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Apple terminates Epic Games developer account, calling it a 'threat' to iOS

techcrunch.com

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Re: Apple terminates Epic Games developer account, calling it a 'threat' to iOS

#551

Post by unsupp0rted »

diebeforei485 wrote: post #512

This will not fly in the EU. I am actually very annoyed about their behavior. My next phone will likely not be an iPhone. All the paid apps are subscription based now anyway, it's quite easy to switch.

I'm totally ok with their behavior. My next phone will likely be an iPhone.

If I wasn't okay with it, then I'd buy one of the multiple other options.

There are alternatives to Android even. They're terrible phones with terrible platforms: that's why people don't want them.

Apple makes an excellent phone with an excellent platform. I'm fine with letting them do that to the maximum degree they're able.

Re: Apple terminates Epic Games developer account, calling it a 'threat' to iOS

#552

Post by lxgr »

akira2501 wrote: post #510
lxgr wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Parts of Apple's DPLA are likely unenforceable in the EU going forward.

Attempting to enforce an "illegal" contract provision seems pretty "emotional" to me. Apple is finally in a position to lose their monopoly grip on a platform software store, and they clearly will stop at nothing to stop the loss of that revenue, this is obviously an existential problem for them.

It certainly threatens their app store revenue, and by extension market value, so it's rational for them to push back, but by no means is it an "existential problem". Apple is quite a bit more than just the app store.

There's probably risks on both sides here, too: Playing hardball with EU regulators and courts could cost them a lot of money.

Re: Apple terminates Epic Games developer account, calling it a 'threat' to iOS

#554

Post by jsnell »

codingcodingboy wrote: post #349
lozenge wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You still need a developer account to notarise apps that are published on alternative app stores. Plus you need to agree to pay Apple the Core Technology Fee.

Why didn't the EU force the removal of those requirements? Apple will keep playing games to make alternative stores uncompetitive and keep away unwanted developers.

DMA enforcement only started today. Until today, all these plans were just words on a paper. The EC will only look at the real state of the world now that enforcement has started, and make their enforcement decisions based on that and the public feedback. They aren't giving any kind of pre-approvals or pre-denials to the plans.

(If they were pre-evaluating plans, the optimal play for the gatekeepers would be to propose something totally unreasonable, and then negotiate it to something that's mostly unreasonable but just barely acceptable to the EC. That would be a bad outcome for the EC. So from a game theory perspective, they're better of making the companies guess at what will be acceptable rather than negotiating, since the companies will want to be conservative.)

Re: Apple terminates Epic Games developer account, calling it a 'threat' to iOS

#555

Post by [deleted] »

vlod wrote: post #529

Wondering how this affects Apple employees. Back in the day, working for Apple seemed cool. (Pirate flags on building etc). Previously MSFT used to be (maybe they've turned that around?) the most hated tech company (becz of their very aggressive attitudes to competitors especially Netscape). One thing they didn't FU and is represented by the infamous sweaty Balmer video [0] of him shouting "Developers, developers, de…

[deleted]

Re: Apple terminates Epic Games developer account, calling it a 'threat' to iOS

#556

Post by darknavi »

charcircuit wrote: post #538
cheeze wrote: post #459

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Developers aren't forced to write any apps. They write apps where the revenue makes sense. And the revenue makes the most sense on ios for a large share of developers. 95%+ of developers don't care if Apple doesn't allow Epic on their store. That's just reality. If my boss tells me "we're launching an ios app" I'm not going to tell him about how I disagree with Apples principles and refuse to build it.

They care about their own accounts being deleted over some disagreement. The risk of having your account banned changes how you invest in the platform.

> They care about their own accounts being deleted over some disagreement. The risk of having your account banned changes how you invest in the platform.

I wish it did but it really doesn't. You can see countless "I lost my google account for a random reason" and yet everyone I know has a google account and probably uses gmail.

Re: Apple terminates Epic Games developer account, calling it a 'threat' to iOS

#557

Post by PreachSoup »

sandoze wrote: post #527
diebeforei485 wrote: post #512

This will not fly in the EU. I am actually very annoyed about their behavior. My next phone will likely not be an iPhone. All the paid apps are subscription based now anyway, it's quite easy to switch.

Yikes, you might be disappointed: https://www.reuters.com/legal/transactional/google-asks-judg... I hear Huawei makes nice phones.

Android's store management is not different from windows. You can completely ignore it/install your own store/install your own apk. Not sure why people keep bring it up in Apple's case.

I am still waiting for Apple to let me install the real Firefox

Re: Apple terminates Epic Games developer account, calling it a 'threat' to iOS

#558

Post by nottorp »

gopher_space wrote: post #472
_fat_santa wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The key difference I see in Apple's app store business is that it's a monopolistic marketplace model. If Apple allowed an alternative to the app store then this wouldn't be an issue. Take Microsoft and Windows as an example, they have the Microsoft store which operates as a marketplace with rules but they don't get the same scrutiny because there are alternatives. Don't like what MS is doing with their app store? Fin…

> Don't like what MS is doing with their app store? Fine just release the binary yourself. Whip up a small windows binary and send it to your mom. See if she can run it without any help from you. MS is doing the same thing from a different angle.

Eh, you create a msi including all dependencies with tools provided to you by Microsoft free of charge and without restrictions. And mom gets a start menu icon.

Can you do the same on iOS?

Re: Apple terminates Epic Games developer account, calling it a 'threat' to iOS

#559

Post by mdhb »

cheeze wrote: post #459
charcircuit wrote: post #56

Apple should avoid destroying developer trust as developers aren't forced to write ios apps. Apple needs developers.

Developers aren't forced to write any apps. They write apps where the revenue makes sense. And the revenue makes the most sense on ios for a large share of developers. 95%+ of developers don't care if Apple doesn't allow Epic on their store. That's just reality. If my boss tells me "we're launching an ios app" I'm not going to tell him about how I disagree with Apples principles and refuse to build it.

No but a lot will start building PWAs wherever they can instead because they no longer need to write an entire second copy of their app that only runs in one place and can’t share code and they don’t have to just pay 30% of their revenue to someone for no good reason.

Trust me, Apple pissing off developers is absolutely going to have serious implications for them.

Re: Apple terminates Epic Games developer account, calling it a 'threat' to iOS

#560

Post by vlod »

EricE wrote: post #263
vardump wrote: post #147

I've spent ~$7000 on Apple products last year. I think it'll be $0 this year and going forward. Tired of this kind of crap. (Not only this, but Apple's behavior with EU, etc.)

Who you going to replace them with that's better/same level of ecosystem/user experience? Genuinely interested.

I use terminal, vscode and firefox, docker to do development. Linux (specifically popos) works well for that and a lot of other stuff.

For that I use a Thinkpad X1 Carbon.

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