21 ms·

Modi government to set up app store alternative to Google Play, Apple App Store

450 points by superasn 6y ago

baybal2 6y ago
India has a following issue with Android ecosystem, almost everything not owned by Google, is owned by some Chinese co. GetJar - sold to Chinese PayTM - Chinese shareholder Flipcart - Chinese shareholder Zomato, swiggy, + 10+ others online delivery/logistics apps. Some used to be reskins of Chinese apps. Some only have Indian C-levels. 20 something messengers - all except FB, and Twiter are Chinese ... I believe they quickly realised that to ban Chinese apps, they have to ban a lion share of apps in daily use, and here this app store comes. --- P.S. As I understand, a huge amount of Android phones in the third world doesn't have Google App store pre-installed, as manufacturers don't bother to go through arduous Google certification for low end phones, or provide OTA updates. This is why things like GetJar are still a thing there.
- actuator 6y ago
  As far as I recall, Walmart bought Flipkart. I haven't seen it mentioned much in the business press related to Walmart after acquisition though.
- bhaavan 6y ago
  Do you know reality, like at all? GetJar: I am hearing of this app for the first time, and I have seen and used many indian phones. Flipkart, Zomato, Swiggy are Indian companies with apps completely developed in India. Walmart has a major shareholding stake in Flipkart since a few years now. PayTM is also fully developed and operated in India, but yes, it does have Alibaba backing it. However, it was not at all considered for an app ban. If at all, many cash less policies by government are aimed to help it to move the country to digital payments. No, there are not 20 something messengers. There is one mainly used messenger called WhatsApp. Yes, there were a few Chinese apps / chinese owned apps, widely popular. They were PubG, TikTok and UC browser. All of them were fungible, and have been banned. Also, no, Indian Android phones are not "cheap third world phones without Google App Store pre-installed". A lot of them do come in the 150$-300$ price range, but all of them have fully certified Android, passing VTS. In the 100s of phones I have seen, I haven't seen a single such phone. There are some phones (JioPhones) which do exist, but they are built on KaiOS which is a fork of Firefox OS. They obviously don't have Play Store installed. Also you have really funny spelling skills.
  - ignoramous 6y ago
    > Also you have really funny spelling skills. Uncalled for. Be kind. Don't be snarky. Have curious conversation; don't cross-examine. Please don't fulminate. Please don't sneer, including at the rest of the community. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
  - ghoshbishakh 6y ago
    Well you see, most US companies now have development centers in India and soon many of their products and services will also be developed here. But that won't make these companies Indian companies.
  - deelowe 6y ago
    > Do you know reality, like at all? That seems a bit uncalled for.
  - morekozhambu 6y ago
    > Flipkart, Zomato, Swiggy are Indian companies with apps completely developed in India. AFAIK Flipkart is actually not an Indian company. It is registered in Singapore. https://www.quora.com/Why-is-Flipkart-registered-in-Singapore?share=1 https://www.quora.com/Why-is-Flipkart-registered-in-Singapor...
  - jpxw 6y ago
    > Also you have really funny spelling skills Given the poor grammar of your comment, I’d remind you that kids in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones
    - searchableguy 6y ago
      Flag it and move on. It's not good to attack the person even if they did it first.
    - hexbinencoded 6y ago
      Pot, meet kettle. I think you may want to take your own advice first because you didn't write a complete sentence either. And, it's "those who live in" because others will throw stones back at theirs. I don't know where these kids came from, but they're not part of this idiom. I wish you better luck next time in the teachable moment department.
- sbmthakur 6y ago
  How does having Chinese shareholders(in minority) make an app Chinese?
  - zepto 6y ago
    If access to the Chinese market is a significant portion of revenue, then these (large) minority shareholders ultimately control the company.
    - sbmthakur 6y ago
      I agree with that. However, Flipkart, PayTM, Zomato and Swiggy do not operate in China.
      - zepto 6y ago
        Useful information!
superasn 6y ago
Here is a more readable link for the same: https://outline.com/4CbwN4 https://outline.com/4CbwN4
zapdrive 6y ago
Ok maybe the Indian govt can force Android phone manufacturers to pre install it's app store, how is this going to play out on iPhones? Are we going to see a ban on iPhones in India?
- switch11 6y ago
  Let's look at some background 1) The issue is that Google is attacking competitors using the App Store as a weapon Google Pay is one of the biggest payment apps in India It attacked PayTm, another very big payment app, by making its app disappear 2) So lots of Indian companies are using it as an opportunity to do BOTH A) Point out Google attacking competitors B) Google taking 30% cut is unsustainable * Now, in INdia Android has 95% market share So Apple gets a free pass by virtue of being so tiny in India
  - hawkoy 6y ago
    Attacked Paytm? They have fantasy cricket now which is definitely gambling and my dad is getting spammed with messages that look exactly like scams. I am glad they removed it even if just for a few hours. They didn't comply after being requested to multiple times. Justifying it as cashback can be used for almost anything in the way they have done.
    - d3nj4l 6y ago
      Yes. This is entirely because PayTM thought it was too big to fail - and Google shut it down anyway.
  - ape4 6y ago
    No 30% is a big deal... "The government's existing Mobile Seva App Store is expected to be refurbished to create the Indian App Store and all the applications in it, will not be charged for gatekeeping."
  - higerordermap 6y ago
    This is annoying as shit. Lot of people use Google Pay or Amazon Pay because they are good.
logicOnly 6y ago
When did Apple open up to alternative App stores and side loading? I must've missed this, because this was my number 1 reason to avoid Apple products. Not that I'd buy any, reasons 2 through 10 are still deal breakers.
- emsy 6y ago
  The first two sentences would’ve been perfectly sufficient to convey your point. The last sentence looks like flamewar bait which is why I downvoted your comment.
- Wowfunhappy 6y ago
  It’s possible Apple won’t have a choice if they want to sell phones in India. India is a huge and growing market, I’m not sure Apple can afford to give that up...
  - ETHisso2017 6y ago
    Actually Apple's market share in India is minuscule due to pricing effects, and they don't anticipate selling all that much in India for the foreseeable future
    - elongatedMusku 6y ago
      I beg to differ. They started manufacturing Apple phones in India and it has become a lot cheaper now. This is a solid move from Apple's side mind you.
  - ericmay 6y ago
    I’m not sure Apple cares much about the market in India and would pull out of India before opening up the App Store. This won’t be popular. I know plenty of my Indian colleagues who buy and bring home Apple devices for their friends and family. People will just start smuggling the devices in if they have to.
    - infinityplus1 6y ago
donedanadone 6y ago
"reportedly planning"
tchalla 6y ago
> Also, talks within the government indicate that it may ask Google and Apple to pre-install Indian App Store in all phones sold in India in near future. This particular request is likely to face counter from the American companies. Sigh!
- bostonpete 6y ago
  Other than the Pixel line I don't know why we'd expect Google to block this. There's already alternative app stores preloaded on many Android phones. To my mind this will be a fight against Apple
  - srtjstjsj 6y ago
    The pixel line is the only line Google preinstalls anything on. Either the journalist or the negotiator doesn't understand Android or is pushing harder than they need to, or they see sideloading (bad UX) as not sufficient as an antitrust measure.
    - 0xdky 6y ago
      Well, Google could made it via licensing. When OEMs install Google service and other apps required to install Play store, they need a license from Google. Look at custom ROMs not bundling Gapps (Google apps) because they do not have the license from Google to pre-install and ask you to install from open gapps.
rvz 6y ago
What's wrong with Getjar for Android? [0] Although I think it needs a redesign but at least it has no Google control and it is independent. iOS on the other hand is slightly difficult to sideload apps compared to Android. Not too optimistic about an alternative App Store on iOS. [0] https://www.getjar.com/ https://www.getjar.com/
- untog 6y ago
  > it is independent From the perspective of the Indian government that is exactly what is wrong with Getjar.
- srtjstjsj 6y ago
  GetJar isn't controlled by the Indian government, so it's not useful for the Indian government.
- risyachka 6y ago
  I had a hard time finding an app between that crazy amount of ads.
  - tomjuggler 6y ago
    From all the blank spaces in my browser I imagine there must be a lot of ads.. ;)
risyachka 6y ago
It will be a special kind of joy for small developers to publish their apps on a billion stores each with its own regulations.
- the-dude 6y ago
  There is a SaaS for that.
- echopom 6y ago
  That's a bit exaggerated I think , you would get just "One Side Store" Per country or Region. That would be such a big victory. Personally I would not complain about the bureaucratic overhead.
  - judge2020 6y ago
    There are 193 countries (footnote[0]), so that might mean 193 app stores, but then some countries might delegate the power to require their own app store to their own regions/"states". 0: https://youtu.be/4AivEQmfPpk https://youtu.be/4AivEQmfPpk
  - elondaits 6y ago
    It'd create a new middle layer of distributors to handle the bureaucracy... like with music and streaming.
    - megous 6y ago
      That's not exactly a good thing. Look at how much publishers get and how much trickles down to authors.
  - risyachka 6y ago
    You are used to Apple-style bureaucracy. It won't be even close. If 10 countries roll out their stores - most of them probably won't even be in English for a long time. Custom SDKs will add a lot of overhead on the development side. And app review madness will be like never before.
tonyedgecombe 6y ago
India wants more Apple manufacturing and Apple wants to sell India more phones. My guess is this won't happen.
- HighChaparral 6y ago
  Right. India is the obvious destination for Apple if/when they decide to get out of their reliance on China.
  - mantap 6y ago
    Is it? Indian and Chinese culture is very different. Apple benefits greatly from China's unquenchable thirst for luxury goods in general, not just phones but clothing, cars, etc. Signalling wealth through conspicuous consumption is important in China. I don't see that same characteristic in Indian culture; of course there is a market for luxury goods but it's not the same.
    - actuator 6y ago
      > I don't see that same characteristic in Indian culture; of course there is a market for luxury goods but it's not the same. Can it be just because of the difference in disposable income in the countries? I don't know any reliable metric for income but the GDP per capita of PRC is five times that of India. The quench for luxurious goods comes with rising income.
      - return1 6y ago
        True but apple sells luxury , or premium products. They don’t seem to care for poorer countries
        whimsicalism 6y ago
        Yes, but China only became rich enough that lots of wealthy young Chinese could be buying iPhones recently. I do not think it would be unreasonable to make the same bet on India being a decade or two behind.
elongatedMusku 6y ago
I'm not the one for government intervention but this might not be the worst way to deal with the problem at hand.
