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Apple now rejecting apps with Pebble Smartwatch support

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Re: Apple now rejecting apps with Pebble Smartwatch support

#131

Post by BinaryIdiot »

k-mcgrady wrote: post #32

Total BS title. They are rejecting apps that mention other products in the metadata. If you submit an app that says 'also available on Android' the same thing will happen and it has been enforced for years. The rejection was very clear.

This is incorrect. They are rejecting apps that mention other mobile platforms. Pebble is not a mobile platform, it's a smart watch platform. Them reclassifying it seems awfully timely.

This makes the user experience of pebble watch owners worse as they won't be able to search for applications that support Pebble anymore; they'll have to find them elsewhere. Not being able to discover applications in an app store is just stupid.

Re: Apple now rejecting apps with Pebble Smartwatch support

#132

Post by hub_ »

loumf wrote: post #112
mey wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Under US law, it would be anti-competitive to use market control to stifle competition. I agree on your point about android, but you should be able to see what the software supports. Of course a court would need to decide, IANAL etc

Apple doesn't have control of the smart phone (or phone) market. Having control of the iPhone market is not considered monopolistic.

But they do have exclusive control of the distribution channels of apps for iOS. That's a monopoly.

Re: Apple now rejecting apps with Pebble Smartwatch support

#133

Post by Drakim »

AlexandrB wrote: post #105
venomsnake wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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".

Would it be okay for Twitter to censor tweets about rival products?

Re: Apple now rejecting apps with Pebble Smartwatch support

#134

Post by loumf »

sesteel wrote: post #4

I 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.

Should Walmart, who has 100% market share of people walking in a Walmart right now, have control over what is on their shelves?

Should Disney have control over what stores are on Disney Main St.?

iPhones are not the only choice, so if you don't like how they work, you can choose not to buy them (because they have significant competition).

The reason there are laws that limit monopoly behavior is because you wouldn't have that choice and it is considered a free-market failure that we want regulated.

Re: Apple now rejecting apps with Pebble Smartwatch support

#136

Post by k-mcgrady »

pjc50 wrote: post #83
slackstation wrote: post #9

Why do people even feign objection at this point? You have built your house on someone else's land. Don't be surprised when they force you to tear down the guest house you just built.

It's funny that HN is normally so free-market that people here are happy to accept this sort of market feudalism: the company running the market for iOS apps gets to make their own rules, no matter how arbitrary.

It is a free market when you look at the bigger picture. You don't have to develop apps for iOS, you can develop them for other platforms and no one will stop you. iOS is part of the app market and as it's a free market Apple can control their portion however they like.

Re: Apple now rejecting apps with Pebble Smartwatch support

#137

Post by AndrewStephens »

karl_gluck wrote: post #73
toxican wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This has nothing to do with the (blatantly) false title or claim though. Apple is not trying to remove Pebble-supporting apps. The dev of a single Pebble-supporting app violated the rules and their app as rejected accordingly. Whether or not the rules are fair is irrelevant, imo.

I've said it before and here it is again: Microsoft was in a position of arguably less control in the late 90's and got a huge antitrust case brought against them. Apple is somehow getting away with wildly anticompetitive behavior (more broad than just this case) and for some crazy reason we are all supporting it because "that's the way it is!" When Microsoft was the dominant OS, imagine Windows having a blacklist of…

You should stop saying this. Microsoft didn't get prosecuted for controlling what things end-users could do with Windows. They got punished for using their market share to make it impossible for computer manufacturers to build computers that didn't include software from Microsoft, illegally maintaining their monopoly at the OEMs (and ultimately consumers) expense.

Apple has nowhere near the market share that Microsoft has back in the 90's and if you don't like this decision you can take your money elsewhere. In the 90's you literally could not. It is a totally different situation.

Re: Apple now rejecting apps with Pebble Smartwatch support

#138

Post by sspiff »

rrss1122 wrote: post #109
d0m wrote: post #76

It'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.

Exactly. Business isn't a no-holds-barred anything goes anarchy. It's not because we have some free trade that there are no rules what so ever.

Abusing a stranglehold or monopoly will eventually draw the ire of regulators. Just ask Microsoft or the EU.

What is and isn't OK is something that will probably be decided in court. I hope this kind of anti-competitive measures do get some kind of regulation in the app-stores/ecosystems space that large mobile players have crafted over the past few years, because they could easily stiffle competition from their current dominant positions.

Re: Apple now rejecting apps with Pebble Smartwatch support

#139

Post by realityking »

bencollier49 wrote: post #124
d0m wrote: post #76

It'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." Google are currently being taken to the cleaners by the EU for something wholly analogous to this. I can imagine the chaps in Brussels rubbing their hands with glee at the thought of getting their hands on all the dodgy offshore cash that Apple have got piled up in Dublin.

The thing is Apple's share of the phone market in the EU isn't all that great (I gather it's less than 25%). Meanwhile Google has > 80% of the EU search market.

You can't exploit a monopoly if you don't have one to begin with.

Re: Apple now rejecting apps with Pebble Smartwatch support

#140

Post by vinceguidry »

tveita wrote: post #130
vinceguidry wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think Apple expects you to bury it on your app's webpage.

I think it's pretty clear Apple expects you to not add support at all, since you can't advertise it anywhere users will see it anyway. It is a tool for controlling the behavior of both users and developers by using their control of an unrelated platform.

Nah, looks to me like they're just controlling what they're allowing others to display directly on their platform. You can still support Pebble, you can still advertise that you support Pebble, you just have to advertise that on a different platform than Apple's. Sounds reasonable, if a bit inconvenient.
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