Re:Epic Games steps up Apple fight with EU antitrust complaint
by syberspace on Wednesday February 17, 2021 @10:30AM
(#26167408)
Who is forcing you to install apps from any store?
Are you being held hostage and compelled to install apps against your will? Blink twice for yes, three times for no.
Re:Epic Games steps up Apple fight with EU antitrust complaint
by Spivak on Wednesday February 17, 2021 @11:52AM
(#26168488)
Ohmygod I can't deal this reductionist stance on choice. Software isn't fungible. If you, for example, want to play a specific game, need a specific messenger to talk to your friends, or need a specific app for work like the Adobe suite or Procreate then you have no choice but to go to a store where those apps are available. If Photoshop is only in the Adobe store then you're gonna have to download and use that store if you want it. Having the choice to not use Photoshop isn't the same thing as having the choice about where to buy Photoshop.
I'm curious how this will play out in general. Android already allows side-loaded applications, and Epic allowed people to install Fortnite outside of the Play Store and it did poorly, so they begrudgingly added Fortnite back into the Play Store, so I imagine it would be the same thing on iOS. Arguably it could be even more challenging for others because Apple would likely not be forced to treat non-App Store stores the same as the App Store in some ways, which would very likely lead to a situation where users would get popups when when install the new app store and when they load an app, similar to how running a nonsigned program works on Mac now.