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EU approves legislation to regulate Apple, Google, Meta, and other tech firms

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Re: EU approves legislation to regulate Apple, Google, Meta, and other tech firms

#381

Post by dijit »

latexr wrote: post #356
dijit wrote: post #274

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Has there ever been a console where, over the life of the console, the hardware was sold for a loss? All of them. Speaking about PS5 specifically: there's quite a few advancements in there that you're not thinking about, the kraken decompressor that can run at native NVME speed in hardware and load assets directly into video memory has no PC equivalent. Though PC vendors are trying to do NVME GPUMem these days, it…

> All of them. It’s my understanding that’s not (always?) true for Nintendo consoles. The Switch makes a profit on hardware[1] and that was a goal before launch[2]. [1]: https://www.tweaktown.com/news/79180/xboxes-arent-profitable... [2]: https://venturebeat.com/2016/10/26/nintendo-wont-sell-switch...

That's extremely interesting and I didn't know it.

Conventional wisdom dictates that consoles sell at a loss.

Re: EU approves legislation to regulate Apple, Google, Meta, and other tech firms

#382

Post by jacquesm »

Epskampie wrote: post #279
rootusrootus wrote: post #264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree, it could be ugly. The GDPR is supposed to be great, but what practical impact did it have on most of us? Cookie consent dialogs everywhere .

You can request and get a full copy of your data anywhere, and be fully deleted if you want. Every company has become aware and afraid of data leaks because they are required to report them. The cookie banner thing is… unfortunate.

The cookie banner thing is... entirely optional. Just don't track your visitors, problem solved.

Re: EU approves legislation to regulate Apple, Google, Meta, and other tech firms

#383

Post by [deleted] »

hyperpape wrote: post #175

There's several very good provisions in this legislation (3rd party payment processors, non-preferential treatment for 1st party apps), there are several that have a mix of upsides and downsides (sideloading is one--I personally like knowing that Facebook can't ask people to sideload some privacy destroying crap on iOS). Then there's: - Allow developers to integrate their apps and digital services directly with those…

[deleted]

Re: EU approves legislation to regulate Apple, Google, Meta, and other tech firms

#384

Post by Retric »

enragedcacti wrote: post #362
Retric wrote: post #329

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple makes peanuts from the App Store relative to phone sales. After they upped the cut for developers to between 70% and 85% and CC companies still get their cut, add customer service and app reviews and it simply isn’t that profitable. What they benefit from is selling 1,000$ phones at a 30+% profit margin, because for the average consumer they simply work better. Which actually aligns incentives between customers…

Apple's App store revenue is very substantial and likely has very low overall costs and microscopic per-unit costs relative to a hardware business like iPhone or Mac. Apple paid out $45 billion to developers in 2020 with $64 billion gross, which means they had as high as $19 billion in revenue from the app store commission alone.[1] Unfortunately Apple doesn't break out profit per category but we know that their net…

Apple annual gross profit for 2021 was $152 billion.

That ~19B in 2020 is before CC fees on 64B or internal expenses. App stores have a lot of customer service and charge backs on relatively tiny purchases. Actually reviewing apps isn’t cheap either, and all the relevant IT adds even more expense.

Further they upped the developers cut to between 70% and 85% from the flat 70% in 2020. So sure they might make 3-5 billion from the App Store in 2021, but that’s like 2% of total profits.

Re: EU approves legislation to regulate Apple, Google, Meta, and other tech firms

#385

Post by cmdli »

Wowfunhappy wrote: post #177
obblekk wrote: post #148

I generally believe Apple, Google and others should be able to profit from creating some of the most useful, innovative and technically challenging products in human history (remember multi touch was not an affordable thing before Apple). But, 15 years (since original iPhone) is about enough to reward the innovation. Beyond that point, it is the role of government to open up platforms to enable the next generation of…

> If I go to a clinic, they ask me to side load an app while I’m sick, and that app has no real privacy protections… That behavior should also be regulated, because the app is collecting medical information. I'd much rather the government regulate this than some self-interested tech company which promotes privacy if and when it's financially expedient for them.

Will that be regulated, though? It looks to me like the EU is just taking steps to give companies freedom (by allowing sideloading) but no steps to regulate that freedom (by enshrining app privacy into law).

Re: EU approves legislation to regulate Apple, Google, Meta, and other tech firms

#386

Post by cmdli »

synu wrote: post #144
Aulig wrote: post #106

This is excellent. As an app developer, I'm looking forward to side-loading, other browser engines and not being forced to use in-app-purchases.

As a regular user I’m looking forward to all the same!

As a regular user, I am dreading the day when I am forced to sideload an app with no privacy regulations in order to use key services.

Re: EU approves legislation to regulate Apple, Google, Meta, and other tech firms

#387

Post by krzyk »

hyperpape wrote: post #175

There's several very good provisions in this legislation (3rd party payment processors, non-preferential treatment for 1st party apps), there are several that have a mix of upsides and downsides (sideloading is one--I personally like knowing that Facebook can't ask people to sideload some privacy destroying crap on iOS). Then there's: - Allow developers to integrate their apps and digital services directly with those…

All that already exists on Android and the negatives didn't happen (with modern android versions), on the contrary. My phone supports multiple payment vendors using nfc. I can have Tasker do magic with my phone etc.

Re: EU approves legislation to regulate Apple, Google, Meta, and other tech firms

#388

Post by veilrap »

grishka wrote: post #343
warning26 wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Definitely -- I can imagine them making it some kind of faustian bargain, where in exchange for enabling sideloading, you void your warranty, never get any software updates again, can't connect to any Apple online services whatsoever, etc.

> can't connect to any Apple online services whatsoever So what's the downside?

If you don't want to use Apple services, why are you buying an Apple device? These facetious arguments make no sense.

Re: EU approves legislation to regulate Apple, Google, Meta, and other tech firms

#389

Post by inlined »

seydor wrote: post #270
pchristensen wrote: post #248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For many (most?) users, Apple's restrictions, especially sideloading, protect users from bad actor app owners (looking at you, Facebook). To me, allowing sideloading is like allowing chemical weapons to be used in war. Yes, it's a new tool and capability at your disposal, but it's also available to every powerful and unscrupulous participant.

> allowing sideloading is like allowing chemical weapons to be used in war. yes, it is exactly like that. Millions of people who download .exe to their compuyters every day are doing chemical warfare

Millions of people downloading .exe files everywhere are why we have an infosec industry. I trust indie developers on the App Store because of the restrictions and the review process. I’ll never side load a small developer’s app. And I worry that major players (I.e. Facebook) will require side loading so they can be free of the App Store rules about privacy.

Re: EU approves legislation to regulate Apple, Google, Meta, and other tech firms

#390

Post by summerlight »

alimov wrote: post #348
summerlight wrote: post #340

This wouldn't happen if Apple decided to cut their Apple tax to 15% or something. They already knew that this 30% is not sustainable. 15% would be still considerably higher than usual payment processors' but something justifiable given their massive investment into the platform. But instead of taking this path, Apple decided to exploit this 30% tax for competition against other service providers. This is obviously un…

> but they built their entire business structure based on a brittle assumption that they could retain full control on their ecosystem regardless of political landscape. Now they're going to pay the price of making a wrong bet. Do you really believe that you see or understand something that decision makers at Apple hadn’t considered?

Why do you think Apple's decision makers would make the same decision to mine based on the same information? I'm pretty sure that Tim clearly understood the trade-off and his leverage was on a more predictable path via more market controls. You gotta understand different people make different decisions even with the same input.
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