cropr

wizard69 said:

This is a prime example of the EU's obsession with successful American companies.    Frankly i think the goverment here in the USA needs to take a more active roll in adressing this harassment.     In the end that is exactly what it is.   

By the way iagree with Google, links to other search sites just waste my time.  The last thing we need is crappy service from Google because the EU can't compete.  

There is no obsession of the EU for American companies.  Less than one fifth of the fines for anticompetitive behaviour are given to American companies, more than 60% to European companies. Only the latter are not published in American press and so you are not aware of it. 

If would read the article then you understand that the fine is about the Google search service as such, which is recognized as the best service available. 
But it is forbidden by European competition law to use the monopoly in one domain in order to get an advantage in another domain. As Google has a monopoly in search  (>90% market search in the EU), Google is not allowed to give its other products (Google shopping in this case) a higher ranking in the search results.

wigby said:

No one is saying that running multiple platforms isn't possible. But it's totally true that the only ones who do are tech journalists for their job and some others that get handmedown iPhones or android phones for free. Why would I want to deal with multiple paltforms if I didn't have to? It's not just about the apps, it's the Ui. Have you ever watched people use a foreign UI for the first time? It's painful to watch and never worth it unless it's your job.

I am the owner of app developing company for both Android and iOS, so in my company we use on a daily basis both platforms extensively.
Do you realize that in terms of UI, Android is on some points worse but on other points superior than iOS.  Just 2 examples where Android is clearly better.
The iOS date and time selection widgets do look nice, but once you used the Android versions, you'll find the iOS widgets clumsy, inefficient and too much a gimmick. 
Entering passwords is another key feature where Android is better.   Typically passwords contains characters and digits.  When typing a password, the Android keyboard is clever enough to switch off the word predictions (they are useless in this context) and to replace it with all the digits, so you have don't have to use the shift key when entering digits.  As a consequence, typing a password on Android is faster and less error prone.

As an app developer I don't like that at all.  One of my apps has 2 versions: a free version, with reduced functionality, and a paid version version, with full functionality.  It will just confuse the final customer if he has no clear distinction in a title between the 2 versions.
On top of that the new rule disturbs my own marketing for the app (which does not come for free).  I will have additional costs with no added value whatsoever

It is very strange that Apple would chose Bruges as second place for a Belgian store next to Brussels.  Bruges has around 130.000 inhabitants, Antwerp, Belgium 2nd city has 4 times more