Live data from Hacker News

The App Store is a monopoly: Here's why the EU is correct to investigate Apple

protonmail.com

41–50 of 600 posts

Re: The App Store is a monopoly: Here's why the EU is correct to investigate Apple

#41
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem isn't how they run their store -- the problem is that they are the only store.

The only store on their product. Not the only store, period. There is Android store which has 4 times as many users, and at some point Microsoft had a store but people didn't like it either...

He means the only store on the iOS platform, not the only app store between all platforms

Re: The App Store is a monopoly: Here's why the EU is correct to investigate Apple

#42
post #24
post #9

As a consumer, I am 100% in favor of the way run the app store. I don't want to give random apps my credit card. I don't want to have 18 accounts to keep track of. I don't want to have to call telephone support to cancel my account. I don't want malware in my apps. I don't want apps to have my email if they don't need it. I don't need another middleman for content companies license and distribute. Everything Apple is…

You can still have what you want and give people other options. It's called choice. We deserve to be able to choose

You can choose, go and choose one of the other 70% of the phones on the market.

Re: The App Store is a monopoly: Here's why the EU is correct to investigate Apple

#43
post #10

Apple had the opportunity to lean on the web and elected not to. With appropriate APIs, web apps can reach into devices and leverage GPU and CPU compute, multiple threads, microphone, camera, on-device storage, and more. HTML and canvas don't have to be the only UI primitives available. Both Google and Apple should be forced to fund the W3C and/or Mozilla in leading development of a cross-platform native experience.…

>Apple had the opportunity to lean on the web and elected not to.

Thank god for that. It's why mobile computing in 2020 isn't just Electron apps, like the desktop increasingly becomes...

Re: The App Store is a monopoly: Here's why the EU is correct to investigate Apple

#44
post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well they can do all that with a 10% fee too. The author is contending that by adding those restrictions and a high 30% fee, Apple is acting like a monopoly - it's their way or the highway.

Why do you think that fee is unfair?

Because you cannot opt for a different store if you don't like the fee. If you want to sell independently, you cant. If you want to sell alternatively, you cant. This excludes many devs and shops from access.

Re: The App Store is a monopoly: Here's why the EU is correct to investigate Apple

#45
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are plenty of cross-platform native app development platforms.

These are bolted on hacks and don't have the combined support of Apple and Google. Nevermind the fact that this doesn't solve monopoly of distribution.

>These are bolted on hacks and don't have the combined support of Apple and Google.

If you don't like "bolted on hacks" you'd like Web APIs and HTML as an application development platform even less...

Re: The App Store is a monopoly: Here's why the EU is correct to investigate Apple

#46

I applaud this. The manufacturer of the device must not control what apps I run on after buying it. Third-party appstores and app sideloading is a must. (And do not forget third party push-notifications, iOS devices are next to useless without them)

> The manufacturer of the device must not control what apps I run on after buying it.

The manufacturer of the device is within their rights to ship the software/hardware experience they want it to have.

If you do not like it, then there is no obligation for you to buy said device.

You are not entitled to make the device manufacturer pour time and effort into developing support for features like this. It's quite simple - if you don't like the ecosystem, move on.

Re: The App Store is a monopoly: Here's why the EU is correct to investigate Apple

#47
post #9

As a consumer, I am 100% in favor of the way run the app store. I don't want to give random apps my credit card. I don't want to have 18 accounts to keep track of. I don't want to have to call telephone support to cancel my account. I don't want malware in my apps. I don't want apps to have my email if they don't need it. I don't need another middleman for content companies license and distribute. Everything Apple is…

> Everything Apple is doing is helping make a better app store for me.

I would prefer paying for Netflix right from the iPhone. It would be great to have torrent apps (they have legitimate use-cases). I would love to run qemu on my powerful iPad Pro.

Apple does not allow any of that.

Re: The App Store is a monopoly: Here's why the EU is correct to investigate Apple

#48
post #42
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can still have what you want and give people other options. It's called choice. We deserve to be able to choose

You can choose, go and choose one of the other 70% of the phones on the market.

I can and I do - but that doesnt mean I dont think that the option should exist on iOS

Re: The App Store is a monopoly: Here's why the EU is correct to investigate Apple

#49
post #12

The only monopoly here is Apple’s monopoly on designing its own products. The iPhone, iOS, it’s development tools and the App Store are all Apple products, so Apple gets to decide what features they have. It’s also not unusual for companies to make deals with third parties to include their technology and software in their products, often as optional chargeable extras. That’s all the App Store is, it’s a way to add op…

I'd love to see a Congressional panel ask why developers need an OSX device to build for iOS and still have to pay a fee to Apple for the privilege.

Re: The App Store is a monopoly: Here's why the EU is correct to investigate Apple

#50
post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well they can do all that with a 10% fee too. The author is contending that by adding those restrictions and a high 30% fee, Apple is acting like a monopoly - it's their way or the highway.

Why do you think that fee is unfair?

Because, I guarantee, if iOS app distribution market was competitive, fee would be lower than 30%. 30% fee is a monopolistic rent.
Post reply on HN