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Apple restricts Pebble from being awesome with iPhones

ericmigi.com

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Re: Apple restricts Pebble from being awesome with iPhones

#31

Post by do_not_redeem »

jjtheblunt wrote: post #7
bearjaws wrote: post #2

It's honestly amazing how Apple managed to dodge anti-trust in the United States. The fact you cannot build a competing watch is unacceptable and the idea that "well go build one for Android" is refusing to acknowledge that Apple is its own market in and of itself. Throw in the fact that even getting an app that isn't a game into the App store is not trivial, especially if it dares include some form of payment proces…

I think you’re overlooking Garmin who has a healthy business in smart watches and they’re compatible with Apple devices. Edit : more up to date and useful comments thankfully below

The limitations in the blog post apply for Garmin just as much as Pebble.

Re: Apple restricts Pebble from being awesome with iPhones

#33

Post by parsimo2010 »

bearjaws wrote: post #2

It's honestly amazing how Apple managed to dodge anti-trust in the United States. The fact you cannot build a competing watch is unacceptable and the idea that "well go build one for Android" is refusing to acknowledge that Apple is its own market in and of itself. Throw in the fact that even getting an app that isn't a game into the App store is not trivial, especially if it dares include some form of payment proces…

Obviously this is going to be up for debate, but in your comment you acknowledge that "go build one for Android" is an option. This is an indication that your complaint is not in Apple's behavior, but your regret that the competition sucks and it's not Apple's fault. Apple is not a market on their own from the perspective of smart phones and watches, every person making a purchasing decision has options (This is different from an app developer's perspective. See the last line for the explanation of why that's different).

It's not like Apple started off letting third party watches work well and then suddenly locked them out (but you could argue from the article that they started off with minor handicaps and have increased the level of handicap over the years). Most people choose to buy iPhones knowing that only certain watch options work. It's not like anyone is suing Ford or Dodge for only making accessories that work on their own cars and trucks. It's not like anyone can legitimately complain that Ford is anticompetitive because they aren't making themselves compatible with Dodge oil filters.

If Apple did something anticompetitive to keep Android options from being good, then you probably have a winnable legal case. But it seems like Google, Samsung, and the other Android players are losing on their own merits.

Apple is its own market from the perspective of app developers. The app developers can only get to iPhone users through the Apple App Store, so restricting access and charging high fees is anti-trust.

Re: Apple restricts Pebble from being awesome with iPhones

#34

Post by presbyterian »

jisnsm wrote: post #8

If iOS only allows you to build a worse experience, then Apple customers will leave the platform for Android. The problem solves itself.

I don't think this is true. Apple could drop smart watch support entirely and I still wouldn't use an Android phone. I personally find the user experience infinitely better on iOS than on Android, and Apple would have to drop the ball very bad to get me to switch.

(Note: This isn't because Apple is without faults. iOS and macOS are both a mess right now, and iPadOS is even worse. I just think that Android is worse than that, and I know many, many Apple users are in the same boat)

Re: Apple restricts Pebble from being awesome with iPhones

#35

Post by mns »

Some of the things mentioned in the post seem to work just fine with Garmin watches. Maybe because Garmin is just bigger they have the resources to implement some of the things (like third party devs publishing various watch apps and faces that are in the Garmin store). Same with notifications, yes, you can't do actions from notifications, but I have notifications "hidden" or whatever that feature is if the phone is locked and they show up just fine on my Forerunner.

Re: Apple restricts Pebble from being awesome with iPhones

#36

Post by hyperbovine »

bearjaws wrote: post #2

It's honestly amazing how Apple managed to dodge anti-trust in the United States. The fact you cannot build a competing watch is unacceptable and the idea that "well go build one for Android" is refusing to acknowledge that Apple is its own market in and of itself. Throw in the fact that even getting an app that isn't a game into the App store is not trivial, especially if it dares include some form of payment proces…

I don't see how you can be a monopoly with <30% market share.

Re: Apple restricts Pebble from being awesome with iPhones

#37

Post by dmitrygr »

This article is 100% weapons-grade FUD

> It’s impossible for a 3rd party smartwatch to [...] or perform actions on notifications (like dismissing, muting

REALLY? Why not RTFM?

https://developer.apple.com/library/archive/documentation/Co...

>Notification Actions

> Starting with iOS 8.0, the NP can inform the NC of potential

> actions that are associated with iOS notifications. On the

> user’s behalf, the NC can then request the NP to perform an

> action associated with a specific iOS notification.

These API have exited for over a decade and plenty of other wearables use them. Yes there are some limits, but many fewer than the original article implies to create outrage

Re: Apple restricts Pebble from being awesome with iPhones

#38

Post by echelon »

josefresco wrote: post #3

I have a very capable smartwatch and it's ridiculously bad how hobbled it is on iOS. I'm glad to see this article specifically highlight the issues, and how it's 100% Apple's intention to make non-Apple wearables on iOS terrible.

The ONLY answer is antitrust action from every major government.

The trillion dollar companies are so massive that they are impinging upon every category of business that touches them. And they're so massive that their sinnew and tendrils touch everything under the sun.

Mobile computing is de-facto owned by two companies. It's owned, tightly controlled like an authoritarian government, and heavily taxed. Compared with the (formerly?) open web and desktop of the 90's - 10's, we've wound up in a computing universe where we're all serfs.

We're in a stagnant world where platforms don't evolve because that's where the moats lie.

Google, Apple, Amazon, and Meta desperately need to be broken up into multiple subsidiary companies. It'll oxygenate the entire tech sector and unlock pent up, unrealized value for the shareholders of these equities.

The reason we seldom see centicorn startups or blockbuster tech IPOs is because FAANG (or whatever we call it nowadays) has a dragnet where they can snuff out the markets of new upstarts or M&A on the cheap.

It costs nothing for Amazon to become Hollywood, buy James Bond and Lord of the Rings, become a primary care doctor, become a grocery store, and cross-sell all of these highly unrelated products on prime advertising real estate. It's essentially free for them to put ads at the top of the Amazon store and emblazen it on their delivery trucks and boxes. The old media, which were once healthy competitors, have to spend hundreds of millions to reach the same eyeballs.

We've wound up with Standard Oil 2.0 and it's deeply damaging our market. The innovators and innovation capital are no longer being rewarded. The calcified institutions are snuffing out everything that moves in search of remaining growth.

We must break up these companies. That is the only healthy way forward.

Re: Apple restricts Pebble from being awesome with iPhones

#40

Post by nickthegreek »

film42 wrote: post #29
radlad wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does it do anything that the linked article says it can't do?

> It’s impossible for a 3rd party smartwatch to send text messages, or perform actions on notifications (like dismissing, muting, replying) and many, many other things. Unless I'm crazy, I think I've used my Meta Ray-Bans to do all of these things at some point. So is this a watch only limitation that Meta was able to avoid?

It might be because Meta iOS app is handling some of that handoff and its not possible to do these action purely via the BT api? It seems like in the end they recognize if that had an iOS app they could accomplish some of their wishlist items. However, there are other valid critiques here.
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