5 ms·

I rarely hear complaints about the closed-platform monopolies enjoyed by the App Store and Google Play, on their respective iOS/Android platforms. Can someone m

by whack 10y ago

I rarely hear complaints about the closed-platform monopolies enjoyed by the App Store and Google Play, on their respective iOS/Android platforms. Can someone make a case for why a similar app-store monopoly on Windows is any worse?

islon 10y ago
Well, you are looking in the wrong places then, there's plenty of complaints about apple/google walled gardens and people don't want windows to be the next one.
pjmlp 10y ago
Apparently everything is allowed as long as it isn't Microsoft.
talmand 10y ago
Just because it's perceived as good for A doesn't mean it's automatically good for B.
theandrewbailey 10y ago
There exists no obvious monopoly for app stores on Windows. Windows is a somewhat open platform not locked down like phones, and making it one means we've lost something. There's the "official" Microsoft app store, but hardly anyone uses it. There's several ones that aren't run by Microsoft, and they seem OK, and the big ones stand on their own merits. Not to mention that ~20 years ago, Microsoft got in trouble with the government[0], and was almost forced to break up for forcing their own software on PC manufacturers, and on top of Windows. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Microsoft_Corp https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Microsoft_Cor....
majewsky 10y ago
Google technically does not have an app-store monopoly on Android. A sizable chunk of apps on my phone are from F-Droid. Google just makes sure that most Androids have the Play Store, and then it's just the network effect: bigger audience -> more attractive to developers -> more apps -> more users.
- theandrewbailey 10y ago
  > Google just makes sure that most Androids have the Play Store I smell monopoly. They have powers to affect most of a market. Whether Google is abusing that power (thus, illegal), I'm not sure.
- ksk 10y ago
  They could just add one extra line in their contract with phone manufacturers, forbidding external app-stores. The same thing that people are fearing about Windows.
Sir_Cmpwn 10y ago
I use F-Droid on Android. Cydia also exists for iOS. FWIW.
GrumpyYoungMan 10y ago
Similarly, I'm curious that no-one has mentioned the dominance that Steam itself has over the PC gaming market. From Wikipedia: "The Steam platform is considered to be the largest digital distribution platform for PC gaming; in November 2009, Stardock estimated it at 70% and then later, in October 2013, it was estimated by Screen Digest that 75% of games bought online were downloaded through Steam." Puts Valve's complaints in a different perspective.
Dr_tldr 10y ago
You rarely read HN, then. For most adults/businesses in developed countries, mobile is a secondary device, while PCs run everything from AAA games to filing systems to interfaces for medical equipment.
Silhouette 10y ago
We (with my dev hat on) don't bother complaining about the App Store. Apple's deal is what it is. But we also don't consider iOS apps an interesting option for the software we develop because of Apple's control and fees, and we build our software with a web front end that runs anywhere instead.

by whack 10y ago

islon 10y ago

Well, you are looking in the wrong places then, there's plenty of complaints about apple/google walled gardens and people don't want windows to be the next one.

pjmlp 10y ago

Apparently everything is allowed as long as it isn't Microsoft.

talmand 10y ago

Just because it's perceived as good for A doesn't mean it's automatically good for B.

theandrewbailey 10y ago

There exists no obvious monopoly for app stores on Windows. Windows is a somewhat open platform not locked down like phones, and making it one means we've lost something. There's the "official" Microsoft app store, but hardly anyone uses it. There's several ones that aren't run by Microsoft, and they seem OK, and the big ones stand on their own merits. Not to mention that ~20 years ago, Microsoft got in trouble with the government[0], and was almost forced to break up for forcing their own software on PC manufacturers, and on top of Windows. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Microsoft_Corp https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Microsoft_Cor....

majewsky 10y ago

Google technically does not have an app-store monopoly on Android. A sizable chunk of apps on my phone are from F-Droid. Google just makes sure that most Androids have the Play Store, and then it's just the network effect: bigger audience -> more attractive to developers -> more apps -> more users.

theandrewbailey 10y ago
> Google just makes sure that most Androids have the Play Store I smell monopoly. They have powers to affect most of a market. Whether Google is abusing that power (thus, illegal), I'm not sure.
ksk 10y ago
They could just add one extra line in their contract with phone manufacturers, forbidding external app-stores. The same thing that people are fearing about Windows.

Sir_Cmpwn 10y ago

I use F-Droid on Android. Cydia also exists for iOS. FWIW.

GrumpyYoungMan 10y ago

Similarly, I'm curious that no-one has mentioned the dominance that Steam itself has over the PC gaming market. From Wikipedia: "The Steam platform is considered to be the largest digital distribution platform for PC gaming; in November 2009, Stardock estimated it at 70% and then later, in October 2013, it was estimated by Screen Digest that 75% of games bought online were downloaded through Steam." Puts Valve's complaints in a different perspective.

Dr_tldr 10y ago

You rarely read HN, then. For most adults/businesses in developed countries, mobile is a secondary device, while PCs run everything from AAA games to filing systems to interfaces for medical equipment.

Silhouette 10y ago

We (with my dev hat on) don't bother complaining about the App Store. Apple's deal is what it is. But we also don't consider iOS apps an interesting option for the software we develop because of Apple's control and fees, and we build our software with a web front end that runs anywhere instead.