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Quit whining about Apple and just stop using them

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Re: Quit whining about Apple and just stop using them

#161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We are stakeholders in our role as citizens of democratic governments.

If holding a giant private corporation accountable is the battle you want to take before the government, aside from all the other problems society faces, go for it. I’d never be caught dead complaining about how I “got screwed over” by entering an arrangement I knew about up front. I would complain about government deciding the way the world worked decades before I was born as if that’s how it must work forever. You…

EU might solve this for you, I remember how it was years back, with mobile phone providers, there was no monopoly just a few companies that split the market and hold the users captive. So EU does not care that Apple and Google are not monopolies or that a large potion of citizens are busy watching football, if there are enough people complaining they will investigate and if you see what happen in the past force interoperability and true choice.

Re: Quit whining about Apple and just stop using them

#162
post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple is not a monopoly! They have a majority (not monopoly) on a very specific US-based market. They aren't the only US market, and they are a small international market. Apple isn't even the #1 handset manufacturer (they are #3 or #4 depending on who you ask), and far and away isn't the #1 laptop manufacturer. The attitude that it is a monopoly is exactly the disconnect between this article and your comment. The ar…

I'm not saying the answer is to break them up, but clearly as was shown with Microsoft in the 90s, they could be forced to allow competition on their devices, like Microsoft had to allow for different search engines on their browsers and different default browsers. Apple could be forced to allow alternative app stores or to stop dragging their feet on PWA features or any other number of reasonable regulations like th…

> but clearly as was shown with Microsoft in the 90s, they could be forced to allow competition on their devices

But as the parent comment you're replying to said, the situations aren't comparable.

Microsoft had over 90% of the market in the 90s. You could not stop using Windows, because there was simply no credible alternative for most consumers. That's not true for iOS.

If Microsoft at the time had, say, 50% of the market the outcome would likely have been extremely different.

Re: Quit whining about Apple and just stop using them

#163
In my opinion, developers do have the right to articulate critics - be it towards Apple or any other gatekeeper. Just stopping to use/develop for a platform isn't enough.

However, I feel the discussion often misses a central point when it is focused on "developers" against "Apple" (or be it Google): the interest of the customer.

Of course, a developer wants to maximize return, as wants Apple. But what about the users? As a user, I love discounts on iTunes gift cards. I love Apple handling subscriptions instead of a developer I don't know. I choose iOS because of the perceived better support and lifetime value (and perhaps even the feel of some security and privacy, but of course, one can argue about that). And I even like the editorial content of the AppStore, which is some form of marketing but also a form of recommendation.

As a customer, the AppStore is much more than a simple storefront, some sometimes wonky review processing and some servers and payment processing: it is a 360-degree-experience. Sometimes, as a customer I'm frustrated by the AppStore as well, but I would not buy my apps at a developers site. I even buy Mac Apps in the AppStore if I can, for similar reasons.

As a developer, I sometimes hate myself for not giving other developers more than 60 or 70 percent of the share. But on the other hand, I remember the old days when software was sold on CDROMs and was only available at Frys and other large electronics/computer shops. Getting your software listed there cost much much more than 30 percent ... and you had to prepay all these expenses as the developer/publisher.

Re: Quit whining about Apple and just stop using them

#164

If you don’t like how Apple does business, stop using their products. If you don’t like how Google does business, stop using their products. If you don’t like how either one does business, stop using technology all together. I am being facetious, but mainly to illustrate the point that we now have a series of entrenched monopolies in the tech world so “stop using X” isn’t a realistic solution.

We also need to keep in mind that you can't get your toys and leave, your applications and media is locked into the store, you will have to start over, buy everything again, and before someone mentions "What about Xbox or Stream" those are bad too.

Re: Quit whining about Apple and just stop using them

#165
Apple is just using its position and over-protecting their app store by bringing more bureaucracy to for developers. In my case, when I submitted https://zudvpn.com to their app store, they require me to be a business entity because they require all VPN apps to be a business entity. Their argument is that VPN apps should not log their users, however, there is no proof that public VPN apps won't log the users.

Re: Quit whining about Apple and just stop using them

#166
Easy to say, were Android not a complete dumpster fire of an OS. Stop using the iPhone and... buy into an ecosystem where every phone manufacturer installs random crapware on your device, google gets to spy on you, and whether or not you get security updates is a game of Russian roulette? Nah.

Re: Quit whining about Apple and just stop using them

#167

Everything is a trade-off. I use iOS because I want a smartphone and I'd prefer Apple's restrictions to Google's data-gathering. I'd like to see iOS be better and I'd like to see Apple's App Store policies improved. If I choose to use Apple products because I find the trade-offs inherent in using iOS/ MacOS, I don't lose the right to expect better of them and want those products to improve.

By not using Android you're missing a lot of good free apps that don't display ads.

Re: Quit whining about Apple and just stop using them

#168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If holding a giant private corporation accountable is the battle you want to take before the government, aside from all the other problems society faces, go for it. I’d never be caught dead complaining about how I “got screwed over” by entering an arrangement I knew about up front. I would complain about government deciding the way the world worked decades before I was born as if that’s how it must work forever. You…

EU might solve this for you, I remember how it was years back, with mobile phone providers, there was no monopoly just a few companies that split the market and hold the users captive. So EU does not care that Apple and Google are not monopolies or that a large potion of citizens are busy watching football, if there are enough people complaining they will investigate and if you see what happen in the past force inter…

Sure…

So, how many different word processors and spreadsheet providers does the EU bureaucracy itself use?

Re: Quit whining about Apple and just stop using them

#169

Disclaimer: I only read the subject line and the first paragraph. Years ago, when Internet Explorer had market dominance, I was working on a website and I wanted to use a feature that IE didn’t support yet. I asked a question on a forum about how to do it in IE. One of the replies was "just stop using IE." Dude. It's not for me. It's for my customers.

Are we really comparing these two?

Apple has nowhere near market dominance, in fact, they are currently in second place. IE had a much larger control of the market.

Re: Quit whining about Apple and just stop using them

#170
post #3

"Whining" is an overly prejudicial word choice for this title. These are legitimate issues people have with what Apple is doing, not mere whining. This echoes the "if you don't like it so much then just leave instead of speaking up" dismissal that is so commonly used as a lampshade for suppressing dissent. Not sure if that's the intent here but that's what it comes off as. And this point from the article needs to be…

> This echoes the "if you don't like it so much then just leave instead of speaking up" dismissal It's even worse than that. Even if you leave Apple ecosystem, you are still subject to it. Consumers don't like paying different prices based on the platform they are using. They will feel cheated. For this reason, app and service developers almost always price their products the same across all platforms. If a service d…

Then don't buy the device. Bad taste in your mouth is not going to accomplish anything.
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