Trey_Lance

osmartormenajr said:

mr lizard said:

Just let developers link out to their own website from the app for payments already. If Apple’s confident in their IAP platform, then they won’t be concerned that customers won’t use it over the developers own system. 

Not being able to link out, and not even being able to tell the customer where to go to make payments outside of the app, is just childish and petty.  

For the sake of the argument, let’s say you have a clothing store and one of your providers is a well known brand that does a lot of business.

Yours is a boutique shop, with all the amenities for higher spending customers. For that, you must have higher margins to maintain profitability.

Now imagine that big name provider is advertising in the very labels of their products that YOUR customers—they are in your store—could get a better deal (like 5 % off) on the store next doors! How would you react to that, as the competing store owner?

By your argument, there should be no trouble at all. You should be happy to build and maintain a higher end store, while your providers use your product placement to point out that there are better deals just around the corner.

Now answer me: what (if any) other company is expected to do business that way? This lawsuit, like so many others, is rooted in a very simple fact: Apple is worth trillions and have hundreds of billions sitting in the bank.

zklausz said:

Epic could start a brick and motor and the. Sell physical v-bucks cards through an app for a physical store.  Best Buy does it. 

spock1234 said:

Is this guy for real? Every word out his mouth destroys the foundation of Epic’s case. Now he is drawing a Anti-Trust bulls-eye on the back of the console makers. Is he nuts?! I bet Sony and Microsoft have already put out a hit on this guy. 

This trial really does seem like an elaborate prank to me. I mean, nobody can be this stupid in real life. Perhaps he want to be this year’s Martin Shkreli (the price-gouging Pharma executive). Like Shkreli, this idiot has a very punchable face. 

InspiredCode said:

Apple may win this round, but it feels like Apple should try to get in front of antitrust issues before it is too late.

The bi-partisan coalition of senators on the antitrust committee think the approximately 80% profit margins on AppStore fees is evidence of rent seeking and want to regulate the store. With the Biden administration also onboard, it feels like it is just a matter of time. The fact that Apple provides services seems to be a major reason regulators do not want to treat them like a game store.

Other parties are preparing their own antitrust trials in both the US and the EU that I think may have stronger cases. I’m not pro-regulation, so I would really like to see Apple get in front of this on their own terms. If they fail to, I hope the least blunt instrument as possible is used to regulate the store.