Users have a choice: Don't use iOS.
Their actions have pretty overwhelmingly spoken and they don't care. The only people that care are techies. And most obviously not that much because most meetings I show up to are still full of iPhones.
The judge in question was clearly not at all impressed with this argument when Cook raised it, and neither am I.
This amounts to telling people to throw the baby out with the bathwater every time they have an issue with something.
You say that users don't care, but users _don't know either_.
And whenever people lobby for right to repair laws and for consumers to _own_ hardware, guess who's always standing on the other saying that it ain't so.
And if Apple is so concerned about user security & privacy when it comes to alternative app stores, they should adjust their policies so that the apps most users want will see no reason not to be on the App Store.
Should they then be able to leverage that position to instantly win and extort the marketplace built on the next layer up? It pretty much goes to the heart of antitrust
5-10%... sure maybe, 30% of saas fees... ridiculous
Exactly. And yet this idea seems so hard to grasp for many, just look at the discussions around the web and on HN. Everyone over simplifies it to it is Apple's phone or Apple's App Store they do what ever they want. Or the user chose iPhone if you dont like it go and get an Android.
The judge actually pointed out ( Finally ! ) vast majority of revenue are coming from Games. Which means Gaming is in a way subsidising all other Apps in App Store.
I wish Apple separate the Game into Game Store and keep those 30%. While Apps and Services are 10%, with little curation of Apps with App Store. i.e You no longer block Apps for their political view or speeches. As long as they are legal you should allow them in within the quality guidelines and security clearance. Apple could still down rank all these lower quality apps should they choose to. They dont have to block it from accessing iPhone.
EU is watching the case very carefully. While Americans might think Apple can do whatever they want with their devices. The same could not be said with the EU. And I am willing to bet the court battle wont flavour Apple because it seems the old world has a much different view to Anti Trust and Anti Competition than US.
And Apple will have a choice, comply or paid a heavy price.
It is possible to demand better things from something you use. Not every issue is a hill to die on.
I can't yet convince myself that "don't use iOS" is a valid argument while "don't use a different app store" is not.
Why would you assume this would happen on iOS when it hasn't happened on Android, when the suggestion is to do what Android already allows, and yet we don't see this on Android?
It’s obviously not an example for this, otherwise Epic would have just made an Android store and moved on.
The only thing that Android doesn't allow is for the third-party stores to auto-update apps installed through those stores.
I'm not going to say that's not a big deal, because it's definitely annoying, but I have F-Droid on my phone and get plenty of value out of it, despite having to go through a confirmation dialog to update the apps I've installed through it.
> ... and is also not the market leader
Which is entirely irrelevant. (And if you consider the world market, not just the US, Android definitely is the market leader.)
If it was irrelevant, Epic would have just created an Android store and let Apple go their own way.
https://www.xda-developers.com/android-12-alternative-app-st...
Don't change the goal posts. Apple doesn't provide anything. Having to pass through a dialogue after download t confirm install isn't ideal, but possible is better than not.
> and is also not the market leader.
Android is at 45% and apple is at 55%.[1] Is your contention that a least of that amount is sufficient such that it actually changes this in some way? If so, how do you square that with Android's worldwide market share being reported as 72% in 2020?[2]
1: https://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/mobile/north-amer...
2: https://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/mobile/worldwide/...
It’s not just a dialog box. Alternate stores can’t provide automatic updates, which is a critical feature.
You are the one changing the goalposts here. Android alternative stores are not representative of what would happen because they are not the same, either technically, or in terms of market value.
These are the wrong numbers to look at. App profits are what count here - that’s what Epic wants to tap into.
This is a losing argument. We've already seen that the Apple store doesn't/can't prevent clones and fakes with information collecting inserts from overwhelming the originals.
Another store might actually do this better.
If anything, empirically we've seen that Apple runs a much tighter ship wrt scams and malware than Android and 3rd party friendly platforms. Especially from the perspective of non-tech mass consumer, who are incredibly well served by Apple's model.
Legislating / ruling Apple's closed model to be illegal is the true harm to consumer choice and freedom.
Sorry but Toyota doesn't have its business model harmed by being able to go to my mechanic to tune a car. If Apple wants to put three layers of dialogues to open up customization, so be it.
I have no sympathy for a trillion-dollar company and their "choice".
Or are users seeing awful prices for the app store?
Where are Customers complaining the most?
The Humble Bundle app allows you to install Android games you bought through humble bundles onto your Android phone. This allows you to buy bundles of games from developers at your own desired purchase price and give an amount of that purchase you choose to some charities of your choice.
It is, quite literally, used as another store and has the ability to install applications.
Many of the games I've gotten through that are also available on iOS, but you're unable to get iOS versions from this because there's no way to install that app nor a way for it to install other applications if you did, currently.
At least some of those developers would be happy to offer iOS versions as a bundle, or even give you access to choose iOS or Android in the same bundle, but there's no way to legitimately deliver these games to those customers.
Recently, cloud gaming apps and paying for subscriptions. Google Stadia and Xbox Streaming are not allowed through the iOS Store. Netflix and Spotify(not sure about this one) do not allow you to pay for the subscription on their app because Apple asks for 30%.
Apple does not allow other browser rendering engines. So now every iOS browser is just a Safari wrapper and you're unable to do any sort of plug-in, like adblockers.
These features being blocked does not help customers. They only help Apple.