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Having a monopoly is the number one reason why one is not forced to do the best they can. Especially when said monopolist can set the terms and rules as they please, without government oversight.

Yep! It's exactly why a monopolist like Apple is fighting so hard to not lose that position.

They REALLY don't want to compete on the merits here
 
I'm on my Mac now and getting robbed blind by the constant viruses and trojans in action at all times.

I wish Apple could have saved me from this by restricting the whole device to only be able use locked down Safari and the Mac App Store

(/s ... obv)
Ol' Doc Schiller prescribes more of his Kool-aid for you... obviously you haven't been drinking enough of it.

(Posted on my virus-laden Mac, using Firefox)
 
Are these the same people who have been getting software from places other than the Mac App Store for many years now? With all the bricked Macs? :rolleyes:
That quoted guy has no clue what he's talking about. No matter where the .ipa came from, if it "bricks" the phone it's still on the much praised IOS sandbox and not the place said .ipa came from.
Does anyone still care about Epic Games?
I still enjoy their free weekly games. Maybe you gotta be part of the sheep to loathe epic.
 
@I7guy

Great reminder!
A hero if there ever was one!

Take ‘em out Robin!

robin-hood-ss-jt-210129_1611935959808_hpMain_16x9_992.jpg
 
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Epic Games today announced plans to bring the Epic Games Store to iOS in the European Union, with Apple reinstating the company's developer account.
I am reminded how dumb EPIC was when they closed Fortnite gameplay to everyone using any Apple OS when using MacOS had absolutely no similar store restrictions impeding their commerce via web like iOS. :rolleyes:
 
What monopoly are you referring to? Any citation for any legal finding?
Apple isnt even a monopoly in the app Store...

Spotify directly competes against Apple Music.
And more people use it for a variety of reasons such as interface preference and better playlist recommendations.

Apple gives you Pages and Numbers yet people use Word and Excel.

There are thousands of similar games. Some are popular, some not. But play the same. Bejeweled/Candy Crush. Neither are Apple apps.

Apple lets these apps in (and competes against some) so there is no monopoly.
If you play by the clear rules of the App Store.Epic chose not to after signing the legal agreement they would.

For big companies, this has always been about money.
Not wanting to pay to use the Apple promoted infrastructure.

For small devs, the App Store provides a cheap, simple option to make money. Millions do.
They dont need to build a store, use a payment system, advertise, build trust. It's all part of the App Store already.
 
Can you guarantee the above 100%. I don't know if it's true or not, but on windows, it's possible that hardware can be blown out by bad applications behaving badly.
Occasionally we get App Store apps that run badly.
Battery life and overheating usually signs something dodgy happening.
And heat can cause hardware to fail.

Back in my early days I wrote COBOL code.
It was too easy to generate runaway programs they spawned new instances and brought the mainframe to a halt.
The operators spent a lot of time working out who was doing what and killing programs before forcing you to check code. Bad apps can have very bad consequences for other apps and hardware. DoS attacks have been very effective in more recent years.
 
That quoted guy has no clue what he's talking about. No matter where the .ipa came from, if it "bricks" the phone it's still on the much praised IOS sandbox and not the place said .ipa came from.
I still enjoy their free weekly games. Maybe you gotta be part of the sheep to loathe epic.
Epic dont want you to enjoy their free games. They want money. Youve been baited with a loss leader. The free drug to hook you... :)
 
Apple has a monopoly for (admission and) distribution of iOS apps to end users.
As Honda has a monopoly on distribution of Honda cars.
Not that hard to understand - considering I was directly replying to someone proclaiming the dangers of apps from 3rd party stores and how 3rd party app stores are shoddy - is it?
Nothing in this thread is easy to understand as to the pretzel twisting that posters go to “prove” their positions.
 
As Honda has a monopoly on distribution of Honda cars.

Nothing in this thread is easy to understand as to the pretzel twisting that posters go to “prove” their positions.
They cant even tell you the apps they NEED to run the App Store doesnt have.
And cant tell you their legit apps they are "testing" yet cant find the $99 fee to have hosted in the store...

