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Google “bought off Samsung” to limit app store competition, 36 states allege

arstechnica.com

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Re: Google “bought off Samsung” to limit app store competition, 36 states allege

#41

Post by GavinMcG »

elliekelly wrote: post #16
LatteLazy wrote: post #2

Careful taking lawsuit claims seriously. Especially then the claim drops from doing X to "attempting X" by paragraph 2 and by paragraph 6 is just being "willing" to attempt X.

All of the phrasing you take issue with is directly from the linked complaint. The complaint flatly alleges Google “bought off Samsung” (as quoted in the headline) and that Google was both willing to attempt to buy off Samsung and did indeed attempt to do so. They are the logical order of events, no? I can’t have bought someone off without first having attempted to buy them off and before that having been willing to…

The point I think OP was making is that you can say anything with a reasonable evidentiary basis in a complaint. (And some lawyers don't bother with the evidentiary basis part—see the post-election lawsuits that are being sanctioned for just that.)

It's not about whether the language is in the article or the legal document; the legal document itself is merely a lawyer saying something that is in their client's interest.

Re: Google “bought off Samsung” to limit app store competition, 36 states allege

#43

Post by GavinMcG »

Fnoord wrote: post #22
tyleo wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You lost me at Samsung/Apple/Jeep/Nintendo. I’d definitely put Apple in the top tier of phone and laptop quality. Especially w.r.t laptops, the majority of Windows devices seem comparatively low quality. I’m not sure about their other products but I also don’t see them advertised as much. Similarly with Nintendo, they seem to deliver consistently higher quality than competitors. They may not be as fast but they last…

> I’d definitely put Apple in the top tier of phone and laptop quality. Especially w.r.t laptops, the majority of Windows devices seem comparatively low quality. I’m not sure about their other products but I also don’t see them advertised as much. Every MBP/MBA/MB had design flaws. From butterfly keyboard to discrete GPU, only 1 port (USB-C, for battery), etc. They fixed the keyboard problem finally, but from 2016-20…

Aside from the keyboard issues, you're talking about design choices you don't like, not design flaws. They made the choices they made, and by and large executed on them at a high degree of quality.

Re: Google “bought off Samsung” to limit app store competition, 36 states allege

#44

Post by gmadsen »

OrvalWintermute wrote: post #36
lotsofpulp wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have yet to see a better laptop for 90% of people who want a laptop than a MacBook Air. Battery life, portability, weight, heat production, reliability, adequate performance, price, ports. They seem to have made all the right compromises.

I think you might be neglecting to include people that like high performance dedicated GPUs - (A) scientists, (B) engineers, (C) developers, (D) artists, (E)motion graphics types, (F) gamers. Professionally speaking, my work is full of A-E, so, an Air is a big nope.

you think those are the majority of laptop buyers?

Re: Google “bought off Samsung” to limit app store competition, 36 states allege

#45

Post by ocdtrekkie »

post_break wrote: post #32

If true it makes their smart watch joint venture interesting. Did google force samsung to stop using tizen on their smart watches? Pay them a large sum of money to get wearOS back in the game?

Most of Samsung's seemingly odd back and forth antics can be explained by realizing that:

Samsung is the manufacturer most capable of forking Android and telling Google to shove it, and that most of their product development has been making sure that it's possible to do so (Galaxy Store, Bixby, Tizen watches, etc.)

And that Google, knowing Samsung has the brand loyalty and wide userbase to devastate Android's market share, is in a constant effort to pay Samsung to stop pushing them away.

So they built competitors to Google's product library, and then Google pays them to push a Google product anyways, and then they build a competitor to the next Google product, and wait for the check from Google for them to shelve it... Through this back and forth, Samsung both ends up with a competitive ecosystem to Google ready-to-go if they need it, and an extremely lucrative pile of concessions from Google that Google would've preferred to not have to give them.

Re: Google “bought off Samsung” to limit app store competition, 36 states allege

#46

Post by swiley »

seized wrote: post #33
swiley wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd imagine it's something like iOS where you don't get battery friendly push notifications without using services from the OS vendor and there's no way for the user to select a 3rd party service instead.

