araquen

But...The iPhone is maybe 55% of the domestic market, and I believe less, globally. Any consumer who is unhappy about the App Store can buy an Android phone and can get the bulk of the functionality on Android. Folks switch between the two technologies on the regular. Folks use both devices. You can create Apple IDs with Gmail accounts. If you have ripped your own music (or bought them off iTunes and not rented them from Apple Music (which you can still do), you can port that music to a Windows/Android jukebox. iOS is not THE marketplace. it is A marketplace. Developers can go to Google Play of they don’t like Apple’s terms. And if enough developers just...DID THAT, then Apple would have come to the table with more lucrative terms.

The EU is overreaching, basically telling businesses what to do. I would have the same observation for Google, who technically is the closest to 1990’s Microsoft in this analogy. Apple is just getting the heat because, let’s face it, it's “security first” positioning is irking governments, who want Apple to give *them* back doors and Apple won’t do it. All this anti-trust and DMA nonsense is punitive measures because Apple won’t compromise on their security initiatives for governments.

But I notice that neither the EU nor the US goes after Amazon, which pretty much has the monopoly on on-line shopping, has ruined local businesses, been the reason even brick-and-mortar retail has gone bust and has driven local book-sellers into the ground. Or Ticketmaster, which controls the entirety of concert venue purchasing. It’s Apple that is the focus - and Apple is not a monopoly, any more than Blizzard is a monopoly for being the only entity from which you can access World of Warcraft. Apple makes hardware. Apple provides software to make the hardware operate. Apple creates stock apps to give the hardware something to do, but never stifled other developers (sherlocking of certain apps notwithstanding). This is why Fantastical is the better calendar app for iPhone/iPad/Mac, or Things3 for Reminders and to-dos. or why Microsoft Word remains the preferred word processor and Exchange the preferred spreadsheet app. Or why most people still use Kindle. Or why iOS/iPad OS users can use What’s App, Signal. Telegram of Facebook Messenger if they don’t like Apple’s default messaging app. or why, almost every six months sites like Appleinsider publish “apps I like” and none of them are APple’s stock apps, but you can absolutely get them. For all that Apple “controls” the hardware and the OS, and except for possibly music (which most people forget is tied up with record label licensing agreements), Apple is very egalitarian. 

As for alternate stores? Personally, I don’t have a problem with them existing (though I won’t have them on my iPhone) but I do believe that any developer who is putting their technology on Apple’s OS needs to reimburse Apple for the use of APIs that Apple either developed or licensed. Neither Spotify nor Epic “deserve” a free ride, and their constant whining about it just makes me double down on rejecting their offerings. I already un-installed Spotify, and thankfully I just don’t like most games Epic produces, nor do I play games on my phone.

In Apple’s case, the marketplace is where the corrective actions take place. Apple wants to be known for gaming now. It has disenfranchised a major game developer. maybe Epic should have used that as leverage to get better terms. I mean, Apple made arrangements with Amazon so if you want to purchase books through Amazon you are re-directed to Amazon’s web page. And it’s Spotify’s own fault if they refuse to leverage technologies Apple has made available. Apple Music plays on my HomePod, Spotify still doesn’t and that’s on Spotify - the ability is available. But instead these companies whined to the EU: “make the 'bad Apple' accept us on our terms, daddy EU!” Neither Epic nor Spotify want to put out any effort - they just want to reap the rewards and leech off Apple. if it were ANY other company where we were seeing this dynamic, the community would be telling Spotify and Epic to pound sand. But because Apple has *always* been “the baddie” from the “PC crowd” (probably residual resentment that Apple never collapsed as the “PC elite” always insisted would happen) it’s now “oh, poor Epic! Poor Spotify!” I say: Baloney. Epic and Spotify are at a point where they are looking to cost-cut to maintain their late-stage capitalism line-go-up profits, they are looking to do so by removing their cost for being on Apple’s platform, and they are using the EU to force the issue, instead of negotiating in good faith.

Look, there are decisions Apple makes that irk me, but most of those decisions have resulted in Apple having the much smaller market share than I am sure they would have wanted. That’s how the system works. Apple makes it hard and costly for game developers to develop games, so now there aren’t many games on the Mac, and even AAA Studios like Blizzard (who has always developed *something* for the Mac) are starting to walk away from the platform. PCs remain the go-to solution for the average consumer on price, alone. Epic and Spotify could have simply walked away from iOS, without Epic poisoning their business reputation by violating signed agreements (I would never do business with Epic if I were Apple, just for that) and many consumers would have switched from iPhone to Android because of Spotify’s and Epic’s availability on that platform. It’s not that Apple is “always right,” it’s that unwarranted government interference (which the EU’s DMA is) is the wrong approach, and nothing good will come of it for the consumer.