Pretzel twisting sums up the arguments very well.

One company hosting an app store and gatekeeping it is not a monopoly when they have millions of apps written by third parties successfully generating income for everyone. :)
 
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Apple has a monopoly for (admission and) distribution of iOS apps to end users.

Not that hard to understand - considering I was directly replying to someone proclaiming the dangers of apps from 3rd party stores and how 3rd party app stores are shoddy - is it?
By that definition, every company has a monopoly on whatever goods they are selling. Nintendo has a monopoly on the switch console, and McDonald's has a monopoly on the quarter pounder. Per US law at least, it's not illegal to be a monopoly, and that's the difference between the US and the EU. US antitrust law looks at harm done to consumers (compared to EU law which looks at harm to smaller businesses). More importantly, monopolies have no duty to deal, which means they are not obligated to cater to every business, especially companies like Epic who knowingly violated the rules governing the App Store.

This is why I don't understand why you keep shouting "Apple is a monopoly" from the roof time and time again like it's supposed to mean something. So what if Apple is one? I am not living in the matrix. I know what Apple is. The only difference here is that I am more interested in being right than I am in making statements that are rooted in ideology.

I also wonder just how many people in the EU actually support the DMA, given that it's designed primarily to benefit their local businesses, and not everybody in the EU is necessarily running an app business. Consumers, not Apple, are the group who ultimately ends up supporting tens of millions of iOS developers financially. However, most of the commentary written about the App Store has come from the perspective of competitors with pending or concluded lawsuits against Apple (like Epic) or with an axe to grind (like Hey and Spotify). Their demands are often incongruent with what is ultimately good for consumers and even indie developers.

No coverage from the average person on the street, it seems. And I believe that consumers don't really care about a 30% cut they will never see, and the reality is that most don't really dislike closed, sandboxed app ecosystems. Otherwise, you would have seen more outcry when Fortnite was booted from the iOS App Store, and the reality was that this news was largely met with indifference.

I get it. You don't like the way Apple runs their business. You want to see the current App Store model burnt to the ground. I personally don't mind seeing the status quo preserved, because it suits my needs of a safe and secure storefront and I went all in on the Apple ecosystem knowing this very well.

It may seem odd to suggest that consumers need to vocally support a $3 trillion company. However, courts and lawmakers need to hear from actual consumers, not Apple competitors, about why they choose the App Store instead of alternatives available in the marketplace. Rather than hearing the same 3-4 companies parrot about how evil Apple is, just because.

And maybe consumers just need to be more vocal in this regard.
 
As Honda has a monopoly on distribution of Honda cars.
Wrong comparison.

Honda may have a monopoly on distributing Honda cars as Apple may have one distributing Apple apps.
That’s different from Honda forcing third parties like Ford to distribute their Ford cars through Honda, when they want to reach a customer base that‘s 25%, 30% or 50% of the population.

By that definition, every company has a monopoly on whatever goods they are selling
No. McDonald‘s doesn’t prevent third parties from selling their own quarter pounder burgers to customers that bought one from McDonald‘s yesterday.

This is why I don't understand why you keep shouting "Apple is a monopoly" from the roof time and time again like it's supposed to mean something
I wasn’t.

Please note the context on this occasion:
I was specifically responding to someone claiming apps from Apple‘s App Store must be safer than from third-party stores because Apple is „forced to do the best they can“ - unlike or more than third parties.

You want to see the current App Store model burnt to the ground
I‘ve got little against the App Store and its review and commission model - as long as it’s not the only way of installing apps - and as long as they allow for fair competition.

However, courts and lawmakers need to hear from actual consumers, not Apple competitors, about why they choose the App Store instead of alternatives available
I didn’t choose the App Store - I‘m forced to use it on iOS, after having made the preceding choice of buying an iOS smartphone. Which I wouldn’t have an issue with, were it not for the lack of mobile operating systems to choose from.
 
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Wrong comparison.