montyminds12 6y ago
I wonder how's that going to go
aero-glide 6y ago
Those who want open source apps on their phones should checkout f-droid
- dannyw 6y ago
  F-droid is a political app store.
  - approxim8ion 6y ago
    There are no app-stores that are apolitical, that I know of at least. If they are opinionated in setting up barriers of entry for applications, it is a political decision. Even F-Droid choosing to be open-source only, is a political decision.
markthien 6y ago
idiotic modi gov
amitheonlyone 6y ago
What is their aim by having an alternate app store? Maybe make the manufacturers install it by default as a system app with all the permissions enabled by default? It'd be pretty easy to have a control over what people are seeing or using if so. It's just guess work but I wouldn't be surprised if this is the idea.
- 0xmohit 6y ago
  It might be because of the following: "Narendra Modi ‘wants state apps installed’ on new phones" Source: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/narendra-modi-wants-state-apps-installed-on-new-phones-8rvftr63j https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/narendra-modi-wants-state... > India is said to be considering a plan to make it mandatory for almost all new mobile phones to have government software pre-installed, raising the prospect of the state being able to closely monitor citizens.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
- surendrajat 6y ago
  It will never be easy to control what people use in India. Also if I won't have to pay $25 just to publish my free app to users, I will be much happier. And if I decide to monetize it, I will again perfer to pay Indian govt a cut than others. Google already knows what I think and what I am doing and it fulfills govt requests too, with precise details so it's better that India govt sees it directly. At least I know how I can stop that easily.
  - amitheonlyone 6y ago
    You really don't have to control though. Information itself is enough in the most part. As you said, Google already knows, but it has it's own procedure in fulfilling government requests. With the information directly in the hands of the government, that barrier is gone.
    - 6y ago
Fluid_Mechanics 6y ago
Taking preemptive action to derail their economic recovery.
sathishmanohar 6y ago
Finally! I can call my uncle and get my app featured. Awesome.
- phatfish 6y ago
  If your uncle works at the right level in Google or Apple I expect this works already.
villgax 6y ago
Good luck with Apple
phaer 6y ago
While I personally dislike to see an App Store coming from the Modi government, I wonder if there's at least some virtue to the idea of publicly funded App Stores e.g. in the European Union. Of course there's a risk of easier distribution of state-sponsored Malware and censorship - somewhat similar to state-level DPI - but there could be an advantage in enforcing local laws. As it stands, software distribution to european mobile clients seems to be restricted by: * U.S. laws and regulations * Policies by Google or Apple * European laws and regulations Independent App Stores could probably help with at least the first, if not the second point one as well. At least from a governments perspective. For Free Software Users, https://f-droid.org/en/ https://f-droid.org/en/ is course preferable. Seems to be registered in the UK according to https://f-droid.org/en/about/ https://f-droid.org/en/about/
- deadalus 6y ago
  F-Droid previously banned Gab for being a “free speech zone” that will “tolerate all opinions” https://reclaimthenet.org/f-droid-bans-gab-app/ https://reclaimthenet.org/f-droid-bans-gab-app/
  - yorwba 6y ago
    F-Droid's press release actually explains their decision not to ban Fedilab even though it allows accessing Gab and they don't like it. https://f-droid.org/en/2019/07/16/statement.html https://f-droid.org/en/2019/07/16/statement.html
    - dannyw 6y ago
      Their press release says: > F-Droid is taking a political stance here I do not want any App Store to be taking political stances.
      - whimsicalism 6y ago
        > I do not want any App Store to be taking political stances. I don't think there is a clean separation between political and non-political when you're choosing whether to accept or deny apps to an app store.
villgax 6y ago
What business does the govt have with private app stores.
- ziggystardust 6y ago
  IT cell must have learned how to inject apps with RATs. an app store would allow them to inject RAT into every app thus giving them the ability to spy on every indian device
- pedro_hab 6y ago
  Yes! If there are issues with Apple and Google they could create laws to fix it. If the idea was to help citizens, laws or regulations to stop said practices would be better, not that I agree with it. But thats not the idea, they see Google's power and they want in. Can you imagine thinking a government having all your data is better than a corporation? People have forgotten the governments were the perpetrators of the worst thing in human history. No corporation has rounded up people to be shot like governments did.
  - tssva 6y ago
    Corporations did just that in the specific part of the world under discussion here. I suggest you look into the East India Trading Company, Dutch East India and French East India companies.
    - pedro_hab 6y ago
      I didn't say corporations are all good, but the fact that you had to go back to the 17th century to find an example tells a lot. Governments have been killing people since their beginning and probably as we speak.
      - devdas 6y ago
        https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2010/10/the-pause-that-represses-coca-colas-controversies/64456/ https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2010/10/the-pause... As have corporations.
diego_moita 6y ago
I welcome this. It will be messy, it will open oportunities to corruption, lobbying, crappy user experiences, unsafe apps, government abuse, nationalism, ... it is really a Pandora box. But mess can be a fertile ground for competition and innovation when excessive regulation blocks it. Today's app stores are just feature development labs for Apple & Google. There is no chance that anyone will be able to create a big business within any app store and keep Apple or Google out. Just ask big players as Steam, Facebook and Microsoft how they feel about Google's and Apple's stores. If you're in the apps development business then you're just looking for golden opportunities for Apple/Google and being very badly payed for that.
- iamshs 6y ago
  >The sources said, "Android has 97% market share in India so we should intervene and handhold Indian startups. Making it mandatory for Android phones to be pre-instaled with our apps in under consideration". [1] Indian Government being arbiter of the app ecosystem on a phone and pre installing apps? Ominous vibes. Good luck with your desire for competition and innovation. [1] - https://www.timesnownews.com/business-economy/industry/article/modi-govt-planning-to-launch-its-own-app-store-as-an-alternative-to-google-apples-app-stores/660806 https://www.timesnownews.com/business-economy/industry/artic...
  - return1 6y ago
    So they are competing on same terms as google, in practice. Thats good
  - paxys 6y ago
    I'd like to think the Indian government will have the interests of its own citizens at heart better than Google or Apple. India has a long and not very pleasant history with foreign corporations.
    - fakedang 6y ago
      Haha no. The Indian government will have the best interests of the ruling party at heart. I'd rather trust Google with all of my data, even the sensitive bits, rather than give even an iota to the government. And yes, I know how disgusting that sounds. In the Delhi riots early this year, the government used data gathered from the national database to track and arrest protesters. Imagine what they could do if they could track your phones. At least Google is only selling me real estate ads (woefully inaccurate ones too) and not actively trying to imprison me or my family (bonus points if you're a minority).
actuator 6y ago
Anyone aware about the merit of the gambling claims that the apps were indulging in, as mentioned by the article. While I don't like censorship of any form, if that violates Play Store or AppStore's TOS, the violating app would get removed.
- vijaybritto 6y ago
  lol would get removed? This is a fascist govt. They'll ban Google and Apple stores in a whim.
  - cardy31 6y ago
    India is a democracy...
    - hawkoy 6y ago
      Perceived democracy rates in democratic countries have been lower than people expect. https://daliaresearch.com/blog/democracy-perception-index-2020/ https://daliaresearch.com/blog/democracy-perception-index-20...
    - notsureaboutpg 6y ago
      To outsiders, it's a democracy because they've been told that. To Modi bhakts it's a democracy because they are in power. To regular people, it's very clear it's a democracy like Russia is a democracy. The govt pays large amounts of people to misinform the populace online. The government uses martial law to impose Internet lockdown for over a year on any citizens who resist govt's crimes against them. There's no free press (check press freedom indices), without which democracy is in name only.
      - actuator 6y ago
        While I agree with parts of your comment, I don't think it is honest. > The govt pays large amounts of people to misinform the populace online. Are they using state apparatus to do that? Isn't this true in most parts of world now. The whole Brexit campaign was fueled by misinformation. > There's no free press (check press freedom indices), without which democracy is in name only. I have read a lot of outlets from India which are anti establishment. Though I definitely think the press freedoms are nowhere at the level of some countries. > The government uses martial law to impose Internet lockdown for over a year on any citizens who resist govt's crimes against them. I think this refers to Kashmir. While I don't support the restriction and definitely heavy handed and it wouldn't have been possible in say a country like US now. I think you are triviliazing the situation when you think all the "resistance" is against government crimes.
yalogin 6y ago
It feels like this is just a China firewall in the making. They will strictly block everything they don’t like. I have a bad feeling about it
freewizard 6y ago
China would be a good example to predict what would happen. Since it bans Google, there are 11 Android app stores has >1% market share [1], most are from tech giants(e.g. Tencent), mobile operator(e.g. China Mobile) and phone manufacturers(e.g. Huawei). When Apple opens the gate for 3p App Store, it's safe to bet another 5~10 stores. Maybe not every country will have as many app stores as China, but still that's gonna be a nightmare for developers (especially small developers) to manage. Push notification might be another nightmare to watch out for consumers. When China bans Google service, app developers have freedom to implement push themselves or via a 3rd party vendor. And I guess if forced to open, Apple won't support non AppStore push either, hence consumers may end up with Facebook/Google/Epic/Tencent/YouNameWho have their push services running and connected on their phones with a burning battery. [1] https://www.statista.com/statistics/1058612/china-android-app-store-market-share/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/1058612/china-android-ap...
pkphilip 6y ago
I am glad that this will force a hard stop on Google's and Apple's monopoly on App stores and force them to be more competitive. India is too big a market for Google to walk away from - especially after they had to walk away from China. However, it is entirely like that the Modi govt is probably trying to find a way to backdoor all phones in India through this. So thats bad.
abrbhat 6y ago
It seems most people are arguing that the only alternative to 2 app stores is a large number of app stores. But what if the alternative is no app stores? Anyone can install whatever software they want on their device from wherever they want it. Just like it works for desktops. The need for app stores is an artificially created need (by the marketing brilliance of Jobs).