If this was about fair competition, Beeper would not require any interoperability with iMessage. They would just offer what Telegram and Signal offer. There is no business need to be able to display as a blue bubble in iMessage, which is what this kerfuffle is all about.

It is not anticompetitive to offer an in-house app that has limited scope, nor does it stifle innovation or competition. There are dozens of calendar apps that offer better user experiences as Apple’s Calendar, and you don’t even need to have Calendar running in the background anymore. There are dozens of to do apps that are for more robust than Apple’s And there are a number of security-driven messenger apps iOS users can use instead of iMessage. All Apple is doing is providing out of the box functionality for user convenience. And *unlike* Microsoft in the 90s, iOS is, globally, only 20% of the market, and in the US, it’s nearly a 50/50 split. This is. not market dominance, and you cannot claim “monopoly” when that market is not a super majority. 

If Beeper wants to compete in the Apple ecosystem. maybe they shouldn’t be doing so by stealing code, and just offer their own alternative to iMessage.

Let’s ignore that the developers reverse-engineered Message and then decided to hijack Apple’s system and bypass Apple’s security for the sole purpose of allowing Android users to show as blue bubbles. This is the goal. Blue bubbles for a platform that is the vast majority of the market, at over 70% of all mobile systems. iOS is maybe 20%. This is peak First World Problems, and maybe Android users should just bask in their market dominance and stop being salty that a company that doesn’t allow much customization for their own customers is not letting non-customers customize. 

But for the developers of Beeper to position that iOS users are too stupid to use another messaging service, or that you can’t set a “default" is hot garbage. Signal, Telegram and WhatsApp all install without issue on iOS devices, as does Facebook Messenger. Messaging apps don’t need to be set to default. Just put the d*mnded app on your dock, and arrange with your friends which messaging app to use. The whole hair on fire is that Android’s default text messaging app and iOS’s  default text messaging app have minor, trivial hiccups when interacting with each other, and if that’s an issue to the point you are raging to senators about it, you really need to go touch grass. And if you’re one of those people who, apparently, “bubble shame," you also need to go touch grass, and on your way, go pound sand. To those of you who are being “shamed” for the color of your text bubble, you need to find better friends.

And to consider this “anti-trust”? Are you kidding me? You’re going to argue with me that it is anti-competitive that someone’s chat bubble is green and doesn’t have the identical cosmetics? This is the bar? Let’s ignore Amazon’s anticompetitive practices, which have shut down thousands of small business shops. Let’s ignore Microsoft shutting down Mac games from studios they acquired. Let’s ignore Disney owning almost the entire entertainment industry. No. The hill to die on is: green chat bubbles. I can’t even.

Every time this Beeper thing hits my feed my blood pressure just goes through the roof. This is such a colossal non-issue. You can absolutely text between Message and Android’s default text message app. You can absolutely communicate clearly and without obstruction. You can absolutely create “mixed platform” text groups. You have 98% cross functionality. And if security is your concern, use Signal or Telegram.

3. I’m laying this on Apple Corporate. My understanding is that every store is different. I know of stores that absolutely do *not* want to unionize. Not from fear, but because in general, their store is being run well, and they have no complaints. I can’t say whether Towson is an exception or a norm, but it is not universal. That said, the fact that Apple is union busting instead of investigating why these stores are looking to unionize; and not hold their store managers accountable for creating an environment that fosters unionization is beyond me. It’s very simple: you look at the stores that don’t want to unionize and the stores that do, and you see where the stores that do are failing. You fix that, and it’s a win/win - the staff are getting what they need, and Apple doesn’t need to worry about unions. If an Apple Store's staff is looking to unionize, Apple’s Store management is doing something to provoke unionization. Apple should be fixing the problem, not blaming the staff. It’s like punching an open wound for bleeding instead of sharpening the knife that caused the wound so it doesn’t slip and slice your hand.

Ultimately, I don’t mind the idea of Apple retail unionizing. The pressure introduced a number of policy changes within Apple as a result, which is how Unions, in general, work. Unions are the tide that lifts all boats.

And for iOS, there is an app in development, available through TestFlight, called Mlem, though it is no Apollo, plus someone is developing a kit to allow existing Reddit apps to port over to the Lemmy? Beehaw? APIs.

Anyway, this blackout is the perfect opportunity to check out the Lemmy fediverse, if you haven’t already. I’m excited for it, and can’t wait to see what comes of it.