Honda may have a monopoly on distributing Honda cars as Apple may have one distributing Apple apps.
That’s different from Honda forcing third parties like Ford to distribute their Ford cars through Honda, when they want to reach a customer base that‘s 25%, 30% or 50% of the population.[…]

There are other analogies but we would just go around in circles. Apple has a legal monopoly on the app store. Just like it has a legal monopoly on iPhones.
 
There are other analogies but we would just go around in circles. Apple has a legal monopoly on the app store. Just like it has a legal monopoly on iPhones.
Also, it's not like the App Store was a separate market in the first place. It was bundled as part of the ecosystem. Apple didn't 'take away' third party app stores/downloads. They were never there.
 
More importantly, monopolies have no duty to deal, which means they are not obligated to cater to every business, especially companies like Epic who knowingly violated the rules governing the App Store.
That is the thing. If I made an app for iOS and it is rejected by Apple, I can't distribute it on iOS. This happens even for people publishing an update for an existing app and even for things which were fine in the previous release and suddenly the someone said that violates something in the rules. That is the issue.

And the rules are weird, adult content is forbidden, gambling is not. Browsers are only for adults.

The EU also could have said that Apple's rules must change and be less arbitrary and moreover the decisions has to be less arbitrary. Instead they said, if you don't agree with the rules, create your own store, make your own rules, and try it that way. The hope is of course that Apple will make their rules less arbitrary and more predictable for developers.

And yes I think it is completely possible to like Apple devices for its features and ease of use but I really dislike the way Apple handles the App Store. Acting like a nanny state and protecting its children from evil content. I still remember when Apple wanted to remove Tumblr from the App Store due to adult content on the site.
 
The walled garden ensures only quality apps are available, and prevents trash and adware clogging up the App Store. We know that Apple is the largest resource of quality games - without any such trash. Apple arcade, with its tens of titles, is not a tactit admission that the rest of the App Store is full of adware garbage.

There is no niche left for Epic to really fill here!
Simple solution just don’t install other app stores
 
To me, it's the same logic as me being able to purchase Nintendo switch games only from their digital store where developers have to pay Nintendo a 30% cut. It's not like game developers are able to offer the software for download directly from their own portal and get out of paying Nintendo.

Apple's IP, Apple's rules.
The difference is the iPhone is a multi purpose device that does more than 1 thing.
Where as games consoles are exactly that.
 
Again, someone whose argument depends on the alternative app stores being “shoddy” and run by “scammers,” as if there is no other legitimate company that could run a store selling digital goods competently and without scamming people. 🙄
Any other “legitimate” company will be interested more in turnover rather than user or platform safety. Even taking into consideration Apple’s release process where dodgy apps still get through, I can imagine how happy the dodgy developers will become when those “legitimate” companies launch new app stores 🤢

I personally, will consider every developer being dodgy if they don’t use Apple App Store where at least it’s guaranteed they can’t use private APIs or abusive user tracking frameworks, along with some other non user friendly stuff.
 
Any other “legitimate” company will be interested more in turnover rather than user or platform safety. Even taking into consideration Apple’s release process where dodgy apps still get through, I can imagine how happy the dodgy developers will become when those “legitimate” companies launch new app stores 🤢

I personally, will consider every developer being dodgy if they don’t use Apple App Store where at least it’s guaranteed they can’t use private APIs or abusive user tracking frameworks, along with some other non user friendly stuff.
Well you have an easy solution
Just don’t download the app or App Store then no problem.
 
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The difference is the iPhone is a multi purpose device that does more than 1 thing.
Where as games consoles are exactly that.

Perhaps, but I am not aware of any law or rule which draws a distinction between the two.

And that’s what it is boiling down to at the end of the day - how some random stranger on the internet thinks Apple ought to be regulated, based on his or her own personal feelings. The reality is - feelings and opinions remain just that, and this is not supported by any law whatsoever.

Which is also exactly why the EU had to go to all the trouble of coming up with a new law specifically targeting Apple, and even then, it seems like they are having a hard time nailing the precise wording which would lead to the desired outcome.
 
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