- bhaavan 6y ago
  I would argue that an App Store, on mobile has helped avoid virus, and malware on phones, unlike how Windows was able to contain it. Having a trusted App Store by a company, who understands security, and has a financial backing to commit to a secure system, is beneficial all the way down.
  - 542458 6y ago
    Yeah, an App Store is in no way an artificial need. There’s a reason fortnite is on the Google Play store even when they had the option of only installing through other methods. For non-savvy users it mostly solves the “evaluating installer maliciousness” problem. For all users it enhances convenience (unified method for installing and uninstalling software) and software discovery. It is not a perfect solution to any of the above problems, but IMO it’s very good.
    - deleted 6y ago
      [deleted]
    - toast0 6y ago
      In the absence of Google Play, uninstalling software would be in the same place -> settings / apps / needless tap to see all the apps / the app / uninstall. Installing would be download the apk and open it which works today, although you generally have to set a setting somewhere. There's certainly a discovery benefit to Google Play, but anybody could build an app discovery site and make an app from that with an embedded browser, open the downloaded apks with the system intent and get the permissions prompt etc. You don't even need the special app management permission if you embrace the system tools that are already there. You would lose automatic updates without that though (but then, a lot of people in India have auto-updates off to conserve bandwidth or storage space). Google play certainly does some small curation function, but I don't know how useful that is, and you could still have Google Play services running background scans and malware blacklists.
freezeshock 6y ago
I don't think Apple allows other app stores on their platform.
Abishek_Muthian 6y ago
Playstore(Google) and Appstore(Apple) are major soft power assets of U.S. Govt. we've seen the former exercised effectively against Huawei, crippling its International smartphone sales. Considering U.S. - India trade agreement has been elusive for a long time due to differences from fruits to solar cells, India would definitely not add App(Play) store to the list; especially now due to the situation with China. Although there's nothing stopping anyone from creating 3rd party app store for Android, the lobby wants Govt. to be involved for forcing handset manufacturers to pre-burn this new app store. It's certainly possible, as made in India Samsung M-series phones already has all major Indian apps, they might even provide privilege escalation like Fdroid to make install/update seamless. What they are going to replace Google Play Services with would be interesting to see. Of course it's not going to happen with Apple unless anti-trust issues in US/EU forces Apple to open its platform for 3rd party app stores. Coming back to Huawei, Playstore denial didn't have impact on its sales in China as Playstore was never there and China has hundreds of local app stores for android (although silicon denial will have an impact there). Similarly, having local Indian app stores does make strategic sense. But as a consumer I'm worried about the privacy, security implications of a local app store without common International rules and scrutiny; Especially since I have personally seen what some of these leading apps can do with user privacy and security[1]. [1] https://abishekmuthian.com/paytm-says-to-me-that-its-pos-feature-didn-t-have-a-security-risk-8fd7c3849e54/ https://abishekmuthian.com/paytm-says-to-me-that-its-pos-fea...
- threatofrain 6y ago
  Just about every single app nowadays vacuums data, so as strange it sounds, I'm back to having Apple replace just about everything, even if Apple's version is inferior. Oh, I need to use a simple todo app. I guess it needs access to my contacts because there's a legitimate feature for that. It also needs access to my calendar because there's a legitimate feature for that. Of course it needs location for location based todos.
akritrime 6y ago
I am not sure how I feel about the government being directly involved in creating the app store. On one hand, I believe the government should take measures to nurture the local startups and app, to give them a fair chance at growing. On the other hand, I don't think an app store created and managed by the government will have the right incentive to be competitive against foreign players and may just end up spiraling into a hot bureaucratic mess, with more and more hoops to jump through just to get an app on that platform.
- whimsicalism 6y ago
  > may just end up spiraling into a hot bureaucratic mess Many publicly traded corporations are not that much different. I am confident that an app-store is not that hard of a task relative to the revenue Google et al are extracting from mit. If the govt can run a postal service competitively, then I don't see why what is basically a glorified file hosting service + reviews would be impossible. If anything, I think we need more of these "public options" to compete with walled-garden "platform"/market-making tech companies like Google's play store, Venmo, Uber, etc.
  - akritrime 6y ago
    If you want to register a company in India, its a convoluted maze of red tapes. While there have been a lot of improvements, the experience still leaves a lot to be desired (anecdotally). And while the govt postal service is exemplary, its hardly the norm. Yeah it is a glorified hosting service with reviews and I am not worried about the technical capability of the government, I am worried that the 'babu' culture of India will make this simple thing needlessly complicated.
Temasik 6y ago
lol
krisgenre 6y ago
How will the Indian govt. enforce an alternative app store? Will Apple bow down?
KuriousCat 6y ago
What are the efforts at other important levels? Silicon? Operating systems? Next generation architectures? Where is the leverage without being independent at the hardware level? Look what has happened to BSNL with 4G...
KuriousCat 6y ago
What are the efforts at other important levels? Silicon? Operating systems? Next gen architectures? Where is the leverage without independence in those?
lstroud 6y ago
LOL. We don’t need 30%. We’ll pay for it through taxes instead.
aaron695 6y ago
No government on Earth could run an App store. Unless they mean force sellers to change defaults and dump on f-droid or something it's embarrassing they think they can.
zeristor 6y ago
The article states that the Apple App store has 2% of the market, isn't that too little to bother about?
bilalhusain 6y ago
Since the title mentions the idea as well as the govt, let me add that while the idea is excellent, the current (Modi) govt is incompetent when it comes to execution, or may be has some other interests. Examples - failed demonetization, poor implementation of Goods and Services Tax (GST), failed Covid-19 lockdown. Most of what the govt does benefits select corporates (eg. rise of Jio). Interestingly, Paytm benefited the most during demonetization (2016) which is mentioned in the article and might have catalyzed the idea. The important part to notice is that demonetization was aimed at wiping out black money, GST was supposed to improve taxation, Covid-19 lockdown was supposed to dampen the long-term effect. However, these steps which were supposed to improve economy turned out to be counter-productive. Due to the poor or misdirected execution, India's economic is tanking down. So, although self-dependence is the stated goal, I am not sure where it will land. Moreover, the authoritarian tendencies don't help either. They are known to blackout journalists, assassinate lawyer, conduct media trials and put anyone speaking against them in jail. They will be a bigger bully than Google/Apple and pose a bigger risk to privacy.
- ahiknsr 6y ago
  >>>They are known to blackout journalists, assassinate lawyer, conduct media trials and put anyone speaking against them in jail. Can you please share some citation for the assassination part. I don't think the Bar Council of India would be happy if a lawyer is assassinated by government.
  - bilalhusain 6y ago
    I am talking about Justice Loya [1]. By the way, the govt has been very active in making sure that they have their loyal representatives in bureaucracy as well as in judiciary. Recently, the Supreme Court convicted a prominent lawyer for a tweet criticizing them [2]. It is very easy for them to dismiss cases which might show them in bad light. Media has no independence either. Eg. the case of Punya Prasun Bajpai [3] who's show was blacked out and eventually cancelled because it was critical of Modi. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brijgopal_Harkishan_Loya https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brijgopal_Harkishan_Loya [2] https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/31/world/asia/india-bhushan-supreme-court.html https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/31/world/asia/india-bhushan-... [3] https://thewire.in/media/punya-prasun-bajpai-abp-news-narendra-modi https://thewire.in/media/punya-prasun-bajpai-abp-news-narend...
anaganisk 6y ago
Modi is a pure marketing person representing JIO and PayTM period, he just wants their spyware to be pre-installed. Nothing more, now if you want proof, watch the down votes. He is the kind of PM who doesn't meet journalists, doesn't take questions. And all he does is Marketing. No execution went atleast good till now.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- _throwaway_0093 6y ago
  I have to explain this comment. Because it will look like politically charged content to outsiders. The following is a rough summary of Indian politics from my perspective: The current leadership has done some fishy marketing tactics for sure. There are swathes of fake news on whatsapp and Facebook which lure unsuspecting citizens into thinking the current leadership is some kind of savior. The local media is mostly silent and doesn't broadcast any news that might affect the savior image of the leadership. These media outlets cognitively manipulate people by pushing uncertain news; eg: "did coward china leave the Ladakh region after Modi's roar?" Sorry, my English is not very good. But this news is so manipulative when broadcast in the local language. This combined with aggressive Hindutva identity politics, most naive people of India think Modi is a savior, while they are systematically looting this country. BJP is one of richest parties in the world and no one asked where all the money from de monetization went. Modi has not even called a press meet so far. It doesn't help that the opposition party is exploited by Nehru family. INC had a great prime minister PV Narasimha Rao, but he was suppressed in the party itself. He is easily the best PM this cursed country has seen after Late Mr. Shastri. Doesn't help there is a vocal minority of liberal arts graduates which even openly support terrorist forces in an attempt to rail against BJP. They call themselves left or liberals but they are not left. They openly support all kind of dammage from Muslim fundamentalists, and try to defame the long standing tradition of the country. You can see lot of those people on r/india echo chamber. You will be banned for opposing their viewpoints. The effect? You will be called as leftie/liberal/communist/anti-national for just opposing Modi, among your friend circles who are already likely to be manipulated from the fake news based propaganda. TL; DR This country sucks.
wtmt 6y ago
