3 ms·

> You don’t really have a choice Why do you not have a choice? If your product is not stocked in Walmart or Amazon, who make up the bulk of U.S. retail, can yo

> You don’t really have a choice Why do you not have a choice? If your product is not stocked in Walmart or Amazon, who make up the bulk of U.S. retail, can you not make money? Having your app exclusively on Android can make plenty of money. Epic makes plenty of money on other platforms. Many game publishers are successful publishing exclusively for one console. Pandora was fine before mobile apps. Many dating websites exist. 40% of a particular segment of the computing sector in a market as huge as the US does not monopoly make.

arrosenberg 6y ago
It's not a question of whether you can "make plenty of money". It's whether we want to allow private regulation of markets. Right now Google and Apple are the regulators of the mobile app market - the public has no say in how those marketplaces are run, and both companies use their ownership of the OS platforms to enforce this market control. Antitrust actions are aimed at restoring public oversight over public markets. Two companies should not have the ability to lock developers entirely out the mobile app market.
- sempron64 6y ago
  I think it's important to consider whether the "mobile app market" should be considered a separate entity from the "software" market. Arguably almost all the functionality of mobile apps can be achieved using websites (accessible on the phone) and/or computer software. For comparison, Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft have a stranglehold on the console video game market, but because consoles aren't the only way to play games (though they are arguably they are necessary to make a AAA title profitable) it doesn't seem as egregious as what Apple is doing. When you're writing regulation and enforcing regulation it is important to clearly define the line is and I don't think it's clear here where exactly Apple has overstepped the role of a curator and become a gatekeeper -- they're powerful but they are not clearly (at least to me) the only game in town or even in a duopoly when it comes to software in general. If mobile apps in particular can be unambiguously shown to be meaningful and distinct as a market category, then I absolutely agree with your point.

arrosenberg 6y ago

It's not a question of whether you can "make plenty of money". It's whether we want to allow private regulation of markets. Right now Google and Apple are the regulators of the mobile app market - the public has no say in how those marketplaces are run, and both companies use their ownership of the OS platforms to enforce this market control. Antitrust actions are aimed at restoring public oversight over public markets. Two companies should not have the ability to lock developers entirely out the mobile app market.

sempron64 6y ago
I think it's important to consider whether the "mobile app market" should be considered a separate entity from the "software" market. Arguably almost all the functionality of mobile apps can be achieved using websites (accessible on the phone) and/or computer software. For comparison, Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft have a stranglehold on the console video game market, but because consoles aren't the only way to play games (though they are arguably they are necessary to make a AAA title profitable) it doesn't seem as egregious as what Apple is doing. When you're writing regulation and enforcing regulation it is important to clearly define the line is and I don't think it's clear here where exactly Apple has overstepped the role of a curator and become a gatekeeper -- they're powerful but they are not clearly (at least to me) the only game in town or even in a duopoly when it comes to software in general. If mobile apps in particular can be unambiguously shown to be meaningful and distinct as a market category, then I absolutely agree with your point.