ericthehalfbee

nubus said:

ericthehalfbee said:

Apple should simply drop fees to some ridiculously low level in the EU (5% for small developers, 8% for everyone else). There’d be no reason for any developer to want to roll their own store

You can't be a gatekeeper (EU term) or hold a monopoly (US DOJ) and then use one product (smartphones) to get a monopoly on reselling software. Not by blocking competition or by "drop fees to some ridiculously low level" in order to use one monopoly to gain another.

As for "what about Sony". The EU DMA regulation requires 45 million active users for companies to be seen as gatekeepers. Sony is at 30-35 million. Doesn't stop other cases to hit Sony. This week a Dutch case on "Sony Tax" hit courts.

Apple should simply drop fees to some ridiculously low level in the EU (5% for small developers, 8% for everyone else). There’d be no reason for any developer to want to roll their own store and go through all the hassles of processing payments, currency conversions and collecting country-specific taxes with such low fees. Third party stores would likely cease to exist (except Epic who will foolishly try to run their own store out of spite).

What’s the EU going to do about that? They say fees are too high so they shouldn’t object to low fees, right?

Oh but they will. This isn’t about what’s best for consumers. It’s what’s best for the EU pockets in the form of fines. Nothing in the DMA has benefitted consumers. They’d claim Apple is being anti-competitive by offering low fees to try and put third party store out of business (a typical behavior for a monopoly trying to become the only game in town).

Except there’s that pesky Play Store, which is the true monopoly in the EU by having a much larger market share than The App Store. But let’s not allow facts to get in the way of that juicy gravy train of income. 

AppleZulu said:

Not that consistency has any relevance in this administration, but you’d still have to think that the existence of the Trump phone, even as temporary vaporware, now shields Apple (and others) against the previous threat of a “smartphone tariff.” 

Trump and Co giving up on the too-easily exposed lie that the T1 would be made in the US means that any tariff on iPhone would also apply to the T1. 

What if they abandon the T1 altogether? Well, that along with the current concession that it isn’t going to be made in the US demonstrates that the expectation that Apple could build iPhone here anytime soon is impossible. If Trump can’t make a phone in America by August, how could anyone else be expected to do it?

Regarding Trump Mobile itself, it seems more questionable than ever that the T1 will ever materialize. That then brings into question the whole enterprise, because whole the point for any MAGA customer would be the conspicuous consumption of the brand. Paying more to bring your own phone to use Trump Mobile while no one can see you’re using Trump Mobile won’t cut it. Selling branded phone cases might help with that, but manufacturing those for dozens of phone models would be too complicated and would involve way too much cost in overhead (including tariffs!) for holding inventory. 

Could Trump Mobile be another failed enterprise before it even gets off the ground? Maybe Apple should just be thankful for the comically unforced error, as Tim Cook gently commiserates with the president over just how hard it would be to onshore production so hastily. 

I think the word Sherlocked gets used too much.

Certain features are supposed to be a part of the base operating system: File manager, calculator, browser, mail, clipboard, gallery, cloud and so many more.

If you’re a developer that makes an App that’s one of these essential features I don’t think you can complain when Apple (or anyone) adds it to their OS.

If you want to gamble on a feature that people have been asking Apple to add for years, don’t be surprised when Apple finally adds it.

Seen a few comments on ASML.

If the EU regulated ASML and their monopoly like they do Apple then ASML would be forced to give competitors and startups access to their proprietary technology so ASML doesn’t have an unfair advantage.


avonb7 is still an idiot, I see. To bad blocking losers doesn’t also block you from seeing them when they’re quoted. How pathetic to find you still here after all these years doing the same old shtick.