This is going to be a big mess. PayTM as a company isn’t known for respecting user privacy. The CEO’s brother was caught in a sting video saying they could sell any user’s information for a price (search online and you’ll find the video). All that these Indian startups care is for them to benefit and control everything. It’s not about equitable treatment. It’s more about regulatory capture and making sure that their apps somehow become pre-installed on devices. As for the government’s apps being pre-installed, one couldn’t ask for worse things. The COVID-19 contact tracing app, Aarogya Setu, needs location and Bluetooth access all the time “to help the user.” You can imagine what a bunch of such apps can do. If you think I’m being hyperbolic, just wait for Reliance Jio to announce its own App Store as the first one. It’ll come with the full force of the government behind it (who in a government wouldn’t love a telecom and network provider that loves slurping all data and is against end to end encryption when it’s done by other competing apps like WhatsApp?) I feel bad for all the poorer people who already are forced to buy cheap Android phones that don’t get updates and are loaded with crapware and what not. As much as I despise Google for tracking users, I believe Google will look like a saint in front of these companies.
- raghavtoshniwal 6y ago
  It would be messy for sure but there is somewhat precedence for it. WeChat operates its own AppStores and is subservient to the CCP. 'Running' your own AppStore is forbidden in the iOS terms of service but when you have the might of a billion people, some rules are okay to be broken.
  - simonh 6y ago
    WeChat mini-programs don't actually run as native code on the phone though. They're much more like web apps running on the WeChat back end, with WecChat acting as a browser to access them. Roblox does a similar thing, with interactive games from third parties running on the Roblox servers in the virtual environment. A third party app store where you install native code apps on the phone, directly accessing phone OS services and consuming local resources is a completely different thing, right?
nine_zeros 6y ago
What is stopping the government from simply banning single monopoly app store and forcing Google to allow installation of multiple private app stores? Why does it have to be a government app store?
- flak48 6y ago
  Because the saner option has lesser PR value
sbmthakur 6y ago
How can we be sure that this app store won't charge any charges or commission?
rishav_sharan 6y ago
Far too many optimistic voices here and that scares me. I don't see this app store being about providing alternatives. that's just a talking point. This app store is all about forcing every android sold in India to have a system installed govt driven app, which will report back to the govt on tons of private information about the device and owner. Information that Indian govt will be too incompetent to keep safe and given its authoritarian nature, should never have access to. This is an authoritarian nightmare abut to happen. Modi wants India to move in the direction that China chose. And this scares me a lot.
- tomcat27 6y ago
  authoritarianism is when a ex judicial company has so strong influence over regulations and those adjudicated arbitrarily and in-transparent and the effected party couldn't do a damn thing about it.. while it's not the best solution, there is merit to it. one of the role of governance could be to help setup an environment for healthy competition. Well it took decades of work at NASA before one private player like space x created momentum outside government.
- bilbo0s 6y ago
  I agree with you, the worst is about to happen worldwide. The Indians clearly want more control. The Chinese obviously are never going to relinquish any control. Even the South Americans and especially the Africans are starting to look at regionally fenced mobile and internet services as a method of both more control over social media and growing their economies. (As well as providing jobs for their youth.) I think the saying was something like freedom dies to thunderous applause.
  - phatfish 6y ago
    I'm not happy with governments taking such an active role. Ideally they help home-grown alternatives and push out American/Chinese corporations to give them space. That is probably too little too late at this point though. Google, Facebook, Apple et al. have shown they will not stop until they dominate digital markets worldwide. Aggressive intervention by governments is the only way for them to wrestle back control. At least with the "Indian Government App Store" there is no smoke and mirrors with regards to who has access to the data. Tech companies hand over whatever governments ask for anyway.
ramshanker 6y ago
>>>>Also, talks within the government indicate that it may ask Google and Apple to pre-install Indian App Store in all phones sold in India in near future. This particular request is likely to face counter from the American companies. <<<<<< THIS is the only time, I am more inclined to side with Chinese style of control. Sovereign nation out to decide what is good for their people. India is a chaotic democracy, but a function one. I will rather support my government's way of ensuring "Privacy and Security" than Apple's. We do have equally capable people over here. Slowly but surely, things move in positive direction. No need of dictation by any foreign multi-national. The way Google banned PayTM for few hours, until they removed some of the features from the App, come-on, Indian Laws are good enough to decide what is legal / correct / etc. etc. This was a very visible case of an American company imposing "Their Policy" on things which only court / government should get to decide. I am mostly IN with this proposal. EDIT: I guess I used harsh words, but something definitely needs to be done with the current duopoly.
disown 6y ago
It's a good start, but doesn't go far enough. India should also temporarily ban google, facebook, microsoft, apple, intel, etc until their local software companies are strong enough to compete. India, like china, is sufficiently large and important enough to create their own tech ecosystem. But given their track record, I really don't have much confidence in india to get it right. Hope I am wrong though as the world needs genuine competition the tech space. Now maybe the EU should get their act together? The EU was able to create airbus to compete with boeing, why can't they do the same for their own version of microsoft, google, apple, facebook, etc? They are certainly wealthy enough and given their large population, they certainly could produce the talent to drive such an initiative. If the EU thinks their private sector is going to compete against state-backed corporations like google, facebook, microsoft, apple, intel, etc, then they really have drunk the kool-aid. The EU's private sector can no more create a competitor to these tech giants as it could have created an aerospace company to compete with boeing. These companies are fundamentally "private" state companies. If india, EU, etc succeed, then perhaps ASEAN, Africa, etc will follow their examples and create their tech ecosystem within their economic bloc.
jmpman 6y ago
So much for Apple moving their manufacturing to India.
throw93 6y ago
I would not trust any state run App Store. In past their “Aarogya Setu” app has been criticized for privacy concerns. Note that the people who complained about Google’s review policy aren’t indie Developers but big Players like PayTM who benefited immensely from demonetization mandate. Clearly violating a policy that’s in place to protect the user and then complaining that your app got taken down is ridiculous. Agree, App Store review process isn’t perfect. There are mistakes in review process which get some apps wrongfully rejected. But I would rather have stricter policies than no/questionable review process. Another point is specific to this govt. The govt and the PM don’t exactly have a great track record when it comes to minorities, which makes such interference more scary.
blntechie 6y ago
Government run app store would just be a wedge to bring Jio app store in. Reliance will become like one of those chaebol companies in Korea, pervasive in every Indian’s life with little to no other options.
henvic 6y ago
So we should trust a state to have an app store on our phones? Thanks, but no thanks. I'd rather not even have any state app instead.
uname_amiy 6y ago
Considering what the central government said back in 2017[1] >"There is no fundamental right to privacy and even if it is assumed as a fundamental right, it is multifaceted. Every facet can’t be ipso facto considered a fundamental right." This doesn't sound like a good idea to give the control of an app store to the government. Government will for sure try to track and spy on users and remove any app it doesn't like and quality will be a joke. [1]: https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/right-to-privacy-not-fundamental-right-centre-tells-sc/article19369385.ece https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/right-to-privacy-not-...
ab_testing 6y ago
I have a contrarian view that this is a very good ideas to get rid of the duopoly of Apple and Google App Store. These companies charge 30% of all sales and in a country like India where margins are low, that can be a huge chunk of profits . I also believe that there should be a baseline for what apps can come preinstalled on a new phone - because India is a hotbed for low cost Chinese mobiles that are subsidized by the CCP and in turn send all user data to China.
ineedasername 6y ago
I don't like a government owned & controlled app store any better than the current status quo.
tebura 6y ago
I am happy with this decision. There should be alternative to these stores. Let people decide which store to choose. Looting devs for 30% income is bad decision. Also recently Google banned few Indian apps. The way I see it, Indian govt wants to make sure, essential apps are in their control, not in private companies'.
throaway1990 6y ago
bad idea. indian companies haven't shown any competence or compassion in this space. if they force Apple to pre-install appstore on phones? say bye-bye to $10 B manufacturing dream. Having local controls and slightly stricter rules is good! But these chinese-commie style is bad!
amelius 6y ago
Why, in the firsts place, is Apple allowed to have a monopoly on something the user already paid for? I think the law should address this question, as clearly the current practice is not in favor of the customer nor the market.
ilaksh 6y ago
I'm sure that this will get buried or ignored as usual, but I find it very strange that no one evens discusses the possibility of using decentralized technologies to create public marketplaces in cases such as this. This seems to be a good opportunity for cryptocurrency and something like a distributed database or content-oriented networking with indexing. Such as for example Ether and OrbitDB.
umaobviously 6y ago
I feel like india needs to sort out abject poverty, lack of sanitation and rampant discrimination before moving on to government mandated spy apps. This is yet another example of that country’s government giving the impression of a democracy working for the greater good when tens of millions of people suffer. Pretty disgusting.
fellellor 6y ago
Anything the government manages will become a complete shit show. I have no hopes for this.
hijklmno 6y ago
Although government control will lead to more problems down the line, at least, this has opened serious debate about the unfair control Apple and Google has over the App stores. Third part app stores should be allowed, and in the end, hopefully, the best one will come out as a winner.
LockAndLol 6y ago
Being surveiled by Google, Apple and Facebook (America), and soon in greater effect by the Indian state isn't exactly appealing, but at least it means competition I guess. Honestly, what alternative exists? Corporations won't be OK with publishing on F-Droid, but is there some kind of opensource store that can be used for commercial apps? If some people put their heads together, maybe they could come up with something opensource that respects privacy, is secure and allows closed-source stuff to be published.
mensetmanusman 6y ago
Interesting. Suppose Epic wins its case against Apple and judges force alternative app stores, I wonder if that would mean tmobile, at&t, et al. would all then be allowed to install their app store with adware into iPhones...

