blastdoor

svanstrom said:

blastdoor said:

svanstrom said:

blastdoor said:

svanstrom said:

blastdoor said:

If Epic wants to characterize Apple as a monopoly because they control their own App Store, then Epic is a monopoly because they control FortNite. Epic should be broken up and copies of Fortnite given to several other game developers, so that Epic's Fortnite monopoly is finally ended! 

In some seriousness, though... I actually think Apple would be wise to allow other app stores on their platforms, at least sort of. 

Other app stores could be authorized to operate on iOS, and perhaps pay Apple a much smaller share of revenue than the Apple App Store gets. By disassociating the Apple brand from these other stores, Apple could get a share of revenue that hey otherwise might never get, because they could lower their content standards. In other words, Apple could finally make money off of porn! Also, Apple could require that other App Store operators accept liability for anything that goes wrong with the apps sold through their stores. 

Meanwhile, Apple could more aggressively curate their own App Store for content quality, so that their store truly is the best. 

There you completely ignore that for Apple to guarantee security and adherence to guidelines they still have to do the work vetting all apps (and all updates of said apps) themselves; so they are still doing the same work, they just don't get paid the same to do it (and according to your scheme they would also intentionally have to let less quality products get in, just to somehow prove their own superiority by applying the regular quality only in their own store).

Have you ever used a Mac?

Not sure it's possible to even try to continue a discussion if you don't even begin to understand the difference between the platforms/OSes/devices.

Apple chooses the differences, they are not some deep innate property of the universe. It sounds like you have a status quo fetish.

You under some delusion that OSes can quickly just be remade from scratch to work differently from the ground up, and still keep working with existing software etc?

Nope. 

Are you under the delusion that iOS has not become more like the Mac, and the Mac more like iOS, over time? 
Are you under the delusion that Apple cannot choose to continue to modify either or both in any way they please? 

History has not ended, nor do we live in the best of all possible worlds. Progress and change will happen. 

Here are a few examples of things that poseurs like you have said would NEVER happen, but people like me (who according to poseurs like you "just don't understand apple") have suggested could or should happen: 

1. return of a big tower Mac Pro (I said this for years)
2. stylus for iPad (this wasn't my thing, but others have said it)
3. mouse/trackpad for iPad (ditto) 
4. custom Apple SOCs for the Mac (I said this for years)
5. Apple making/owning their own content for Apple TV (I said this years ago) 

These ideas, and many more, have been trashed by poseurs like you right up until they actually happened. 

Gruber has it right -- the business model for iPhone/iPad is more like a video game console, but instead of being just games, it's an "app console." Or, "mobile app console." 

Wake me when Epic sues Sony. 

If Epic wants to characterize Apple as a monopoly because they control their own App Store, then Epic is a monopoly because they control FortNite. Epic should be broken up and copies of Fortnite given to several other game developers, so that Epic's Fortnite monopoly is finally ended! 

In some seriousness, though... I actually think Apple would be wise to allow other app stores on their platforms, at least sort of. 

Other app stores could be authorized to operate on iOS, and perhaps pay Apple a much smaller share of revenue than the Apple App Store gets. By disassociating the Apple brand from these other stores, Apple could get a share of revenue that hey otherwise might never get, because they could lower their content standards. In other words, Apple could finally make money off of porn! Also, Apple could require that other App Store operators accept liability for anything that goes wrong with the apps sold through their stores. 

Meanwhile, Apple could more aggressively curate their own App Store for content quality, so that their store truly is the best. 

sree said:

blastdoor said:

GeorgeBMac said:

If, as he says, it's all about Trump's trade war, then that will no longer be necessary once we can return to facing our real enemy:  Russia.

I think both China and Russia are problems, just in very different ways. 

Putin's Russia is essentially a criminal organization with nuclear weapons.

China is a legit great power with long term strategic ambitions. 

Of the two, Russia is probably harder to negotiate with but easier to straight up defeat if we were to get serious about defeating them.

China is probably harder to straight up defeat but easier to influence through negotiation and diplomacy (not just negotiation and diplomacy with china but also with allies interested in containing China). That's because China has long term strategic interests that go beyond the narrow personal interests of current leadership. I think Chinese leadership (and Chinese more generally) see themselves as being part of human civilization, moving the species forward (just not necessarily in ways that Americans and Europeans would always agree with). Russian leaders are just thugs running a syndicate. 

I think you are describing a china of 20yrs ago, not the china of today. They have veered far from their balance, and years of uber-nationalism has significantly lowered their wisdom and strategic thinking.

Well, that's a good point. Of course, the same could be said of the United States. But I still think both the US and China, despite considerable problems, are still great powers while Russia is a criminal enterprise. 

It's far from inevitable that the US and China will self-correct, but I think they both have the potential to do so. I see no potential in Russia. 

randominternetperson said:

Foxconn is a Taiwanese company.  I'm surprised an executive there would speak this frankly about their business in the PRC.  He must be confident in what he says, because if China does remain "the factory of the world" Foxconn's access to that factory could be threatened.

Yeah... I also worry about TSMC. 

The Taiwan Straits are just a little over 100 miles wide. Taiwan spends about $10 billion a year on its military, China spent about $200 billion a year. 

I've read Taiwan thinks maybe they could hold out for a month if they were invaded. That might be optimistic. But even if accurate, it implicitly assumes somebody might try to rescue them. Who would that be? At this point I don't think the US alone could repel China from Taiwan. I think we'd need a lot of help, certainly from the Japanese. Would we do it? I don't know... I'd put it at 50-50. It would be a very major effort, like nothing we've done since WW2.