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Google must open Android for third-party stores, rules Epic judge

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Re: Google must open Android for third-party stores, rules Epic judge

#151

Post by GeekyBear »

tmtvl wrote: post #6

Wait, so the Google Play Store, which you can install alternatives to (F-Droid, Aurora, Amazon,...), and where you can easily install apps through other means (such as downloading an APK through your browser and running it from the file manager) is an illegal monopoly while the Apple App Store isn't? Well, I guess Google's market cap is only 2 trillion compared to Apple's 3 trillion, so I guess that's fair.

If you claim the platform you create is open, but use anticompetitive actions to retain control of it, you end up in a worse legal position than you would have by being clear that the platform is closed.

Look at Microsoft. They have been found guilty of anticompetitive conduct related to their open Windows platform in multiple jurisdictions, but not so with XBox.

Either never claim your platform is open, or refrain from anticompetitive behavior in the "open" market you choose to create. .

Re: Google must open Android for third-party stores, rules Epic judge

#152

Post by Electricniko »

mvdtnz wrote: post #135
zamadatix wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can see why they'd want to say "our competitor does it worse but we're the only ones being regulated". Sure, they'd rather not be regulated at all... but, if they are, then they want to be regulated no worse than their competitor.

Well because it's their competitor, who now has a huge legally-enforced advantage.

I liked the absurdity of one of the top comments on the Verge article, which was that under the requirements of this ruling, Apple could open up an app store for Android and Google would be forced to put it on their Play Store.

Re: Google must open Android for third-party stores, rules Epic judge

#153

Post by JumpCrisscross »

throw653649 wrote: post #26
tmtvl wrote: post #6

Wait, so the Google Play Store, which you can install alternatives to (F-Droid, Aurora, Amazon,...), and where you can easily install apps through other means (such as downloading an APK through your browser and running it from the file manager) is an illegal monopoly while the Apple App Store isn't? Well, I guess Google's market cap is only 2 trillion compared to Apple's 3 trillion, so I guess that's fair.

I don't usually care about politics at all but is there any concrete evidence supporting either potential future administration being tougher on Apple? The previous president doesn't seem to like Apple very much (and his administration filed DOJ v. Google #1 near the end), but at the same time the current administration's DOJ was responsible for filing the DOJ v. Apple lawsuit. Edit: Can the downvoter please explain…

> is there any concrete evidence supporting either potential future administration being tougher on Apple?

Trump’s trade war with China would probably hurt Apple. But his allies’ plans to gut federal regulatory powers and cut corporate taxes still make him a net friend to one of the world’s richest corporations.

Note that the FTC and DoJ remain independent agencies [1].

> Can the downvoter please explain why you downvoted?

Didn’t downvote. But a partisan aside about a judicial decision on a case between private parties is off topic. (I’d also be shocked if there is any overlap between undecided likely voters and HN users, the latter who tend to be informed.)

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independent_agencies_of_the_...

Re: Google must open Android for third-party stores, rules Epic judge

#154

Post by ToucanLoucan »

tencentshill wrote: post #79
ToucanLoucan wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, the review part I support. The revenue part is fucking horseshit.

What percentage do you think is fair to allow for a quality code review?

None. Code review is about ensuring the user has a good experience, which Apple claims to value. Pay for it then with some of the absurd profits they've made off of me purchasing Macs and iOS devices regularly for the last decade or so.

Re: Google must open Android for third-party stores, rules Epic judge

#155

Post by ToucanLoucan »

whimsicalism wrote: post #132
throw16180339 wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you want Android, you know where you can find it.

I might switch now that Apple has been forced to embrace RCS - but the blue bubble lockout for younger people is/was unfortunately very real.

People say this as though teens and tweens aren't just going to find something else to latch onto immediately to bully the fuck out of one another.

I never dealt with the "blue bubble" thing but it's not like I wasn't mercilessly bullied for basically my entire education about everything else you could possibly think of past the fourth grade. I'm all for tackling bullying, I think it's fucking heinous the kinds of things schools let happen under their watch, but let's not kid ourselves that Apple opening up iMessage is going to do a fucking thing about this.

Re: Google must open Android for third-party stores, rules Epic judge

#156

Post by whimsicalism »

ribosometronome wrote: post #80
whimsicalism wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it should all be circumventable. My phone, like my computer, should be able to install whatever code I damn well please.

The idea that we aren't allowed to sell limited purpose electronics seems pretty novel. A lot of the things I own have processors in them nowadays, are you suggesting the courts should require them all to create methodologies for us to run our own code on them?

I think there is a big difference between devices that don’t easily support running third party code and apple devices which they have had to spend lots of money developing multiple signing schemes, bug patches, threatening jailbreak communities, etc. just to prevent people from running 3rd party code

Re: Google must open Android for third-party stores, rules Epic judge

#158

Post by hggigg »

whimsicalism wrote: post #29
tencentshill wrote: post #21

Soon we'll have the Verizon Appstore and the Spotify Appstore and the Zoom Appstore, the exclusive home for each app and their partners, each with it's own overlapping user tracking libraries and insecure payment methods, and no one can even tell them to do otherwise. Coming soon to iOS, too!

Right, just like how they've done on desktop environments

Aye and it’s a fucking shit show.

Down with all “stores”!

Re: Google must open Android for third-party stores, rules Epic judge

#159

Post by freedomben »

Electricniko wrote: post #152
mvdtnz wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well because it's their competitor, who now has a huge legally-enforced advantage.

I liked the absurdity of one of the top comments on the Verge article, which was that under the requirements of this ruling, Apple could open up an app store for Android and Google would be forced to put it on their Play Store.

Meanwhile, Google can't even put their own wildly popular web browser on the Apple app store

Re: Google must open Android for third-party stores, rules Epic judge

#160

Post by carlosjobim »

ApolloFortyNine wrote: post #92
ethbr1 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's probably not a great idea to point at a monopoly, as a defense of one's own monopoly, and claim "Yeah, but he did it worse." Both Google and Apple's platforms need to be cracked open to competition.

If apple literally hadn't won their own case 2 years ago you'd be right. If the company that literally doesn't allow users to install ANY application, yet alone a whole store, is in the clear, it's mind boggling that Google's situation is the one they took issue with. Apple literally has a higher market share in the US.

No matter how much hackers and activists try to redefine the word "monopoly" to mean what it isn't, the word still will have the same meaning. And being a market leader doesn't mean you are a monopoly. Toyota does not have a monopoly on motorized transportation.

Having two competing companies being tried for the same monopoly is tragicomic, and only to show how rotten the courts have become.

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