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Epic says Apple will reinstate developer account

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Re: Epic says Apple will reinstate developer account

#411
post #378
post #368

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Imagine if the US had equivalent regulators as well...

We would all be carrying around government approved Windows Mobile phones. Remember all this DMA stuff is coming from the same organization that wants to force Chrome and Firefox to accept TLS certificates issued by governments for any website they want: https://therecord.media/eu-urged-to-drop-law-website-authent...

Just because a government organization wants to push some bad laws, it doesn't mean they can't also do good, and enact useful policies that are actually good for people.

Re: Epic says Apple will reinstate developer account

#412

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That only makes sense if we assume Apple’s world class legal team didn’t see what every lay person could. Rolling back the decision is not going to get them out of the eyes of the regulators and they must have assumed that going into it. Why give the EU even more ammo against you. My guess is that they saw that all happening but Epic provided them a letter saying they double pinky promised, cross their hearts, will o…

> That only makes sense if we assume Apple’s world class legal team didn’t see what every lay person could. Apple banned Epic the day before DMA came into effect when doing this sort of thing was still legal, they 100% saw this. They did probably bet on the chance EU would overlook it if they did it before the law came into effect, they lost that bet but they thought it was worth a try.

No, they banned Epic's account after the DMA took effect.

Re: Epic says Apple will reinstate developer account

#413
post #388

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Aren’t regulators by definition establishing regulations which make all choices more similar to each other?

Sure. In the same way that all sports are similar in that most have regulations against fighting.

But we’re not in a situation where there are very few sports, where many people complain about the lack of choice in sports, and where regulators are attempting to eliminate one of the very few meaningful differences between the existing choices.

Re: Epic says Apple will reinstate developer account

#414
post #348

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is Apple's propaganda to try and save face. What happened is the EU stepped in and explained to them what the consequences of breaking the DMA would be. Apple backed down, like they did a week ago with PWAs.

> Apple backed down, like they did a week ago with PWAs. Eh. Backing down would be Apple allowing non-WebKit browsers to run PWAs.

They had entirely removed support for PWAs. Putting them back was backing down. They will have to open them to other engines eventually.

Re: Epic says Apple will reinstate developer account

#415
post #389

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Other titans tried, they all failed to capture. Blackberry lagged for too long and Microsoft simply lacked the network effects since early advertisement was based on how large the app stores were. The only solace is that you can modify Android to the point where there's almost no Google interference whatsoever. But of course some apps choose to rely on that (e.g. Banking).maybe one day Apple will begrudgingly get to…

> Microsoft simply lacked the network effects MS beat Apple to market by a considerable margin. Windows Mobile substantially predates the iPhone, and it was actually usable. (I had one of their flagship devices.) But MS’s OS concept was incoherent, their UI was laggy, their web browser was unbearably slow despite arguably superior hardware, their form factor was not snazzy. And, unlike Apple, they utterly failed at m…

blackberry didn't seem to care about regular consumers until it was to late, instead relying on corporate customers and relying on integration with enterprise messaging software.

windows was well windows 8 and everyone hated it and everything about it. (and pre-windows phone 8 it was to fragmented with to many incompatible versions and little 3rd party support)

Palm/HP WebOS was the real mobile OS with the best chance to win but failed because well HP... need i say more.

Re: Epic says Apple will reinstate developer account

#416
post #409

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Aren’t regulators by definition establishing regulations which make all choices more similar to each other?

There are plenty of ways to differentiate in a competitive market. Good regulations set baselines for fair play, both toward customers and competitors. Whether or not that makes some aspects of those choices more similar isn't really relevant. Or if it is, it's because it makes them similar in good ways. Ways that are pro-customer and pro-competition, but they won't do unless legally required.

I agree that there are plenty of ways competitors could differentiate themselves. But in the current market, I think there are very few competitors, and even fewer ways they currently differentiate themselves. And the most notable recent regulations would eliminate one of the more meaningful differentiations.

Re: Epic says Apple will reinstate developer account

#417
post #394
post #380

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Microsoft simply lacked the network effects Microsoft execs had their heads buried too deep in their own asses to be able to understand what was needed at the time. They pushed a platform (Windows phone) that lacked interesting features out of the box, lacked cloud services integration to fill the gap left by the lacking base features, and required Windows as a development platform (and, iirc, C# as well?). It didn…

I think there’s more to it than this, and it’s subtle: The iPhone was cool . Seriously, the original iPhone had little going for it technically. No GPS, poor data bandwidth, no apps, and minimal ability to make phone calls. (It took the combined efforts of Apple and AT&T a couple generations before you could reliably place a call.) But it had a touch screen that felt nice, and you could watch videos and play music! T…

>Steve Ballmer was terrible at marketing.

you could have just shortened that to "Steve Ballmer was terrible" and been more accurate.

Re: Epic says Apple will reinstate developer account

#418

Earlier quoted context omitted.

According to the article it was because Epic met with Apple and gave better assurances that they'd play ball rather than deliberately break their contract like they did last time. Regulators don't seem to have had anything to do with it. --- So what changed? Apple tells 9to5Mac that it has held further discussions with Epic. The result is that Apple has received proper commitment that Epic will play by the rules as l…

Honestly what you describe seems to be an attempt by Apple PR to save face. They fear the spotlight on the fact that even on alternate stores only accounts controlled by Apple can publish apps, which might become the focus of new regulations

*only accounts controlled by Apple can publish apps… and have to pay an installation fee of 0.5$ per app per user per year.

Re: Epic says Apple will reinstate developer account

#419
post #372

Apple believes this is an existential threat and they are fighting against it as hard as they can. But is this a self-fulfilling prophecy? These actions come with a cost. This gives Epic visibility and it harms trust in Apple’s brand. How do they balance these costs against the perceived threat?

They balance with the arrogance of Cupertino.

Re: Epic says Apple will reinstate developer account

#420
post #394
post #380

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Microsoft simply lacked the network effects Microsoft execs had their heads buried too deep in their own asses to be able to understand what was needed at the time. They pushed a platform (Windows phone) that lacked interesting features out of the box, lacked cloud services integration to fill the gap left by the lacking base features, and required Windows as a development platform (and, iirc, C# as well?). It didn…

I think there’s more to it than this, and it’s subtle: The iPhone was cool . Seriously, the original iPhone had little going for it technically. No GPS, poor data bandwidth, no apps, and minimal ability to make phone calls. (It took the combined efforts of Apple and AT&T a couple generations before you could reliably place a call.) But it had a touch screen that felt nice, and you could watch videos and play music! T…

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