dave marsh

Umm.  I ordered my Series 6 Apple Watch on release day and it’s not due to be shipped for another week.  How did you folks get your Series 6 Apple Watches so quickly?

ITGUYINSD said:

Beats said:

I carefully read the article for a change.

I gathered,
Epic wants to bypass Apple fees 100% but want to set up a shop on Apple products and reap 100% profit.
Epic is complaining that Apple has a monopoly on Apple products.

It may be an Apple product, but it's not owned by Apple, it's owned by the user.  Epic should be free to "setup shop" on any device the owner of the device wants and Epic should not have to pay the manufacturer of the device a fee for the "privilege" of doing so.

Did you carefully read the article?  I think not.  It literally says "That power emboldened it to design restrictions to create and maintain monopolies in app distribution and in-app payment processing."  Monopoly of distribution and payment processing, NOT Apple products.   So, you gathered wrong.  Apple does have a 100% monopoly on distribution and payment processing.  No lies there.  Is it legal?  I think that is what this is about.

So, if I create a company, a product, a software store on that product, and create tools to allow third parties to create software to sell in that store, it’s NOT OK to set the terms and conditions and fees for using those tools to access that store?  Is my control of my product a monopoly for users of my product?  Sure, absolutely.  Can my customers when they get big and successful come back and sue me to allow them to use my store for free, and indeed force me to maintain the infrastructure so they can avoid having to build such an infrastructure themselves, and avoid those costs for themselves?  Sure, they can sue me.  But, their case is laughable.  The judge should dismiss this case with prejudice and force Epic to pay Apple’s court costs.

It’s Apple’s store.  They built it, they make the rules, they pay for maintaining its infrastructure, and they get to determine how much profit they can demand.  If customers don’t like that, they can resolve the issue themselves by simply leaving the platform.  Apple is not the only industry platform available to them to market and sell their products.

Apple owns its App Store, lock, stock, and barrel.  It set and maintains the rules by which others are allowed to access and use it.  It can charge whatever it wishes for people to participate.  Those customers can choose to pay, or go elsewhere.  Epic simply grew so large it thought it could use its size and customer base to coerce Apple into letting it set up its own pay system within its app.  Apple said no.

This is all pretty simple.  Apple is NOT A MONOPOLY by any standard.  It created an environment to allow developers to market and sell their software creations by paying Apple a fee for that service.  No one forced those developers to use its service.  If they don’t want to abide by Apple’s rules, they can switch to another platform.  In fact, Android is arguably much larger than Apple as a game platform.

Hubris can be a debilitating weakness.  Epic’s leadership should probably decide whether they wish to let their current leader continue with his attempted extortion.  If they do and their customer base bails, they did it to themselves.

My feeling is that no one is forcing them to use the App Store.  If they don’t want to comply with the terms, stick to Android and PCs.  Apple may be large, but they are definitely NOT a monopoly.  Epic has options for selling their products.

Intel’s failures are relevant, but probably not determinative.  Jobs’ position for many years was to fully control the Mac experience, soup to nuts.  When Apple started purchasing chip developers many years ago, the die was cast.