Riiight. So, you think that a company which develops the hardware, and operating system, as well as API’s and other software that the companies use to develop apps, should be forced to let another company, that didn’t spend anything on developing any of these, to be able to open up an App Store for the first company’s product, and charge other companies, which use the first companies software to build apps for the first companies device? Wouldn’t that hurt the small companies? Because in that scenario, the first company would have to still recoup some of their money spent on R&D of the APIs and other software used to build the apps for their product, so they would no longer to be able to provide that for free to users not using their App Store. Way too many people are totally ignoring all the time and money that Apple puts into the developer tools, the money it costs to keep updating and improving the App Store, as well as hosting the apps, allowing users to download the apps from Apple, maintaining the servers and powering them with renewable energy, and providing users with one safe place to pay for apps and subscriptions, instead of multiple places which are less safe than Apple. No thank you! Following this logic, why don’t we also let anyone who thinks they are good at the game operation practice medicine, and let them compete with physicians who have spent years and hundreds of thousands of dollars studying to become physicians?
That's the right thing, users should be able to choose. I don't think it would harm Apple really hard, but it would bring freedom to the platform. When Apple allows third party app stores, it could be done with maintaining the iOS security model (only app review is done by another company).
It is moronic to think that Apple shouldn’t have control of their own platform. Epic, F off! What Epic is asking for is like telling Walmart that they can not charge their own customers a profit on the products they sell. That Walmart should just give it away at cost. Walmart provides the store, the infrastructure, the cash registers, THE CUSTOMER BASE, and the access to those customers, etc. And yet Epic believes that they shouldn’t have to allow Walmart to make a profit on their products after Walmart has provided access to their customers and the vehicles for marketing to them. It is also ludicrous for the EU and companies like Epic to insist that Apple allow other app stores to access the Apple platform. It’s like demanding that Walmart allow Target to access all of Walmart’s own customers even though Walmart provided the infrastructure and platform for Target to create their products, the technical infrastructure and technical support to create the products they sell, and the vehicle for Epic’s customers to use Epic’s products.
The app store is anti-competitive? Really??? Apple Music, Spotify, Pandora, etc. Apple TV, Netflix, Hulu, Prime Video. Apple Works, Microsoft Office, Word, Excel, PowerPoint. FaceTime, Zoom, Skype, Google. Safari, Chrome, Firefox, Apple lets competitors in - the supposedly closed platform is, wait for it, OPEN!!!!! Hey Epic, build your own f’n platform and ecosystem if you don’t like it!
"Want" is not "get". I can't see any scenario where Apple would willingly allow this to happen. Android I can see, but Apple owns the entire ecosystem from hardware to software.
Even if the EU demands it, this will be tied up in court for years. Why should Apple deal with the complexities of how to let others handle payment and provide security for their platform if any sketchy yahoo can get on the "alternate" App Store and install malware/viruses/etc.. just like it is on Android?
The vultures are circling. Apple's App Store makes the most money even though they don't have as many users as Android. Android has far more users but it doesn't make money so these app developers want a piece of Apple's pie without having to pay for any of Apple's efforts to provide those users to them.
Clearly singling out Apple. Are they doing this across the board for everything from automotive to grocery industries? Maybe it is time for Apple to start requiring fees for use of their technology. They can just start using the “rent-ware” business model. Those devs that want to keep things as they are get a snipe that says “Apple approved” and be done with the whole fucking mess.
Someone said Apple should not be saying that Apple paid developers $200B, but rather that developers paid Apple $70B.
Actually, neither is true. Consumers paid $270B and divided the money as roughly $200B and $70B to the two parties. And as a consumer, who is paying both of them, I'm happy with how my money is being divided.
This is garbage! Sure apple created the App Store. Apple definitely deserves compensation for the tech ecosystem it created. The reason they are so big and successful is because everything they create works to perfection. They pay attention to the most minute detail. From the aesthetic to the way they work. The opposite is true for others. The reason why the ex-giant Microsoft was knocked out by Apple was because focused on doing everything better. The hardware, the software, even the boxing of the product. Apple started the whole "unboxing" YouTube trend. What this lady wants to create is another Microsoft or Google. Try using an App Store in any other device and tell me how it compares to Apple.
Why can't these App creators use Microsoft or Google? These are options! They can go to other app stores and let Apple create beautiful products that work!
Give users choice. No one is forcing anyone to use alternative app stores, but given that the app market is a billion dollar enterprise, I can see why governments are now interested in ensuring adequate competition.
I do believe it’s just a matter of time before alternative app stores are allowed on iOS.
If they want to promote openness they need to quit picking on individual vendors like Apple. It would be far more productive to promote and help develop some sort of universal, open standard web-based app marketplace and then try to convince Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Google, etc., to incorporate integration with the open standard, not the other way around. The continued, unrelenting, and perverse fetish the EU has around trying to get into Apple's shorts is sickening.
No one is picking on Apple. This is basically for future legislation to prevent these situations from happening.
FTA (my bold)
"Most prominently, she wants legislation that will force "gatekeepers" to allow more competition on the platforms they have created, one being Apple."
As a European, sometime I'm disgusted by all those politicians trying to regulate our lives the way they want without caring or even understanding what the people wants. The worst thing is that there is no legal way to make them stop or to tell them we don't want this! This is the same group of people who "offer" their employees and themselves one complementary week of days off - on top of the 60+ days of they already have - during the pandemic to "take some rest" during the hard time of the virus management. Of course only for the employees - not the service providers who kept working - and of course on the European public founds... a real shame.
