tedz98

I have a new strategy for Mac purchases: I’m buying a Mac mini M1 and a nice monitor. I’ll buy a low end Mini which makes it affordable and easy to upgrade by replacing it. This way I can have the benefits of new compute technology every 2-3 years without having to pay for the cost of the monitor.

All of this talk about security misses the point that Epic’s desire is to save having to pay Apple a commission on in-app purchases. The security of of IOS App Store prevents Epic from supporting external purchases. This is all about money and commissions. Should Apple be entitled to commissions on in-app purchases? I would argue they aren’t.

On so many levels (geopolitical, IP theft, militarism, political/societal, supply chain, pharmaceuticals, etc.) it makes a whole lot of sense for Apple and other companies to develop long term plans to at least reduce in a significant way their reliance on China for labor, parts, factories, etc. Granted China is a massive country with a huge population that outside companies would love to tap into for revenue. And China certainly incentivizes outside companies to build infrastructure in China if they want to sell goods in China. But there is an over reliance on China for parts and production that needs to be reduced.

And the trip down the slippery slope of government control over personal computing devices begins. This may not seem terribly bad as it only requires Apple to offer up certain apps. But you can be sure the Russian government will want Apple to report on the people who installed or declined apps. It seems reasonable to fear that over time this will evolve into requirements that certain soft be installed with no option to refuse. Then again it may not be any worse from a privacy perspective than what Google and Facebook are already doing mining and tracking user data.

The main motivation for Apple and Google to restructure commissions is fear of government regulations. And unlike the old retail approach to selling software the many restrictions placed on developers is another issue. The in-app purchase rules along with the creation of in-app purchase commissions may be a bigger issue for developers than the one-time fees.