450 points by superasn 6y ago

India has a following issue with Android ecosystem, almost everything not owned by Google, is owned by some Chinese co. GetJar - sold to Chinese PayTM - Chinese shareholder Flipcart - Chinese shareholder Zomato, swiggy, + 10+ others online delivery/logistics apps. Some used to be reskins of Chinese apps. Some only have Indian C-levels. 20 something messengers - all except FB, and Twiter are Chinese ... I believe they quickly realised that to ban Chinese apps, they have to ban a lion share of apps in daily use, and here this app store comes. --- P.S. As I understand, a huge amount of Android phones in the third world doesn't have Google App store pre-installed, as manufacturers don't bother to go through arduous Google certification for low end phones, or provide OTA updates. This is why things like GetJar are still a thing there.

actuator 6y ago
As far as I recall, Walmart bought Flipkart. I haven't seen it mentioned much in the business press related to Walmart after acquisition though.
bhaavan 6y ago
Do you know reality, like at all? GetJar: I am hearing of this app for the first time, and I have seen and used many indian phones. Flipkart, Zomato, Swiggy are Indian companies with apps completely developed in India. Walmart has a major shareholding stake in Flipkart since a few years now. PayTM is also fully developed and operated in India, but yes, it does have Alibaba backing it. However, it was not at all considered for an app ban. If at all, many cash less policies by government are aimed to help it to move the country to digital payments. No, there are not 20 something messengers. There is one mainly used messenger called WhatsApp. Yes, there were a few Chinese apps / chinese owned apps, widely popular. They were PubG, TikTok and UC browser. All of them were fungible, and have been banned. Also, no, Indian Android phones are not "cheap third world phones without Google App Store pre-installed". A lot of them do come in the 150$-300$ price range, but all of them have fully certified Android, passing VTS. In the 100s of phones I have seen, I haven't seen a single such phone. There are some phones (JioPhones) which do exist, but they are built on KaiOS which is a fork of Firefox OS. They obviously don't have Play Store installed. Also you have really funny spelling skills.
- ignoramous 6y ago
  > Also you have really funny spelling skills. Uncalled for. Be kind. Don't be snarky. Have curious conversation; don't cross-examine. Please don't fulminate. Please don't sneer, including at the rest of the community. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- ghoshbishakh 6y ago
  Well you see, most US companies now have development centers in India and soon many of their products and services will also be developed here. But that won't make these companies Indian companies.
- deelowe 6y ago
  > Do you know reality, like at all? That seems a bit uncalled for.
- morekozhambu 6y ago
  > Flipkart, Zomato, Swiggy are Indian companies with apps completely developed in India. AFAIK Flipkart is actually not an Indian company. It is registered in Singapore. https://www.quora.com/Why-is-Flipkart-registered-in-Singapore?share=1 https://www.quora.com/Why-is-Flipkart-registered-in-Singapor...
- jpxw 6y ago
  > Also you have really funny spelling skills Given the poor grammar of your comment, I’d remind you that kids in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones
  - searchableguy 6y ago
    Flag it and move on. It's not good to attack the person even if they did it first.
  - hexbinencoded 6y ago
    Pot, meet kettle. I think you may want to take your own advice first because you didn't write a complete sentence either. And, it's "those who live in" because others will throw stones back at theirs. I don't know where these kids came from, but they're not part of this idiom. I wish you better luck next time in the teachable moment department.
sbmthakur 6y ago
How does having Chinese shareholders(in minority) make an app Chinese?
- zepto 6y ago
  If access to the Chinese market is a significant portion of revenue, then these (large) minority shareholders ultimately control the company.
  - sbmthakur 6y ago
    I agree with that. However, Flipkart, PayTM, Zomato and Swiggy do not operate in China.
    - zepto 6y ago
      Useful information!

superasn 6y ago

Here is a more readable link for the same: https://outline.com/4CbwN4 https://outline.com/4CbwN4

zapdrive 6y ago

Ok maybe the Indian govt can force Android phone manufacturers to pre install it's app store, how is this going to play out on iPhones? Are we going to see a ban on iPhones in India?

switch11 6y ago
Let's look at some background 1) The issue is that Google is attacking competitors using the App Store as a weapon Google Pay is one of the biggest payment apps in India It attacked PayTm, another very big payment app, by making its app disappear 2) So lots of Indian companies are using it as an opportunity to do BOTH A) Point out Google attacking competitors B) Google taking 30% cut is unsustainable * Now, in INdia Android has 95% market share So Apple gets a free pass by virtue of being so tiny in India
- hawkoy 6y ago
  Attacked Paytm? They have fantasy cricket now which is definitely gambling and my dad is getting spammed with messages that look exactly like scams. I am glad they removed it even if just for a few hours. They didn't comply after being requested to multiple times. Justifying it as cashback can be used for almost anything in the way they have done.
  - d3nj4l 6y ago
    Yes. This is entirely because PayTM thought it was too big to fail - and Google shut it down anyway.
- ape4 6y ago
  No 30% is a big deal... "The government's existing Mobile Seva App Store is expected to be refurbished to create the Indian App Store and all the applications in it, will not be charged for gatekeeping."
- higerordermap 6y ago
  This is annoying as shit. Lot of people use Google Pay or Amazon Pay because they are good.

logicOnly 6y ago

When did Apple open up to alternative App stores and side loading? I must've missed this, because this was my number 1 reason to avoid Apple products. Not that I'd buy any, reasons 2 through 10 are still deal breakers.

emsy 6y ago
The first two sentences would’ve been perfectly sufficient to convey your point. The last sentence looks like flamewar bait which is why I downvoted your comment.
Wowfunhappy 6y ago
It’s possible Apple won’t have a choice if they want to sell phones in India. India is a huge and growing market, I’m not sure Apple can afford to give that up...
- ETHisso2017 6y ago
  Actually Apple's market share in India is minuscule due to pricing effects, and they don't anticipate selling all that much in India for the foreseeable future
  - elongatedMusku 6y ago
    I beg to differ. They started manufacturing Apple phones in India and it has become a lot cheaper now. This is a solid move from Apple's side mind you.
- ericmay 6y ago
  I’m not sure Apple cares much about the market in India and would pull out of India before opening up the App Store. This won’t be popular. I know plenty of my Indian colleagues who buy and bring home Apple devices for their friends and family. People will just start smuggling the devices in if they have to.
  - infinityplus1 6y ago

donedanadone 6y ago

"reportedly planning"

tchalla 6y ago

> Also, talks within the government indicate that it may ask Google and Apple to pre-install Indian App Store in all phones sold in India in near future. This particular request is likely to face counter from the American companies. Sigh!

bostonpete 6y ago
Other than the Pixel line I don't know why we'd expect Google to block this. There's already alternative app stores preloaded on many Android phones. To my mind this will be a fight against Apple
- srtjstjsj 6y ago
  The pixel line is the only line Google preinstalls anything on. Either the journalist or the negotiator doesn't understand Android or is pushing harder than they need to, or they see sideloading (bad UX) as not sufficient as an antitrust measure.
  - 0xdky 6y ago
    Well, Google could made it via licensing. When OEMs install Google service and other apps required to install Play store, they need a license from Google. Look at custom ROMs not bundling Gapps (Google apps) because they do not have the license from Google to pre-install and ask you to install from open gapps.

rvz 6y ago

What's wrong with Getjar for Android? [0] Although I think it needs a redesign but at least it has no Google control and it is independent. iOS on the other hand is slightly difficult to sideload apps compared to Android. Not too optimistic about an alternative App Store on iOS. [0] https://www.getjar.com/ https://www.getjar.com/

untog 6y ago
> it is independent From the perspective of the Indian government that is exactly what is wrong with Getjar.
srtjstjsj 6y ago
GetJar isn't controlled by the Indian government, so it's not useful for the Indian government.
risyachka 6y ago
I had a hard time finding an app between that crazy amount of ads.
- tomjuggler 6y ago
  From all the blank spaces in my browser I imagine there must be a lot of ads.. ;)

risyachka 6y ago

It will be a special kind of joy for small developers to publish their apps on a billion stores each with its own regulations.

the-dude 6y ago
There is a SaaS for that.
echopom 6y ago
That's a bit exaggerated I think , you would get just "One Side Store" Per country or Region. That would be such a big victory. Personally I would not complain about the bureaucratic overhead.
- judge2020 6y ago
  There are 193 countries (footnote[0]), so that might mean 193 app stores, but then some countries might delegate the power to require their own app store to their own regions/"states". 0: https://youtu.be/4AivEQmfPpk https://youtu.be/4AivEQmfPpk
- elondaits 6y ago
  It'd create a new middle layer of distributors to handle the bureaucracy... like with music and streaming.
  - megous 6y ago
    That's not exactly a good thing. Look at how much publishers get and how much trickles down to authors.
- risyachka 6y ago
  You are used to Apple-style bureaucracy. It won't be even close. If 10 countries roll out their stores - most of them probably won't even be in English for a long time. Custom SDKs will add a lot of overhead on the development side. And app review madness will be like never before.

tonyedgecombe 6y ago

India wants more Apple manufacturing and Apple wants to sell India more phones. My guess is this won't happen.

