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Ideally profits should be incentives for a good service. Instead the profits are a result of the lack of competition because it‘s impossible in iOS‘ case and vi

by emsy 8y ago

Ideally profits should be incentives for a good service. Instead the profits are a result of the lack of competition because it‘s impossible in iOS‘ case and virtually impossible in Android’s case to compete.

throwawaymath 8y ago
Is that a lack of competition in the actual legal sense of the word? I don't actually know the answer, but my perception is that it's probably not. Apple does not restrict the ability of another browser to be installed (like Chrome) nor another music service (like Spotify) nor another video service (Amazon). It does charge a high fee for purchases through the App Store platform, but I think reasonable people can disagree about whether or not that's actually anticompetitive. I think it's incorrect to compare Apple'a high fees to other things that are not app stores, like payment processors. It might be the case that we need more than two mobile operating systems in the market this way Apple and Google have a competitive incentive to reduce their fees. But I think it's fair to mandate a high fee to do things on your operating system if end users and developers will accept it. So far most developers accept it.
- mrep 8y ago
  > Apple does not restrict the ability of another browser to be installed (like Chrome) They do not allow you to develop/use any other webkit than the one provided though. > nor another music service (like Spotify) Back when I had an iphone, you could not change the default app switches to competing products like spotify and google maps. > nor another video service (Amazon) Amazon cannot sell their videos in their app (nor books in kindle) without paying Apple a 30% cut and there is no way users can download an amazon app that allows them to do so because you cannot install software onto IOS devices outside of their app store.
mrep 8y ago
I agree about IOS but it is not hard to download an app for android outside the play store. Amazon has a competing store and fortnite skipped the play store and sells their game straight from the web.
- emsy 8y ago
  But Fortnite and Amazon are huge. It's almost possible for individual devs or smaller companies to sell apps outside the store. Not technically but logistically. Hence the preceeding "virtually".

by emsy 8y ago

throwawaymath 8y ago

Is that a lack of competition in the actual legal sense of the word? I don't actually know the answer, but my perception is that it's probably not. Apple does not restrict the ability of another browser to be installed (like Chrome) nor another music service (like Spotify) nor another video service (Amazon). It does charge a high fee for purchases through the App Store platform, but I think reasonable people can disagree about whether or not that's actually anticompetitive. I think it's incorrect to compare Apple'a high fees to other things that are not app stores, like payment processors. It might be the case that we need more than two mobile operating systems in the market this way Apple and Google have a competitive incentive to reduce their fees. But I think it's fair to mandate a high fee to do things on your operating system if end users and developers will accept it. So far most developers accept it.

mrep 8y ago
> Apple does not restrict the ability of another browser to be installed (like Chrome) They do not allow you to develop/use any other webkit than the one provided though. > nor another music service (like Spotify) Back when I had an iphone, you could not change the default app switches to competing products like spotify and google maps. > nor another video service (Amazon) Amazon cannot sell their videos in their app (nor books in kindle) without paying Apple a 30% cut and there is no way users can download an amazon app that allows them to do so because you cannot install software onto IOS devices outside of their app store.

mrep 8y ago

I agree about IOS but it is not hard to download an app for android outside the play store. Amazon has a competing store and fortnite skipped the play store and sells their game straight from the web.

emsy 8y ago
But Fortnite and Amazon are huge. It's almost possible for individual devs or smaller companies to sell apps outside the store. Not technically but logistically. Hence the preceeding "virtually".