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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

#241

Post by s73v3r »

jasonlotito wrote: post #147
mikeash wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"By that logic" doesn't belong anywhere near a discussion of Apple review guidelines or behavior. The only thing they are consistent about when reviewing iOS apps is being completely inconsistent. You cannot point to the acceptance of one app as evidence that some rule isn't being applied to another app. Apple constantly rejects apps for claimed rule violations while allowing other apps through with identical violati…

This comment is far more true than people realize. And the worst part is, it's not an exaggeration in the slightest. > You cannot point to the acceptance of one app as evidence that some rule isn't being applied to another app. This is something they won't even discuss if you question how other apps can have some feature they may not like. You could have the same exact feature, and you'll get rejected.

Because someone else breaking the rules is no excuse for you breaking the rules. It's like when you were a kid, and you tried to say, "But Johnny's doing it!".

Re: Apple now rejecting apps with Pebble Smartwatch support

#242

Post by geoelectric »

jonhohle wrote: post #28
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.

Apple has no monopoly in any market. Their platform terms and conditions may (or may not) be draconian, but what antitrust concerns can be taken seriously? Apple owns a small (but profitable) share of every market in which they operate.

Keep in mind they attracted some amount of regulatory attention via their "no third party frameworks" rule, even in the US.

http://www.macrumors.com/2010/08/10/european-commission-join...

I agree that they're unlikely to be spanked under antitrust rules--unless they end up dominating the smart watch market, in which case they'll be very vulnerable, but they're not there yet. But even if they don't fall under those rules, they're definitely under scrutiny.

Plus, Apple is definitely heading where Microsoft was: perceived as big enough to be the public's favorite piñata. That may ultimately be a bigger problem for them than any business realities.

Re: Apple now rejecting apps with Pebble Smartwatch support

#243

Post by bitsoda »

chucksmart wrote: post #228

Sorry for the dumb question; but does Apple have absolute control over Apps on its platform; or is it possible to distribute App to iPhone users without store?

Absolutely. The only other way is through the Cydia app store which requires a jailbroken device, or with a nifty web app.

Re: Apple now rejecting apps with Pebble Smartwatch support

#244

Post by xsmasher »

chucksmart wrote: post #228

Sorry for the dumb question; but does Apple have absolute control over Apps on its platform; or is it possible to distribute App to iPhone users without store?

Mostly. It is possible to distribute applications to jailbroken phones without Apple's help, but that's a minority of phones. When a new version of iOS comes out, a new method of jailbreaking usually needs to be found.

Stock phones can only install apps from the app store, or apps signed for that specific device by a developer. Developer signing is also controlled by Apple, though.

Re: Apple now rejecting apps with Pebble Smartwatch support

#245

Post by geoelectric »

monocasa wrote: post #99
k-mcgrady wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Monopolistic behaviour != has a monopoly.

And having a monopoly isn't illegal. Monopolistic behavior is.

Well, it's the combination that's illegal. Anti-competitive behavior as a non-monopoly is generally fine (and expected). As your market influence grows, it becomes riskier.

Re: Apple now rejecting apps with Pebble Smartwatch support

#246

Post by tdkl »

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…

> I don't like that approach of forcing everything into the Apple ecosystem. I got tired of that 2 years ago and switched to android

So you rather switched to a system where there's a Google Services component that sends your location every 60 seconds (unless device is set to "GPS only") and gets updated without your control ?

That's bold.

Re: Apple now rejecting apps with Pebble Smartwatch support

#247

Post by thaumasiotes »

thomholwerda wrote: post #168
realityking wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It's about time the idea of "monopoly" is extended beyond mere market share. With the amount of mobile profits Apple is raking in (70%? 80%?) I'd argue that they have FAR more market power in mobile than all the other players combined.

> It's about time the idea of "monopoly" is extended beyond mere market share.

I don't get the reasoning here. It seems to go something like this:

- "monopoly" is bad

- Apple is bad

- Therefore, whatever Apple is doing, we should call that a monopoly. They're both bad, and all bad things are the same thing.

We have monopoly-suppressive legislation because we're afraid that monopolies will do certain things. If you want to extend the sense of "monopoly", as used in monopoly-suppressive legislation, you need to show (or, heck, at least claim) that your new "monopolies" pose the same risks as the old monopolies. If it's just that you don't like the new things, and you want to see them suppressed in the same way that monopolies are suppressed, say that instead. We can send people to jail for rape, and we can send people to jail for vandalism, but in order to jail people for vandalism we don't need to say that vandalism is actually a type of rape.

Re: Apple now rejecting apps with Pebble Smartwatch support

#248

Post by blumkvist »

atomicfiredoll wrote: post #216
blumkvist wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's about market share and global impact. It might sound like double standard to you, but denying your awesome new airbnb for dogs app is not quite the same as denying Java.

> It's about market share and global impact There's not some kind of, "the impact has to be as large as when company X did it" rule. Apple now has enough market share, especially in mobile, that the global impact is troubling.

I don't know what rules you're talking about here. The OP says that Apple has worse practices than MSFT. I say that's not true. Denying computing technology on which business, governments, factories, powerplants, etc. run is FAR worse than denying (objectively) useless apps.

When has Apple hindered a break-through technology?

PS: I'm a massive fan of Microsoft marketing and strategy and have owned a grand total of 1 Apple products in my life - an iphone 4. Just fyi.

Re: Apple now rejecting apps with Pebble Smartwatch support

#249

Post by tdkl »

Bahamut wrote: post #188
91bananas wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Meh. Android has come a long way, the Google flavor of it is the most well thought out and put together experience... But all in all, the experience sucks compared to iOS coupled with an iPhone. There are a lot of neat little widgets and gestures that come with Android, but the phones aren't as good. The software is no where near as good. I made the switch, I came crawling back to iOS.

I find that it depends on the person - I loathe Apple's restrictiveness in general, including the sometimes poor UX (no back button on the phone is extremely annoying and I have to make extra taps in out of the way places instead of quickly hitting back, as one example, or the mindboggling restrictiveness to manually created 30 second snippets for ringtones instead of allowing me to just use my mp3s, or the horrific…

> including the sometimes poor UX (no back button on the phone is extremely annoying and I have to make extra taps in out of the way places instead of quickly hitting back

You never tried the swipe from the edge for back ?

Re: Apple now rejecting apps with Pebble Smartwatch support

#250

Post by [deleted] »

LordKano wrote: post #155
rrss1122 wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"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.

This is the kind of behavior that gets a company in trouble with the FTC. Indeed but Apple is aware that the FTC isn't likely to punish them enough that the behavior will be a net negative. If only the Federal Government would be as serious about "Sending a message" on antitrust as they are about low-mid level drug dealers, this kind of thing would be a lot more rare.

[deleted]
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