HighChaparral 6y ago
Right. India is the obvious destination for Apple if/when they decide to get out of their reliance on China.
- mantap 6y ago
  Is it? Indian and Chinese culture is very different. Apple benefits greatly from China's unquenchable thirst for luxury goods in general, not just phones but clothing, cars, etc. Signalling wealth through conspicuous consumption is important in China. I don't see that same characteristic in Indian culture; of course there is a market for luxury goods but it's not the same.
  - actuator 6y ago
    > I don't see that same characteristic in Indian culture; of course there is a market for luxury goods but it's not the same. Can it be just because of the difference in disposable income in the countries? I don't know any reliable metric for income but the GDP per capita of PRC is five times that of India. The quench for luxurious goods comes with rising income.
    - return1 6y ago
      True but apple sells luxury , or premium products. They don’t seem to care for poorer countries
      - whimsicalism 6y ago
        Yes, but China only became rich enough that lots of wealthy young Chinese could be buying iPhones recently. I do not think it would be unreasonable to make the same bet on India being a decade or two behind.

elongatedMusku 6y ago

I'm not the one for government intervention but this might not be the worst way to deal with the problem at hand.

montyminds12 6y ago

I wonder how's that going to go

aero-glide 6y ago

Those who want open source apps on their phones should checkout f-droid

dannyw 6y ago
F-droid is a political app store.
- approxim8ion 6y ago
  There are no app-stores that are apolitical, that I know of at least. If they are opinionated in setting up barriers of entry for applications, it is a political decision. Even F-Droid choosing to be open-source only, is a political decision.

markthien 6y ago

idiotic modi gov

amitheonlyone 6y ago

What is their aim by having an alternate app store? Maybe make the manufacturers install it by default as a system app with all the permissions enabled by default? It'd be pretty easy to have a control over what people are seeing or using if so. It's just guess work but I wouldn't be surprised if this is the idea.

0xmohit 6y ago
It might be because of the following: "Narendra Modi ‘wants state apps installed’ on new phones" Source: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/narendra-modi-wants-state-apps-installed-on-new-phones-8rvftr63j https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/narendra-modi-wants-state... > India is said to be considering a plan to make it mandatory for almost all new mobile phones to have government software pre-installed, raising the prospect of the state being able to closely monitor citizens.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
surendrajat 6y ago
It will never be easy to control what people use in India. Also if I won't have to pay $25 just to publish my free app to users, I will be much happier. And if I decide to monetize it, I will again perfer to pay Indian govt a cut than others. Google already knows what I think and what I am doing and it fulfills govt requests too, with precise details so it's better that India govt sees it directly. At least I know how I can stop that easily.
- amitheonlyone 6y ago
  You really don't have to control though. Information itself is enough in the most part. As you said, Google already knows, but it has it's own procedure in fulfilling government requests. With the information directly in the hands of the government, that barrier is gone.
  - 6y ago

Fluid_Mechanics 6y ago

Taking preemptive action to derail their economic recovery.

sathishmanohar 6y ago

Finally! I can call my uncle and get my app featured. Awesome.

phatfish 6y ago
If your uncle works at the right level in Google or Apple I expect this works already.

villgax 6y ago

Good luck with Apple

phaer 6y ago

While I personally dislike to see an App Store coming from the Modi government, I wonder if there's at least some virtue to the idea of publicly funded App Stores e.g. in the European Union. Of course there's a risk of easier distribution of state-sponsored Malware and censorship - somewhat similar to state-level DPI - but there could be an advantage in enforcing local laws. As it stands, software distribution to european mobile clients seems to be restricted by: * U.S. laws and regulations * Policies by Google or Apple * European laws and regulations Independent App Stores could probably help with at least the first, if not the second point one as well. At least from a governments perspective. For Free Software Users, https://f-droid.org/en/ https://f-droid.org/en/ is course preferable. Seems to be registered in the UK according to https://f-droid.org/en/about/ https://f-droid.org/en/about/

deadalus 6y ago
F-Droid previously banned Gab for being a “free speech zone” that will “tolerate all opinions” https://reclaimthenet.org/f-droid-bans-gab-app/ https://reclaimthenet.org/f-droid-bans-gab-app/
- yorwba 6y ago
  F-Droid's press release actually explains their decision not to ban Fedilab even though it allows accessing Gab and they don't like it. https://f-droid.org/en/2019/07/16/statement.html https://f-droid.org/en/2019/07/16/statement.html
  - dannyw 6y ago
    Their press release says: > F-Droid is taking a political stance here I do not want any App Store to be taking political stances.
    - whimsicalism 6y ago
      > I do not want any App Store to be taking political stances. I don't think there is a clean separation between political and non-political when you're choosing whether to accept or deny apps to an app store.

villgax 6y ago

What business does the govt have with private app stores.

ziggystardust 6y ago
IT cell must have learned how to inject apps with RATs. an app store would allow them to inject RAT into every app thus giving them the ability to spy on every indian device
pedro_hab 6y ago
Yes! If there are issues with Apple and Google they could create laws to fix it. If the idea was to help citizens, laws or regulations to stop said practices would be better, not that I agree with it. But thats not the idea, they see Google's power and they want in. Can you imagine thinking a government having all your data is better than a corporation? People have forgotten the governments were the perpetrators of the worst thing in human history. No corporation has rounded up people to be shot like governments did.
- tssva 6y ago
  Corporations did just that in the specific part of the world under discussion here. I suggest you look into the East India Trading Company, Dutch East India and French East India companies.
  - pedro_hab 6y ago
    I didn't say corporations are all good, but the fact that you had to go back to the 17th century to find an example tells a lot. Governments have been killing people since their beginning and probably as we speak.
    - devdas 6y ago
      https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2010/10/the-pause-that-represses-coca-colas-controversies/64456/ https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2010/10/the-pause... As have corporations.

diego_moita 6y ago

I welcome this. It will be messy, it will open oportunities to corruption, lobbying, crappy user experiences, unsafe apps, government abuse, nationalism, ... it is really a Pandora box. But mess can be a fertile ground for competition and innovation when excessive regulation blocks it. Today's app stores are just feature development labs for Apple & Google. There is no chance that anyone will be able to create a big business within any app store and keep Apple or Google out. Just ask big players as Steam, Facebook and Microsoft how they feel about Google's and Apple's stores. If you're in the apps development business then you're just looking for golden opportunities for Apple/Google and being very badly payed for that.

iamshs 6y ago
>The sources said, "Android has 97% market share in India so we should intervene and handhold Indian startups. Making it mandatory for Android phones to be pre-instaled with our apps in under consideration". [1] Indian Government being arbiter of the app ecosystem on a phone and pre installing apps? Ominous vibes. Good luck with your desire for competition and innovation. [1] - https://www.timesnownews.com/business-economy/industry/article/modi-govt-planning-to-launch-its-own-app-store-as-an-alternative-to-google-apples-app-stores/660806 https://www.timesnownews.com/business-economy/industry/artic...
- return1 6y ago
  So they are competing on same terms as google, in practice. Thats good
- paxys 6y ago
  I'd like to think the Indian government will have the interests of its own citizens at heart better than Google or Apple. India has a long and not very pleasant history with foreign corporations.
  - fakedang 6y ago
    Haha no. The Indian government will have the best interests of the ruling party at heart. I'd rather trust Google with all of my data, even the sensitive bits, rather than give even an iota to the government. And yes, I know how disgusting that sounds. In the Delhi riots early this year, the government used data gathered from the national database to track and arrest protesters. Imagine what they could do if they could track your phones. At least Google is only selling me real estate ads (woefully inaccurate ones too) and not actively trying to imprison me or my family (bonus points if you're a minority).

actuator 6y ago

Anyone aware about the merit of the gambling claims that the apps were indulging in, as mentioned by the article. While I don't like censorship of any form, if that violates Play Store or AppStore's TOS, the violating app would get removed.

vijaybritto 6y ago
lol would get removed? This is a fascist govt. They'll ban Google and Apple stores in a whim.
- cardy31 6y ago
  India is a democracy...
  - hawkoy 6y ago
    Perceived democracy rates in democratic countries have been lower than people expect. https://daliaresearch.com/blog/democracy-perception-index-2020/ https://daliaresearch.com/blog/democracy-perception-index-20...
  - notsureaboutpg 6y ago
    To outsiders, it's a democracy because they've been told that. To Modi bhakts it's a democracy because they are in power. To regular people, it's very clear it's a democracy like Russia is a democracy. The govt pays large amounts of people to misinform the populace online. The government uses martial law to impose Internet lockdown for over a year on any citizens who resist govt's crimes against them. There's no free press (check press freedom indices), without which democracy is in name only.
    - actuator 6y ago
      While I agree with parts of your comment, I don't think it is honest. > The govt pays large amounts of people to misinform the populace online. Are they using state apparatus to do that? Isn't this true in most parts of world now. The whole Brexit campaign was fueled by misinformation. > There's no free press (check press freedom indices), without which democracy is in name only. I have read a lot of outlets from India which are anti establishment. Though I definitely think the press freedoms are nowhere at the level of some countries. > The government uses martial law to impose Internet lockdown for over a year on any citizens who resist govt's crimes against them. I think this refers to Kashmir. While I don't support the restriction and definitely heavy handed and it wouldn't have been possible in say a country like US now. I think you are triviliazing the situation when you think all the "resistance" is against government crimes.

yalogin 6y ago

It feels like this is just a China firewall in the making. They will strictly block everything they don’t like. I have a bad feeling about it

freewizard 6y ago

China would be a good example to predict what would happen. Since it bans Google, there are 11 Android app stores has >1% market share [1], most are from tech giants(e.g. Tencent), mobile operator(e.g. China Mobile) and phone manufacturers(e.g. Huawei). When Apple opens the gate for 3p App Store, it's safe to bet another 5~10 stores. Maybe not every country will have as many app stores as China, but still that's gonna be a nightmare for developers (especially small developers) to manage. Push notification might be another nightmare to watch out for consumers. When China bans Google service, app developers have freedom to implement push themselves or via a 3rd party vendor. And I guess if forced to open, Apple won't support non AppStore push either, hence consumers may end up with Facebook/Google/Epic/Tencent/YouNameWho have their push services running and connected on their phones with a burning battery. [1] https://www.statista.com/statistics/1058612/china-android-app-store-market-share/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/1058612/china-android-ap...

