The distinction is that a mostly sane person decided to stock Hot Pockets at the grocery store and will likely continue doing so and if they stop it won't be for a random reason.

The way it works with Android apps is if some random code quality shell script of questionable quality flags your app, the app will be removed and you will get a lifetime developer ban from Google. There is no human in the loop and no appeals process.

Because there's a monopoly for Android apps, there is no reason for them to ever improve customer/developer service.

An excellent analogy would be getting banned for life by a programmers union if anything you write ever fails a valgrind test. Doesn't matter if its a bug in that revision of the valgrind test and there will never be any human contact in the process.

"I've been banned from google and I don't even know why" is a weekly discussion topic on android development forums.

Even funnier is Google implements guilt by association. So if you have a similar email address or ip address to someone who gets banned, the same shell scripts will lifetime ban your account under their ban evasion policy.

Google Play does not have a monopoly on Android apps. It's not even included on phones sold in some countries. Numerous apps, including high profiles one such as Fortnite, have not been distributed in the Play Store and there are several alternatives appstores around.

Fortnite just launched on the Play Store because of how impossible Google has made it to distribute Android apps outside of Play.

> because of how impossible Google has made it to distribute Android apps outside of Play.

Or because of how much of a larger audience the Play Store has.

Installing an APK from a website has never been an easier process. I do not see how Google can simplify it any more. You are asked 2 things:

- Can we allow your browser to download files?

- Can we install this app on your device?

Google set Project Zero on finding exploits for the Fortnite installer and then engaged in a media campaign to promote how scary installing it was.

I would say in addition to the "scary stuff" warnings Google employs on devices, they went out of their way to harm any serious contender for outside distribution.

Epic also went on a significant campaign to be allowed to distribute through Play, but utilize their own payment provider, but Google's monopoly wouldn't budge:

Google's Play Store demands aren't about security, they're about the 30% taxation.

> You are asked 2 things [...]

Can you provide references?

On at least four Android phones to allow installing unsigned APKs I've had warnings about "Scary Stuff"[tm]* if I proceed...

* I paraphrase...

The “Scary Stuff” warnings are important because anyone competent will ignore them and anyone not competent will be scared away. As they should be, because potential for abuse here is rife.

It works.

Every time a banned developer makes the front page of HN, it turned out that the company had hired a contractor or employee who had been previously banned for malware.

So the algorithm decides that an app you wrote was "malware" by some arbitrary bullshit screening process.

Now you've lost your job and you're banned for life from making android apps?

SOUNDS UTTERLY FANTASTIC! (actually sounds totally evil)

While true, no store has the ability to prevent other stores from opening in the same city either

Your comparison of Google Play being like a normal store, would then make Android the town the store is in.

Would your position be that Walmart should be allowed to pay off the town to prevent Kroger from opening?

Like any other app not from the play store Google Play allows you to install other app marketplaces. You just got a warning the first time you install the alternative store.

It's just incredibly hard and not worth it to start an alternative legit store unless you are huge with something that customers really want and that is not available somewhere else. (ie: Epic Games with the Epic Store for Fortnite)

>>It's just incredibly hard and not worth it to start an alternative legit store unless you are huge

Even amazon failed at this, so it is not just incredibly hard, the road blokes Google puts in place for people wanting to create another store is defacto impossible. Further they they are more extreme then what Microsoft did in the 1990's with IE that caused an AntiTrust violation and they were forced to easily allow other browsers and allow them to be changed as the default

I am not sure why Google can get way with what they do, even less sure how Apple gets away with it

Guessing tech companies learned their lesson in the 90s and started sending lobbyist to Washington.

In that case Apple fits in your example, not Google, as they don't prevent you to install any other store.