We want Apple to allow developers to be able to take advantage of Apple's platform in a way that cuts Apple completely out of that process, while also compromising the security of the platform and the privacy of its users. Hmmm...
The security of the platform comes from iOS. Apps loaded from alternate app stores would have exactly the same privileges as apps loaded from Apple's app store – just app review is done by a different institution. If you don't trust a institution, you can decide which app stores you trust.
Apps created, sold, and reviewed by non-Apple businesses would be free to embed in their software anything they wanted. Forcing Apple to permit these potential malware products to be installed on their products would jeopardize both the security of the hardware and the Apple customer, and Apple would be blamed when their customers were harmed. That’s not viable. Apple is synonymous with security and privacy, which would be lost if this initiative were to be passed. Suggesting that the security of the platform comes from iOS is only meaningful if the software installed has been certified by Apple as meeting their standards. Third parties wouldn’t have those incentives.
She does not care for open and competition and all that crap, she just wants to provoke Apple and hope Apple pulls out of the EU. All she and her circles want is to make perhaps the greatest American company, less relevant in the world. Apple should not pull out of the EU,
Give users choice. No one is forcing anyone to use alternative app stores, but given that the app market is a billion dollar enterprise, I can see why governments are now interested in ensuring adequate competition.
I do believe it’s just a matter of time before alternative app stores are allowed on iOS.
And just who would the customers blame when these third party products install malware on their iOS devices? Yes, Apple, exactly. Apple created the hardware, iOS software, App Store, and deserves to run it any way they wish. They allow third parties to sell their products through Apple’s secure systems after they have been approved by Apple. I stick with Apple because I trust them. Forcing them to allow third parties to sell/install software on Apple products that Apple doesn’t approve/control would destroy their ecosystem. That is not viable.
That's the right thing, users should be able to choose. I don't think it would harm Apple really hard, but it would bring freedom to the platform. When Apple allows third party app stores, it could be done with maintaining the iOS security model (only app review is done by another company).
Really? So Instead of the company I buy the hardware and the OS from being responsible for the security of the ecosystem, I’m supposed to trust a third party middleman to ensure that my downloads not full of trackers, worms and spyware? No thank you sir.
What I would trust is if Apple were to spin off the App Store and it be a fully self-funded, wholly owned subsidiary with an independent software auditing program and a firewall between itself and the Apple Mothership. In the end it would still be responsible to Apple, but the firewall and self-funding mandate would preclude all the allegations of favoritism and self-dealing. That I could see. Multiple stores just offer the illusion of choice without offering any actual benefits to consumers.
If they want to promote openness they need to quit picking on individual vendors like Apple. It would be far more productive to promote and help develop some sort of universal, open standard web-based app marketplace and then try to convince Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Google, etc., to incorporate integration with the open standard, not the other way around. The continued, unrelenting, and perverse fetish the EU has around trying to get into Apple's shorts is sickening.
The EU is more interested in European businesses, especially ones with a corporate intertwining with the bureaucracy. It means lots of lovely lunches, and a great sinecure to go to when one chooses early retirement. That is what this is really about.
As a European, sometime I'm disgusted by all those politicians trying to regulate our lives the way they want without caring or even understanding what the people wants. The worst thing is that there is no legal way to make them stop or to tell them we don't want this! This is the same group of people who "offer" their employees and themselves one complementary week of days off - on top of the 60+ days of they already have - during the pandemic to "take some rest" during the hard time of the virus management. Of course only for the employees - not the service providers who kept working - and of course on the European public founds... a real shame.
The essential flaw of the EU is the power the bureaucrats have over its member states not matched by accountability and a decent franchise. It constantly amazes me the Europeans you meet that are eager to tug the forelock at Brussels. It must be something genetic, as their ancestors had to do so to every aristocrat they met.
Comments
The app store is anti-competitive? Really??? Apple Music, Spotify, Pandora, etc. Apple TV, Netflix, Hulu, Prime Video. Apple Works, Microsoft Office, Word, Excel, PowerPoint. FaceTime, Zoom, Skype, Google. Safari, Chrome, Firefox, Apple lets competitors in - the supposedly closed platform is, wait for it, OPEN!!!!! Hey Epic, build your own f’n platform and ecosystem if you don’t like it!
Actually, neither is true. Consumers paid $270B and divided the money as roughly $200B and $70B to the two parties. And as a consumer, who is paying both of them, I'm happy with how my money is being divided.
This is garbage! Sure apple created the App Store. Apple definitely deserves compensation for the tech ecosystem it created. The reason they are so big and successful is because everything they create works to perfection. They pay attention to the most minute detail. From the aesthetic to the way they work. The opposite is true for others. The reason why the ex-giant Microsoft was knocked out by Apple was because focused on doing everything better. The hardware, the software, even the boxing of the product. Apple started the whole "unboxing" YouTube trend. What this lady wants to create is another Microsoft or Google. Try using an App Store in any other device and tell me how it compares to Apple.
Why can't these App creators use Microsoft or Google? These are options! They can go to other app stores and let Apple create beautiful products that work!
FTA (my bold)
"Most prominently, she wants legislation that will force "gatekeepers" to allow more competition on the platforms they have created, one being Apple."