pkphilip 6y ago

I am glad that this will force a hard stop on Google's and Apple's monopoly on App stores and force them to be more competitive. India is too big a market for Google to walk away from - especially after they had to walk away from China. However, it is entirely like that the Modi govt is probably trying to find a way to backdoor all phones in India through this. So thats bad.

abrbhat 6y ago

It seems most people are arguing that the only alternative to 2 app stores is a large number of app stores. But what if the alternative is no app stores? Anyone can install whatever software they want on their device from wherever they want it. Just like it works for desktops. The need for app stores is an artificially created need (by the marketing brilliance of Jobs).

bhaavan 6y ago
I would argue that an App Store, on mobile has helped avoid virus, and malware on phones, unlike how Windows was able to contain it. Having a trusted App Store by a company, who understands security, and has a financial backing to commit to a secure system, is beneficial all the way down.
- 542458 6y ago
  Yeah, an App Store is in no way an artificial need. There’s a reason fortnite is on the Google Play store even when they had the option of only installing through other methods. For non-savvy users it mostly solves the “evaluating installer maliciousness” problem. For all users it enhances convenience (unified method for installing and uninstalling software) and software discovery. It is not a perfect solution to any of the above problems, but IMO it’s very good.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
  - toast0 6y ago
    In the absence of Google Play, uninstalling software would be in the same place -> settings / apps / needless tap to see all the apps / the app / uninstall. Installing would be download the apk and open it which works today, although you generally have to set a setting somewhere. There's certainly a discovery benefit to Google Play, but anybody could build an app discovery site and make an app from that with an embedded browser, open the downloaded apks with the system intent and get the permissions prompt etc. You don't even need the special app management permission if you embrace the system tools that are already there. You would lose automatic updates without that though (but then, a lot of people in India have auto-updates off to conserve bandwidth or storage space). Google play certainly does some small curation function, but I don't know how useful that is, and you could still have Google Play services running background scans and malware blacklists.

freezeshock 6y ago

I don't think Apple allows other app stores on their platform.

Abishek_Muthian 6y ago

Playstore(Google) and Appstore(Apple) are major soft power assets of U.S. Govt. we've seen the former exercised effectively against Huawei, crippling its International smartphone sales. Considering U.S. - India trade agreement has been elusive for a long time due to differences from fruits to solar cells, India would definitely not add App(Play) store to the list; especially now due to the situation with China. Although there's nothing stopping anyone from creating 3rd party app store for Android, the lobby wants Govt. to be involved for forcing handset manufacturers to pre-burn this new app store. It's certainly possible, as made in India Samsung M-series phones already has all major Indian apps, they might even provide privilege escalation like Fdroid to make install/update seamless. What they are going to replace Google Play Services with would be interesting to see. Of course it's not going to happen with Apple unless anti-trust issues in US/EU forces Apple to open its platform for 3rd party app stores. Coming back to Huawei, Playstore denial didn't have impact on its sales in China as Playstore was never there and China has hundreds of local app stores for android (although silicon denial will have an impact there). Similarly, having local Indian app stores does make strategic sense. But as a consumer I'm worried about the privacy, security implications of a local app store without common International rules and scrutiny; Especially since I have personally seen what some of these leading apps can do with user privacy and security[1]. [1] https://abishekmuthian.com/paytm-says-to-me-that-its-pos-feature-didn-t-have-a-security-risk-8fd7c3849e54/ https://abishekmuthian.com/paytm-says-to-me-that-its-pos-fea...

threatofrain 6y ago
Just about every single app nowadays vacuums data, so as strange it sounds, I'm back to having Apple replace just about everything, even if Apple's version is inferior. Oh, I need to use a simple todo app. I guess it needs access to my contacts because there's a legitimate feature for that. It also needs access to my calendar because there's a legitimate feature for that. Of course it needs location for location based todos.

akritrime 6y ago

I am not sure how I feel about the government being directly involved in creating the app store. On one hand, I believe the government should take measures to nurture the local startups and app, to give them a fair chance at growing. On the other hand, I don't think an app store created and managed by the government will have the right incentive to be competitive against foreign players and may just end up spiraling into a hot bureaucratic mess, with more and more hoops to jump through just to get an app on that platform.

whimsicalism 6y ago
> may just end up spiraling into a hot bureaucratic mess Many publicly traded corporations are not that much different. I am confident that an app-store is not that hard of a task relative to the revenue Google et al are extracting from mit. If the govt can run a postal service competitively, then I don't see why what is basically a glorified file hosting service + reviews would be impossible. If anything, I think we need more of these "public options" to compete with walled-garden "platform"/market-making tech companies like Google's play store, Venmo, Uber, etc.
- akritrime 6y ago
  If you want to register a company in India, its a convoluted maze of red tapes. While there have been a lot of improvements, the experience still leaves a lot to be desired (anecdotally). And while the govt postal service is exemplary, its hardly the norm. Yeah it is a glorified hosting service with reviews and I am not worried about the technical capability of the government, I am worried that the 'babu' culture of India will make this simple thing needlessly complicated.

Temasik 6y ago

lol

krisgenre 6y ago

How will the Indian govt. enforce an alternative app store? Will Apple bow down?

KuriousCat 6y ago

What are the efforts at other important levels? Silicon? Operating systems? Next generation architectures? Where is the leverage without being independent at the hardware level? Look what has happened to BSNL with 4G...

KuriousCat 6y ago

What are the efforts at other important levels? Silicon? Operating systems? Next gen architectures? Where is the leverage without independence in those?

lstroud 6y ago

LOL. We don’t need 30%. We’ll pay for it through taxes instead.

aaron695 6y ago

No government on Earth could run an App store. Unless they mean force sellers to change defaults and dump on f-droid or something it's embarrassing they think they can.

zeristor 6y ago

The article states that the Apple App store has 2% of the market, isn't that too little to bother about?

bilalhusain 6y ago

Since the title mentions the idea as well as the govt, let me add that while the idea is excellent, the current (Modi) govt is incompetent when it comes to execution, or may be has some other interests. Examples - failed demonetization, poor implementation of Goods and Services Tax (GST), failed Covid-19 lockdown. Most of what the govt does benefits select corporates (eg. rise of Jio). Interestingly, Paytm benefited the most during demonetization (2016) which is mentioned in the article and might have catalyzed the idea. The important part to notice is that demonetization was aimed at wiping out black money, GST was supposed to improve taxation, Covid-19 lockdown was supposed to dampen the long-term effect. However, these steps which were supposed to improve economy turned out to be counter-productive. Due to the poor or misdirected execution, India's economic is tanking down. So, although self-dependence is the stated goal, I am not sure where it will land. Moreover, the authoritarian tendencies don't help either. They are known to blackout journalists, assassinate lawyer, conduct media trials and put anyone speaking against them in jail. They will be a bigger bully than Google/Apple and pose a bigger risk to privacy.

ahiknsr 6y ago
>>>They are known to blackout journalists, assassinate lawyer, conduct media trials and put anyone speaking against them in jail. Can you please share some citation for the assassination part. I don't think the Bar Council of India would be happy if a lawyer is assassinated by government.
- bilalhusain 6y ago
  I am talking about Justice Loya [1]. By the way, the govt has been very active in making sure that they have their loyal representatives in bureaucracy as well as in judiciary. Recently, the Supreme Court convicted a prominent lawyer for a tweet criticizing them [2]. It is very easy for them to dismiss cases which might show them in bad light. Media has no independence either. Eg. the case of Punya Prasun Bajpai [3] who's show was blacked out and eventually cancelled because it was critical of Modi. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brijgopal_Harkishan_Loya https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brijgopal_Harkishan_Loya [2] https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/31/world/asia/india-bhushan-supreme-court.html https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/31/world/asia/india-bhushan-... [3] https://thewire.in/media/punya-prasun-bajpai-abp-news-narendra-modi https://thewire.in/media/punya-prasun-bajpai-abp-news-narend...

anaganisk 6y ago

Modi is a pure marketing person representing JIO and PayTM period, he just wants their spyware to be pre-installed. Nothing more, now if you want proof, watch the down votes. He is the kind of PM who doesn't meet journalists, doesn't take questions. And all he does is Marketing. No execution went atleast good till now.

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
_throwaway_0093 6y ago
I have to explain this comment. Because it will look like politically charged content to outsiders. The following is a rough summary of Indian politics from my perspective: The current leadership has done some fishy marketing tactics for sure. There are swathes of fake news on whatsapp and Facebook which lure unsuspecting citizens into thinking the current leadership is some kind of savior. The local media is mostly silent and doesn't broadcast any news that might affect the savior image of the leadership. These media outlets cognitively manipulate people by pushing uncertain news; eg: "did coward china leave the Ladakh region after Modi's roar?" Sorry, my English is not very good. But this news is so manipulative when broadcast in the local language. This combined with aggressive Hindutva identity politics, most naive people of India think Modi is a savior, while they are systematically looting this country. BJP is one of richest parties in the world and no one asked where all the money from de monetization went. Modi has not even called a press meet so far. It doesn't help that the opposition party is exploited by Nehru family. INC had a great prime minister PV Narasimha Rao, but he was suppressed in the party itself. He is easily the best PM this cursed country has seen after Late Mr. Shastri. Doesn't help there is a vocal minority of liberal arts graduates which even openly support terrorist forces in an attempt to rail against BJP. They call themselves left or liberals but they are not left. They openly support all kind of dammage from Muslim fundamentalists, and try to defame the long standing tradition of the country. You can see lot of those people on r/india echo chamber. You will be banned for opposing their viewpoints. The effect? You will be called as leftie/liberal/communist/anti-national for just opposing Modi, among your friend circles who are already likely to be manipulated from the fake news based propaganda. TL; DR This country sucks.

