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Apple violated antitrust ruling, judge finds

wsj.com

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Re: Apple violated antitrust ruling, judge finds

#311

Post by Gareth321 »

ocdtrekkie wrote: post #158
sensanaty wrote: post #58

Is there any hope of a non-joke fine here? Or are we just looking at another kiss of the wrists as them and Google and all the other big tech cos fuck literally everyone over?

A fine isn't even necessary: Apple's App Store business just ended. Between app sales and IAP it has a 30% tax. If an app developer swaps out for a Stripe portal they're paying 3% and probably at least doubling their own profit margin. Only an idiot would still be selling apps through Apple's payments next week. The only way Apple will make any money at all on apps is if it drops it's fees to 10% or below.

I look forward to Apple suddenly dropping fees and increasing R&D for the App Store when they face real competition.

Re: Apple violated antitrust ruling, judge finds

#312

Post by Gareth321 »

DecentShoes wrote: post #104
sureIy wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some country recently fined Apple every day until they resolved the issue. I think such solution would both help push Apple to actually resolve the issue and do so in a timely manner. As much money as they have, no shareholder wants to see a $1m/day expense on the balance sheet.

If they refuse to comply, why don't we just... arrest them? Like, you know, we do for someone who was poor and starving and stole 10$ of food?

That is exactly what the judge has triggered. She has referred Alex Roman and anyone else complicit in Apple for review of contempt of course. This carries actual prison time.

Re: Apple violated antitrust ruling, judge finds

#313

Post by petesergeant »

satvikpendem wrote: post #254
pornel wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This worries me beyond anti-competitive stuff. If Tim Cook is willing to lie and cheat for extra revenue, I can't trust that Apple is honest about their privacy commitments. Services revenue line must keep going up, and their ad business is a growth opportunity.

> I can't trust that Apple is honest about their privacy commitments This is a funny comment for me to read. Did anyone honestly think that Apple was touting privacy as anything other than a competitive advantage for revenue maximization? They've had things like iAd, their services revenue has grown massively as hardware sales plateau, and they are nowhere near as "private" in certain countries either.

I have no trouble believing a gay boomer from the South instinctively cares about personal privacy; he will have spent much of his early life needing to be very protective of his.

Re: Apple violated antitrust ruling, judge finds

#314

Post by Mindwipe »

pornel wrote: post #232
xuki wrote: post #107

> Internally, Phillip Schiller had advocated that Apple comply with the Injunction, but Tim Cook ignored Schiller and instead allowed Chief Financial Officer Luca Maestri and his finance team to convince him otherwise. The bean counters won. I guess Tim Cook does care about the bloody ROI after all. https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevedenning/2014/03/07/why-tim...

This worries me beyond anti-competitive stuff. If Tim Cook is willing to lie and cheat for extra revenue, I can't trust that Apple is honest about their privacy commitments. Services revenue line must keep going up, and their ad business is a growth opportunity.

I mean, if Apple were ever serious there would be a way to have applications installed on iOS without having to tell Apple.

They were never serious.

Re: Apple violated antitrust ruling, judge finds

#315

Post by scarface_74 »

saagarjha wrote: post #290
scarface_74 wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Will Walmart let you have a label on your product saying you could get it cheaper from Amazon?

> Thus the Court found: > In retail brick-and-mortar stores, consumers do not lack knowledge of options. Technology platforms differ. Yeah, but keep going on about how this is the same as Walmart

Yet everyday, people seem to know that to use Netflix, Spotify, Hulu, etc on their phone, they have to sign up on the website since you can’t pay for either via in app purchases.

Re: Apple violated antitrust ruling, judge finds

#318

Post by AnonHP »

satvikpendem wrote: post #254
pornel wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This worries me beyond anti-competitive stuff. If Tim Cook is willing to lie and cheat for extra revenue, I can't trust that Apple is honest about their privacy commitments. Services revenue line must keep going up, and their ad business is a growth opportunity.

> I can't trust that Apple is honest about their privacy commitments This is a funny comment for me to read. Did anyone honestly think that Apple was touting privacy as anything other than a competitive advantage for revenue maximization? They've had things like iAd, their services revenue has grown massively as hardware sales plateau, and they are nowhere near as "private" in certain countries either.

[dead]

Re: Apple violated antitrust ruling, judge finds

#319

Post by amelius »

xpe wrote: post #257
satvikpendem wrote: post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I can't trust that Apple is honest about their privacy commitments This is a funny comment for me to read. Did anyone honestly think that Apple was touting privacy as anything other than a competitive advantage for revenue maximization? They've had things like iAd, their services revenue has grown massively as hardware sales plateau, and they are nowhere near as "private" in certain countries either.

I agree, but I might phrase it a little bit differently. I recommend thinking about corporate stances as actions and interests, not moral intentions. Don’t expect a corporation to do things for moral reasons. Trust them only to the extent that their actions are in their self interest. To be fair, some organizations do have charters and interests that make them more palatable than others. One takeaway to startups that…

Therefore it's better to stay the hell away from companies who actively seek to take away your freedom.

Re: Apple violated antitrust ruling, judge finds

#320

Post by joshkel »

drooopy wrote: post #256
pornel wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This worries me beyond anti-competitive stuff. If Tim Cook is willing to lie and cheat for extra revenue, I can't trust that Apple is honest about their privacy commitments. Services revenue line must keep going up, and their ad business is a growth opportunity.

Apple is a for-profit business, and like most such entities, its primary concern is its bottom line. If promoting privacy aligns with that objective, so be it. However, the company does not have an inherent inclination toward acting ethically beyond what serves its business interests.

That's not universally true, at least. From https://www.macobserver.com/news/tim-cook-rejects-ncppr-poli...:

> “When we work on making our devices accessible by the blind,” he said, “I don't consider the bloody ROI.” He said that the same thing about environmental issues, worker safety, and other areas where Apple is a leader.

> As evidenced by the use of “bloody” in his response—the closest thing to public profanity I've ever seen from Mr. Cook–it was clear that he was quite angry. His body language changed, his face contracted, and he spoke in rapid fire sentences compared to the usual metered and controlled way he speaks.

More broadly, I know that for-profit businesses are concerned with their bottom line, and I know businesses regularly throw other values under the bus in pursuit of profit. But I'm not sure it's possible to build a successful business (in terms of maintaining consumer trust, attracting and motivating decent employees, etc.) without some values beyond what's immediately quantifiable on the bottom line.

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