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Google must open Android for third-party stores, rules Epic judge

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Re: Google must open Android for third-party stores, rules Epic judge

#61

Post by hooli42 »

whimsicalism wrote: post #29
tencentshill wrote: post #21

Soon we'll have the Verizon Appstore and the Spotify Appstore and the Zoom Appstore, the exclusive home for each app and their partners, each with it's own overlapping user tracking libraries and insecure payment methods, and no one can even tell them to do otherwise. Coming soon to iOS, too!

Right, just like how they've done on desktop environments

This is exactly the situation for desktop games right now, something Epic is profiting immensely from. It's an extremely annoying situation for users, having a dozen launcher/store apps around contributing to bloat.

Re: Google must open Android for third-party stores, rules Epic judge

#62

Post by clhodapp »

georgeecollins wrote: post #59
clhodapp wrote: post #4

> and it must give rival third-party app stores access to the full catalog of Google Play apps That one feels a step too far to me. It seems like it should be the developer's job to share their app with third party stores, not Google's.

Google is the developer.

Oh! Is this only Google's own apps? I read it as requiring Google to offer some kind of API to allow any app that any developer lists on the Play Store to be sucked into a third-party store. What would "unless developers opt out individually" mean then?

Re: Google must open Android for third-party stores, rules Epic judge

#63

Post by TrianguloY »

Oh! So I'll finally be able to add donation links to my apps? And links to both play store and f-droid??

Currently, if you do that, the review fails for "Payments policy violation" (for the donation link at least, link to fdroid should be allowed, although I think I had some issues in the past...)

Re: Google must open Android for third-party stores, rules Epic judge

#64

Post by graeme »

tmtvl wrote: post #6

Wait, so the Google Play Store, which you can install alternatives to (F-Droid, Aurora, Amazon,...), and where you can easily install apps through other means (such as downloading an APK through your browser and running it from the file manager) is an illegal monopoly while the Apple App Store isn't? Well, I guess Google's market cap is only 2 trillion compared to Apple's 3 trillion, so I guess that's fair.

It's because android is licensed to third party manufacturers and google changed the terms in a way contrary to law. Whereas Apple has had the same terms since the app store's launch and only used the app store on Apple devices.

It's the same way that playstation can set its own terms for playstation game sales. They make both the software and devices.

Re: Google must open Android for third-party stores, rules Epic judge

#65

Post by ChoHag »

tmtvl wrote: post #6

Wait, so the Google Play Store, which you can install alternatives to (F-Droid, Aurora, Amazon,...), and where you can easily install apps through other means (such as downloading an APK through your browser and running it from the file manager) is an illegal monopoly while the Apple App Store isn't? Well, I guess Google's market cap is only 2 trillion compared to Apple's 3 trillion, so I guess that's fair.

[dead]

Re: Google must open Android for third-party stores, rules Epic judge

#66

Post by jncfhnb »

gjsman-1000 wrote: post #46
jncfhnb wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Apple's claim is simple: The monopoly was from the very beginning, when the iPhone had 0.0% market share. If it was anti-competitive, the iPhone would have failed. If developers didn't like it, the iPhone would have failed. Has Apple unfairly done anything new now that they have a monopoly? No. Did Apple raise their 30% royalty to 70% when they had a monopoly? No. The problem is not a monopoly on hardware. The prob…

> The problem is gatekeeping access to software markets However, it started out this way, from the beginning, and developers accepted it. This is easily demonstrable - customers would not have bought devices without apps, and vice versa. Very hard to show, in a court of law, that the terms which were once acceptable now magically aren't. The law isn't interested in people who say, "yes, it was a perfectly fine contra…

That is laughably incorrect. Like… not even close.

Re: Google must open Android for third-party stores, rules Epic judge

#67

Post by wccrawford »

clhodapp wrote: post #4

> and it must give rival third-party app stores access to the full catalog of Google Play apps That one feels a step too far to me. It seems like it should be the developer's job to share their app with third party stores, not Google's.

That isn't "all apps on Google Play". It's "all apps developed by Google that integrate with the Google Play system."

Re: Google must open Android for third-party stores, rules Epic judge

#68

Post by jpc0 »

akira2501 wrote: post #48
tencentshill wrote: post #21

Soon we'll have the Verizon Appstore and the Spotify Appstore and the Zoom Appstore, the exclusive home for each app and their partners, each with it's own overlapping user tracking libraries and insecure payment methods, and no one can even tell them to do otherwise. Coming soon to iOS, too!

Yep. Then consumers can decide which one is best for them. Then they can compete. Then the best features with the best pricing, no only for customers, but the cut for developers, can be discovered. You pay such a high price for living in the walled garden. I honestly can't imagine why you would _want_ it.

Amazon Prime Video... Netflix... Disney Plus... The choices are great...

Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum...

Re: Google must open Android for third-party stores, rules Epic judge

#69

Post by cma »

talldayo wrote: post #35
cma wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> and where you can easily install apps through other means When the lawsuit started, apps installed like this couldn't be automatically updated without going through the scare screens again manually.

Which scare screens? I've sideloaded on Android for nearly a decade now, and the only one I've seen is the reasonable warning about third-party app sources when enabling it for the first time.

I believe the right thing I wanted to refer to is unattended app updates, enabled for third party sideloaded stores only with Android 12 or so. Maybe 12 added it back after it was taken away at some earlier point?

Re: Google must open Android for third-party stores, rules Epic judge

#70

Post by LadyCailin »

mike_d wrote: post #22

Epic's "First Run" program does all the things they got mad at Apple and Google about. You don't have to pay any license fees for Unreal Engine if you use Epic exclusively for payments. They give you 100% revshare for 6 months if you agree to not ship your game on any other app store. Let's not kid ourselves, Epic never cared about consumer choice or a fair playing field, they only want the ability to profit without…

I will find it deliciously ironic and welcomed if precedents set by Epic are eventually used against them. The even more hilarious news though is that apparently PC users hate their platform so much though, that exclusivity on Epic is perhaps more of a liability. I read the other day that that new open world Star Wars game had “disappointing” sales because of that.
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