wtmt 6y ago

This is going to be a big mess. PayTM as a company isn’t known for respecting user privacy. The CEO’s brother was caught in a sting video saying they could sell any user’s information for a price (search online and you’ll find the video). All that these Indian startups care is for them to benefit and control everything. It’s not about equitable treatment. It’s more about regulatory capture and making sure that their apps somehow become pre-installed on devices. As for the government’s apps being pre-installed, one couldn’t ask for worse things. The COVID-19 contact tracing app, Aarogya Setu, needs location and Bluetooth access all the time “to help the user.” You can imagine what a bunch of such apps can do. If you think I’m being hyperbolic, just wait for Reliance Jio to announce its own App Store as the first one. It’ll come with the full force of the government behind it (who in a government wouldn’t love a telecom and network provider that loves slurping all data and is against end to end encryption when it’s done by other competing apps like WhatsApp?) I feel bad for all the poorer people who already are forced to buy cheap Android phones that don’t get updates and are loaded with crapware and what not. As much as I despise Google for tracking users, I believe Google will look like a saint in front of these companies.

raghavtoshniwal 6y ago
It would be messy for sure but there is somewhat precedence for it. WeChat operates its own AppStores and is subservient to the CCP. 'Running' your own AppStore is forbidden in the iOS terms of service but when you have the might of a billion people, some rules are okay to be broken.
- simonh 6y ago
  WeChat mini-programs don't actually run as native code on the phone though. They're much more like web apps running on the WeChat back end, with WecChat acting as a browser to access them. Roblox does a similar thing, with interactive games from third parties running on the Roblox servers in the virtual environment. A third party app store where you install native code apps on the phone, directly accessing phone OS services and consuming local resources is a completely different thing, right?

nine_zeros 6y ago

What is stopping the government from simply banning single monopoly app store and forcing Google to allow installation of multiple private app stores? Why does it have to be a government app store?

flak48 6y ago
Because the saner option has lesser PR value

sbmthakur 6y ago

How can we be sure that this app store won't charge any charges or commission?

rishav_sharan 6y ago

Far too many optimistic voices here and that scares me. I don't see this app store being about providing alternatives. that's just a talking point. This app store is all about forcing every android sold in India to have a system installed govt driven app, which will report back to the govt on tons of private information about the device and owner. Information that Indian govt will be too incompetent to keep safe and given its authoritarian nature, should never have access to. This is an authoritarian nightmare abut to happen. Modi wants India to move in the direction that China chose. And this scares me a lot.

tomcat27 6y ago
authoritarianism is when a ex judicial company has so strong influence over regulations and those adjudicated arbitrarily and in-transparent and the effected party couldn't do a damn thing about it.. while it's not the best solution, there is merit to it. one of the role of governance could be to help setup an environment for healthy competition. Well it took decades of work at NASA before one private player like space x created momentum outside government.
bilbo0s 6y ago
I agree with you, the worst is about to happen worldwide. The Indians clearly want more control. The Chinese obviously are never going to relinquish any control. Even the South Americans and especially the Africans are starting to look at regionally fenced mobile and internet services as a method of both more control over social media and growing their economies. (As well as providing jobs for their youth.) I think the saying was something like freedom dies to thunderous applause.
- phatfish 6y ago
  I'm not happy with governments taking such an active role. Ideally they help home-grown alternatives and push out American/Chinese corporations to give them space. That is probably too little too late at this point though. Google, Facebook, Apple et al. have shown they will not stop until they dominate digital markets worldwide. Aggressive intervention by governments is the only way for them to wrestle back control. At least with the "Indian Government App Store" there is no smoke and mirrors with regards to who has access to the data. Tech companies hand over whatever governments ask for anyway.

ramshanker 6y ago

>>>>Also, talks within the government indicate that it may ask Google and Apple to pre-install Indian App Store in all phones sold in India in near future. This particular request is likely to face counter from the American companies. <<<<<< THIS is the only time, I am more inclined to side with Chinese style of control. Sovereign nation out to decide what is good for their people. India is a chaotic democracy, but a function one. I will rather support my government's way of ensuring "Privacy and Security" than Apple's. We do have equally capable people over here. Slowly but surely, things move in positive direction. No need of dictation by any foreign multi-national. The way Google banned PayTM for few hours, until they removed some of the features from the App, come-on, Indian Laws are good enough to decide what is legal / correct / etc. etc. This was a very visible case of an American company imposing "Their Policy" on things which only court / government should get to decide. I am mostly IN with this proposal. EDIT: I guess I used harsh words, but something definitely needs to be done with the current duopoly.

disown 6y ago

It's a good start, but doesn't go far enough. India should also temporarily ban google, facebook, microsoft, apple, intel, etc until their local software companies are strong enough to compete. India, like china, is sufficiently large and important enough to create their own tech ecosystem. But given their track record, I really don't have much confidence in india to get it right. Hope I am wrong though as the world needs genuine competition the tech space. Now maybe the EU should get their act together? The EU was able to create airbus to compete with boeing, why can't they do the same for their own version of microsoft, google, apple, facebook, etc? They are certainly wealthy enough and given their large population, they certainly could produce the talent to drive such an initiative. If the EU thinks their private sector is going to compete against state-backed corporations like google, facebook, microsoft, apple, intel, etc, then they really have drunk the kool-aid. The EU's private sector can no more create a competitor to these tech giants as it could have created an aerospace company to compete with boeing. These companies are fundamentally "private" state companies. If india, EU, etc succeed, then perhaps ASEAN, Africa, etc will follow their examples and create their tech ecosystem within their economic bloc.

jmpman 6y ago

So much for Apple moving their manufacturing to India.

throw93 6y ago

I would not trust any state run App Store. In past their “Aarogya Setu” app has been criticized for privacy concerns. Note that the people who complained about Google’s review policy aren’t indie Developers but big Players like PayTM who benefited immensely from demonetization mandate. Clearly violating a policy that’s in place to protect the user and then complaining that your app got taken down is ridiculous. Agree, App Store review process isn’t perfect. There are mistakes in review process which get some apps wrongfully rejected. But I would rather have stricter policies than no/questionable review process. Another point is specific to this govt. The govt and the PM don’t exactly have a great track record when it comes to minorities, which makes such interference more scary.

blntechie 6y ago

Government run app store would just be a wedge to bring Jio app store in. Reliance will become like one of those chaebol companies in Korea, pervasive in every Indian’s life with little to no other options.

henvic 6y ago

So we should trust a state to have an app store on our phones? Thanks, but no thanks. I'd rather not even have any state app instead.

uname_amiy 6y ago

Considering what the central government said back in 2017[1] >"There is no fundamental right to privacy and even if it is assumed as a fundamental right, it is multifaceted. Every facet can’t be ipso facto considered a fundamental right." This doesn't sound like a good idea to give the control of an app store to the government. Government will for sure try to track and spy on users and remove any app it doesn't like and quality will be a joke. [1]: https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/right-to-privacy-not-fundamental-right-centre-tells-sc/article19369385.ece https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/right-to-privacy-not-...

ab_testing 6y ago

I have a contrarian view that this is a very good ideas to get rid of the duopoly of Apple and Google App Store. These companies charge 30% of all sales and in a country like India where margins are low, that can be a huge chunk of profits . I also believe that there should be a baseline for what apps can come preinstalled on a new phone - because India is a hotbed for low cost Chinese mobiles that are subsidized by the CCP and in turn send all user data to China.

ineedasername 6y ago

I don't like a government owned & controlled app store any better than the current status quo.

tebura 6y ago

I am happy with this decision. There should be alternative to these stores. Let people decide which store to choose. Looting devs for 30% income is bad decision. Also recently Google banned few Indian apps. The way I see it, Indian govt wants to make sure, essential apps are in their control, not in private companies'.

throaway1990 6y ago

bad idea. indian companies haven't shown any competence or compassion in this space. if they force Apple to pre-install appstore on phones? say bye-bye to $10 B manufacturing dream. Having local controls and slightly stricter rules is good! But these chinese-commie style is bad!

amelius 6y ago

Why, in the firsts place, is Apple allowed to have a monopoly on something the user already paid for? I think the law should address this question, as clearly the current practice is not in favor of the customer nor the market.

ilaksh 6y ago

I'm sure that this will get buried or ignored as usual, but I find it very strange that no one evens discusses the possibility of using decentralized technologies to create public marketplaces in cases such as this. This seems to be a good opportunity for cryptocurrency and something like a distributed database or content-oriented networking with indexing. Such as for example Ether and OrbitDB.

umaobviously 6y ago

I feel like india needs to sort out abject poverty, lack of sanitation and rampant discrimination before moving on to government mandated spy apps. This is yet another example of that country’s government giving the impression of a democracy working for the greater good when tens of millions of people suffer. Pretty disgusting.

fellellor 6y ago

Anything the government manages will become a complete shit show. I have no hopes for this.

hijklmno 6y ago

Although government control will lead to more problems down the line, at least, this has opened serious debate about the unfair control Apple and Google has over the App stores. Third part app stores should be allowed, and in the end, hopefully, the best one will come out as a winner.

LockAndLol 6y ago

Being surveiled by Google, Apple and Facebook (America), and soon in greater effect by the Indian state isn't exactly appealing, but at least it means competition I guess. Honestly, what alternative exists? Corporations won't be OK with publishing on F-Droid, but is there some kind of opensource store that can be used for commercial apps? If some people put their heads together, maybe they could come up with something opensource that respects privacy, is secure and allows closed-source stuff to be published.

mensetmanusman 6y ago

Interesting. Suppose Epic wins its case against Apple and judges force alternative app stores, I wonder if that would mean tmobile, at&t, et al. would all then be allowed to install their app store with adware into iPhones...