Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Apple announces ability to download apps directly from websites in EU

macrumors.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

651–660 of 1001 posts

Re: Apple announces ability to download apps directly from websites in EU

#651

Post by hyperdimension »

judge2020 wrote: post #624
dig1 wrote: post #609

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> That said I also don’t think it’s a reasonable expectation for old binaries to continue to work indefinitely. Maintenance is a reality of life of a software developer, and personally speaking There is a fine difference between keeping old binaries running and maintaining your application. I don't expect certain applications to be maintained, but I expect them to run on newer versions of OS for many years. If you th…

16 bit support got dropped from Windows over a decade ago. It's not like macOS drops things at random, Monumental architecture changes are good reasons to break any apps that hadn't been touched in x years.

No, it's still there in the 32-bit version of Windows (10, anyway.) Windows 11 doesn't support 32-bjt, so I suppose you could say it was dropped then, but Windows 10 is still supported.

Re: Apple announces ability to download apps directly from websites in EU

#652

Post by nektro »

bogwog wrote: post #67

> Alternative app marketplaces. Marketplaces can choose to offer a catalog of apps solely from the developer of the marketplace. How does that count as a "marketplace"? > Web Distribution ... will let authorized developers distribute their iOS apps to EU users directly from a website owned by the developer All of this just makes it crystal clear what Apple's goal is: to prevent competition. It's not about security li…

debating about how they run the store is totally valid, but there being only one store absolutely does make iOS safer overall

Re: Apple announces ability to download apps directly from websites in EU

#653

Post by willseth »

bogwog wrote: post #67

> Alternative app marketplaces. Marketplaces can choose to offer a catalog of apps solely from the developer of the marketplace. How does that count as a "marketplace"? > Web Distribution ... will let authorized developers distribute their iOS apps to EU users directly from a website owned by the developer All of this just makes it crystal clear what Apple's goal is: to prevent competition. It's not about security li…

> All of this just makes it crystal clear what Apple's goal is: to prevent competition.

Web Distribution requires stricter app and developer review than Marketplace distribution.

Re: Apple announces ability to download apps directly from websites in EU

#654

Post by smoldesu »

burnerthrow008 wrote: post #510
sneak wrote: post #264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Their shareholders can, and will.

lol. Shareholders won’t care if Apple pulls out of Europe if Europe makes it impossible to make a profit. Another comment claims that the App Store represents something like 40% of Apple’s profit. If you chop a company’s profit in half and lay on a bunch of regulatory costs, pulling out of the market starts to look appealing. And, who is to say that the EC will stop here? What happens when all the alternative app sto…

> if Europe makes it impossible to make a profit.

Unless they stop them from shipping iPhone hardware or tax the MSRP beyond 40%, I think it's quite literally impossible for that to happen.

Re: Apple announces ability to download apps directly from websites in EU

#655

Post by asadotzler »

sjm wrote: post #411
mthoms wrote: post #257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Access to gaming is not critical to participation in a modern economy. Whereas a phone gives you access to banking, government services, medical services, emergency services, education, information, news, wayfinding(GPS), shopping (especially if you live somewhere remote) are just some examples of things people do with their phones. And that's not just some people, like 80-90% of all people. It's not the same.

Are any of those things impossible without sideloading or the DMA? Those things will only be riskier on your phone with all the malware that will undoubtedly spread throughout fully open marketplaces. I really do not want my mom accidentally installing her "Chase Bank" app from www.chazebank.cc.

those things are all made prohibitively difficult without a smartphone. there are people in the US getting kicked off their insurance plans for not having a required smartphone. this isn't some goddamn game here, peoples lives and livelihoods are on the line and you're wondering if it might not be such a big deal clearly never having put more than a moment's thought into it.

And your malware claims are total BS There's been alternative stores on Android for years and the malware situation remains stable to slightly improving thanks to hardening of the OS that Google did resulting from the goal of supporting multiple stores. Far more people in the world use Android and bank on it than iOS so the idea that the sky will fall if Apple opens up is pure ridiculousness, utter silliness.

Re: Apple announces ability to download apps directly from websites in EU

#656

Post by throwitaway1123 »

robmccoll wrote: post #37
Ballas wrote: post #6

I just want to be able to install my own apps on my own device without paying $99/year (and with a signature that lasts a reasonable amount of time). Sadly, this doesn't seem to allow for that.

That's the thing that would prevent me from buying a Vision Pro down the line. It's going to be an iOS-like walled garden experience. If it could run arbitrary macOS apps on device, it would be infinitely more useful (but probably cannibalize the MacBook market and why would Apple ever roll out a new product line that doesn't force developers to pay them 30%?)

> It's going to be an iOS-like walled garden experience.