Which is fine for most users. I don't want every app doing its own inefficient push/pull notifications and tanking my battery, and I am as pro open source/etc/etc as most here.

The result of this is that every app does do inefficient notifications because in many cases it has no access to an external (to the app) notification service on the phone.

Just another crappy smartphone OS feature that works fine on OSes where the developers don't want to control every aspect of the device.

Re: Google “bought off Samsung” to limit app store competition, 36 states allege

#47

Post by ChuckNorris89 »

tyingq wrote: post #38
ChuckNorris89 wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lobbying from equally wealthy competitors who couldn't become monopolies?

Seems odd that lobbying from what would be much smaller entities would somehow overtake lobbying from the giants.

Would you consider someone like Microsoft a small entity? Do you think they're just gonna sit back and accept that Apple and Google got to shove them out of the mobile space completely?

Re: Google “bought off Samsung” to limit app store competition, 36 states allege

#48

Post by salamandersauce »

GavinMcG wrote: post #43
Fnoord wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I’d definitely put Apple in the top tier of phone and laptop quality. Especially w.r.t laptops, the majority of Windows devices seem comparatively low quality. I’m not sure about their other products but I also don’t see them advertised as much. Every MBP/MBA/MB had design flaws. From butterfly keyboard to discrete GPU, only 1 port (USB-C, for battery), etc. They fixed the keyboard problem finally, but from 2016-20…

Aside from the keyboard issues, you're talking about design choices you don't like , not design flaws . They made the choices they made, and by and large executed on them at a high degree of quality.

There's been other issues. MacBook Pros have had issues with the screen ribbon cable causing problems with the backlight (a.k.a Flexgate). Then there's been issues with batteries swelling in 2015 MBPs which impacts the trackpad too. Plus there has been countless models with GPU failures being commonplace stretching allll the way back to to iBook G3.

I would personally consider the 2018 Mac Mini to have a design flaw as the case design doesn't allow for good Bluetooth reception and using USB 3 so it would lose connection to my Magic keyboard and trackpad at least once a day which I personally found extremely frustrating. I've also had 2 iPad Pro smart keyboards fail within a year with the 2nd one only seeing light usage. It seems like whatever conductive tape Apple uses doesn't handle humidity well and corrodes quickly where I live. I'm concerned about my 2018 MBP's long term longevity keyboard aside just from the awful awful thermals that shoot the machine to T-junction in about a minute of actually pushing it but we will see. Probably the keyboard will wear out before that.

I think too many people confuse quality and metal construction. Yes, Apple builds nice aluminum enclosures but they neglect other details to achieve that.

Re: Google “bought off Samsung” to limit app store competition, 36 states allege

#49

Post by deregulateMed »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #40
OrvalWintermute wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you might be neglecting to include people that like high performance dedicated GPUs - (A) scientists, (B) engineers, (C) developers, (D) artists, (E)motion graphics types, (F) gamers. Professionally speaking, my work is full of A-E, so, an Air is a big nope.

…that’s why I wrote 90% of people. Maybe it’s 80% or 70%, but it certainly is top of the line for the average user.

You mentioned reliability, but I remember the butterfly keyboard debacle that was denied by Apple for years.

Re: Google “bought off Samsung” to limit app store competition, 36 states allege

#50

Post by deregulateMed »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #31
Fnoord wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I’d definitely put Apple in the top tier of phone and laptop quality. Especially w.r.t laptops, the majority of Windows devices seem comparatively low quality. I’m not sure about their other products but I also don’t see them advertised as much. Every MBP/MBA/MB had design flaws. From butterfly keyboard to discrete GPU, only 1 port (USB-C, for battery), etc. They fixed the keyboard problem finally, but from 2016-20…

I have yet to see a better laptop for 90% of people who want a laptop than a MacBook Air. Battery life, portability, weight, heat production, reliability, adequate performance, price, ports. They seem to have made all the right compromises.

The price is poor and the performance is worse(compared to anything with a GPU). Reliability is questionable given the numerous hardware issues Apple denied over the years.

And I'm shocked you thought to mention Ports. I've been at parties where someone couldn't present a PowerPoint because of the ports on the Air.

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