BittySon

the latest in a string of defeats for Epic:

Take a really good, hard, objective look at what this company has done, said, and plans to do, along with who has controlling interest in it. Read the stories on this very site about how Epic was fined millions for shady behaviour wrt in-app purchases.

I think you’ll find that that Epic is not the “freedom fighter” you might imagine it is.

Likewise, the original judge in this case correctly ruled *against* Apple’s anti-steering provisions IMO, and since no court has overturned that ruling either, this case also stopped Apple from anti-competitive behaviour in that regard as well.

The thing is that Federal Judge ruled that Apple "anti-steering" policy violated the CA Unfair Competition Law not any Federal anti-competition laws. First, it's questionable that this judgement can force Apple to adhere to the CA UCL, in every State. Each State have their own anti-competition laws that don't necessarily agree with other States anti-competition laws. This was one of complaints Apple addressed with their appeal. How can a Federal Judge force Apple to comply with a CA law, in every US State? It would be different if Apple anti-steering policies violated Federal anti-competition or anti-trust laws. So on the surface, Apple might only have to allow developers to inform customers of other method of payments (within their apps) or allow links to them, only in CA. 

And second, the CA Unfair Competition Law is a vague catch-all law for when a company haven't been found to be violating any actual anti-trust or anti-competition laws, but the courts still thinks that the company behavior or practice is "unfair" to its competitors or consumers. The courts gets to decide what constitute "unfair".  There is no law that clearly states that Apple "anti-steering" policy is anti-competitive. 

StayPuftZombie said:

Overpaid but glad she's leaving. She seemed very bright, but the reality is she turned the best retail experience ever into the DMV and basically added nothing but logistical complication. The threat of her possibly becoming CEO has me breathing a sigh of relief as she was not a good fit.

The new head of people and retail seems like an AWFUL idea as she is basically head of HR, and now magically a master of retail?

What would be great is if Deidre is temporary and they convince Ron Johnson to come back. He was great at this role. Apple would be lucky to get him back.

She turned the best retail experience into the DMV? How so? 

And what was great about Ron Johnson other than he ran Apple retail when it was a much smaller company?

Um he CREATED apple retail. When everyone said it would never work. Go google the articles of it's doom. He pulled it out of his mind and made it what it was. The highest $ per square foot retail ever.  So yea, there's that teeny tiny creation thing.

As for DMV, go to a store today. You're a pinball. She added logistical complication and ruined and poisoned the retail experience. Before, you'd go to the genius bar and deal with your issues.

Now you show up, you try to find where to check in, there is no genius bar. You ask one employee, they say, um no, im not the check in person, go over there, thats where the check in person is. You go over there and say I'd like to check in. Oh I'm not the check in person, but they are right there. Then you check in and they send you to table X,Y over there. Some people go to the wrong table. The geniuses come looking for where you should be, but the person is in the wrong spot, and now the genius goes to 2 or 3 tables finding the right person. In the mean time, people who have problems are interspersed throughout the store with their poison "my iDevice doesnt work" griping, poisoning the buying experience around others.

Before, you just went to the bar, you and your problems were isolated and didnt poison others' purchasing experience, and you didnt pinball through the miserable DMV experience. I used to love just stopping by at apple stores when Ron was in charge. I cringe if I have to go there now.  So that's how it's the DMV.
https://www.businessinsider.com/apple-stores-suffer-from-customer-complaints-long-wait-time-2018-3/