It might be even worse. Apparently you can't even add a web app to your home screen on the Vision Pro. Vision Pro users are paying for a native app that loads youtube.com in a webview: https://christianselig.com/2024/02/introducing-juno/

Re: Apple announces ability to download apps directly from websites in EU

#657

Post by nerdjon »

simion314 wrote: post #647
nerdjon wrote: post #370

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wouldn't call it imagined when Fortnite is not available on the Android App Store... There is at least one company that is very much pushing for this exact scenario, and has announced plans for releasing a store on iOS.

So can you find other real example, since this one is invalid because of Epic lawsuit. All Apple fans name Facebook so please show us the Facebook example or maybe shut up about Facebook and use a real example not imagined ones.

What about Epic's lawsuit makes Fortnite invalid?

Fortnite also is not on the most popular store on PC so it is not just about their lawsuit. They want to run a store on all platforms and have said they will be launching an Epic game store on iOS. So I don't understand why they are invalid.

But that is a clear example, they are not on the official store for iOS or Android (which also is not part of Epic's lawsuit).

As far as Facebook goes, I don't think anyone is claiming that Facebook will in fact do it so maybe tone it down a bit. But Facebook is an example of a company that has enough of a user base that they could try to convince users to download a store and likely many would since they are addicted to social media and they own Instagram.

TikTok likely could. Microsoft would be stupid to not be looking into it. Steam could be looking into it.

None of those are concrete and to my knowledge none of them have signaled that they would. But those are companies that have enough of a name and a product that they could likely very easily get users to download the App Store which turns into a gateway for others to use their store instead of the Apple App Store since it is is now on their phone.

Regardless of all of those companies, there is zero reason to discount the fact that Epic is doing this on iOS. They skip the Android Play Store and they are doing it on PC. Fortnite has a ton of market power.

Edit: Also Facebook very much has an incentive to explore this option. Not only would it be another revenue source (and maybe they could somehow tie it into their VR/AR stuff) but they have been vocal about their issues with Apple in the past.

Re: Apple announces ability to download apps directly from websites in EU

#658

Post by asadotzler »

nerdjon wrote: post #178
afavour wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> so much of this is focused on the developers, and that is the problem here. How many users actually want this? How many users actually understand the issues at stake, though? I don't say that to be patronizing but it's a nuanced, thorny problem. I bet if you simply asked "do you think it should be allowed to download porn apps?" a good number of users (if asked anonymously!) would say yes. How many users understand…

> How many users actually understand the issues at stake, though? I don't say that to be patronizing but it's a nuanced, thorny problem. I bet if you simply asked "do you think it should be allowed to download porn apps?" a good number of users (if asked anonymously!) would say yes. How many users understand why they can't subscribe to Netflix through the iOS app? How many know what Apple's cut even is? The iPhone is…

>I mean I don't ask my grocery store what their cut is, or target, or any other store

It's 1-3% for your grocery store. Compare that to Apple's 30% and maybe you'll wonder why you didn't ask your grocery store sooner, especially if it's a local grocer with an owner and workers you might even personally interact with because they're all scraping by splitting that 1-3% while listening to you defending Apple's 30% cut.

If Apple is so reasonable here, why not offer to pay 27% more to your grocer and their workers so they can get in on some of this reasonable 30% cut you so adamantly support. Nah, eff them, right? The real human beings bringing you literal sustenance for life for a 2% markup. They'll be totally fine, right? But multi-trillion dollar mega-corporations facing some downward pressure on their 30% cut, the big man's gotta draw the line at that. At least people know where your head's at.

Re: Apple announces ability to download apps directly from websites in EU

#659

Post by AnthonyMouse »

willseth wrote: post #653
bogwog wrote: post #67

> Alternative app marketplaces. Marketplaces can choose to offer a catalog of apps solely from the developer of the marketplace. How does that count as a "marketplace"? > Web Distribution ... will let authorized developers distribute their iOS apps to EU users directly from a website owned by the developer All of this just makes it crystal clear what Apple's goal is: to prevent competition. It's not about security li…

> All of this just makes it crystal clear what Apple's goal is: to prevent competition. Web Distribution requires stricter app and developer review than Marketplace distribution.

Isn't that kind of the point? The goal was to get out of Apple's clutches when your customers have their devices, so Apple made the thing meant to be independent even more dependent than the original in order to deter adoption.

Re: Apple announces ability to download apps directly from websites in EU

#660

Post by fsflover »

cosmojg wrote: post #509
somat wrote: post #489

The whole app ecosystem(android and apple) is carefully constructed for maximum market owner value extraction, user value is a secondary consideration. Basically, it is what the web would look like if it were developed by corporate interests, conversely "apps" could have been a better designed web[1], but instead are this comparatively clunky gated process where you have to explicitly install the app first only then…

Oh, the tragedy of what could have been: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firefox_OS

Mobian, PureOS and pmOS are here today. Sent from my Librem 5.
Post reply on HN