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Apple and Google have complete control over the mobile market which is the dominant way humanity interacts with the internet in today's world, especially in dev
by Sargos 7y ago
Apple and Google have complete control over the mobile market which is the dominant way humanity interacts with the internet in today's world, especially in developing countries. Having a policy which forbids arbitrary things like listing other apps for users to interact with is very dangerous as it effectively bans whole industries from competing on a level playing field.
This is a big problem for cryptocurrency especially as mobile web browsers cannot interact with blockchains and so users are forced to use custom apps that implement the web3 interfaces. This effectively bans wallets from providing a good experience to allow users to interact with dapps and since you can't fall back to using a web browser on mobile it might end up being a total ban on the use of dapps on mobile platforms unless each dapp makes their own app (which just opens a whole new can of worms).
I'm not really sure what the solution is here but something really needs to be done before it becomes a ceiling for dapp adoption. Perhaps the answer is government regulations mandating open access to mobile platforms which is looking more likely each year as the investigations into big tech are ramping up but I'd rather see mobile Chrome get extension support so people can at least fall back to metamask. I don't see that happening though. This will be a fun war over the next decade but I'm hoping for the best.
- pentae 7y agoCue the "But I like Apple running the app store with an iron fist! No malware and viruses!" comments. Unless the government forces Apple in the future to permit sideloading, this is never going to change.
- JumpCrisscross 7y ago> Unless the government forces Apple in the future to permit sideloading, this is never going to change Granted. Convince me this is an issue best solved by a law specifically regulating side loading?
- anfilt 7y agoWell what else do you propose since iPhones comes with essentially a hard coded PC equivalent of secure boot that you can't disable. You can't even load your own keys onto the device and sign your own software or OS. At which point you don't even own the computer since you have limited say as to the software you can run on it. I don't see Apple planning to stop restricting users rights anytime soon. Same applies for phone manufactures who sell android devices.
- Terretta 7y agoAt what point does a PC become an appliance? We don’t force appliance makers to allow side loading. We don’t enforce car makers to support engine warranties if you re-chipped your ECU. There seems to be no “user right” to receive ongoing support at manufacturer expense for a thing the user meddled with outside of parameters. Along the ‘convince me’ lines: 1. Convince me the iPhone is not an appliance competing in a marketplace of appliances. 2. Convince me the market cannot decide what it wants this appliance to be able to do or not do. 3. Convince me a maker has no right to decide what user actions may void its future obligations to the user.
- inimino 7y ago> Convince me a maker has no right to decide what user actions may void its future obligations to the user. That's a completely different thing. This is a question of a manufacturer having complete control over what the buyer can do with the device. There is no "click here to void your warranty and enable root" button, if there was this would be a different conversation.
- scarface74 7y agoDon’t buy an iPhone? Problem solved.
- mendelmaleh 7y ago> Apple and Google have complete control over the mobile market Apple does on the iOS market, Google doesn't on the Android market. Sure, they have most of the market, but there are decent alternatives like f-droid. Maybe if we can get enough people using alternative markets on Android we can think of pressuring Apple to allow third party apps, but until then it would be useless imo. Why aren't more people using f-droid?
- seedless-sensat 7y agoIn developing countries not everyone uses the Google Play Store
- toast0 7y agoGoogle doesn't have complete control. A significant number of Android devices ship without their store, and anyway, you can install apks with a checkbox in settings. Worst case, you ship to play store without this feature and mention in the support faq that you have to install the apk from a website download to have it. Apple has slowly started to make things like that closer to being possible, but there are a lot more hoops, so it might be reasonable for a very niche app, buy anything you want thousands of people to use really needs to go through the app store.
- internet_user 7y agoThere is no such thing as web3. Please stop hyping your heavy bags.
- Sargos 7y agoHN is meant for developers and focused discussion and not for trolls like you. The web3 APIs are public and widely used including in Coinbase Wallet which is what this article is talking about.