system (Firefox, Chrome, Opera,...). Under the same logic, pebble is just an laternative platform compatible with the system (IOS + SeaNav). But either way that is a beha…
Antitrust requires a monopoly position, which Apple doesn't have (but Microsoft did have). Apple are being dicks and should be smacked down for it in the market, but I doubt antitrust would stick.
It's a duopoly, but in terms of revenue/prestige it's a de-facto monopoly. The simple fact is that that Apple can bully because NO developer can afford to walk away from the Apple App store; and the App Store is simply too big for the market to self-regulate.
The anti-trust cases against Microsoft ultimately allowed Firefox, Opera, Chrome to flourish and eventually lead to the demise of IE's monopoly position.
Re: Apple now rejecting apps with Pebble Smartwatch support
#108I am no lawyer, but this sounds like an antitrust lawsuit waiting to happen. Apple, IMO, should not be allowed to monopolize their platform in this way.
In what way? They aren't rejecting the app, they're rejecting the use of the trademark "Pebble" in the app's description.
Erm... Wouldn't that be similar to Google rejecting the trademark "Apple" from their search results? You're making it sound like Apple owns Pebble trademark and aren't happy for it to be used.
Re: Apple now rejecting apps with Pebble Smartwatch support
#109It's a bit tricky. I agree with most comments here that Apple is in the right to control what appear in the description and metadata. Not just from a competitive standpoint but in a way to make the it better for the user experience. That being said, in the Pebble case, I think it makes the user experience worst for the user. I.e. if I have a pebble watch and am looking for an iphone app that play well with it, I'd wa…
"It seems like Apple is doing that as a way to kill competition and promote their own watch, which is fair from a business standpoint."
It's nowhere near fair. It's extremely anticompetitive. This is the kind of behavior that gets a company in trouble with the FTC.
Re: Apple now rejecting apps with Pebble Smartwatch support
#110This is just Apple being Apple, keep calm. They want this market finely roped and controlled, nothing else.