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If you look at from Apple’s persepctive, why should it take competition on top of their platform to shake out what is best for the user if they believe they are

If you look at from Apple’s persepctive, why should it take competition on top of their platform to shake out what is best for the user if they believe they are doing right by the user themselves? The fundamental issue here is that developers, at scale, cannot be trusted. You can trust specific ones to do the right thing but you can’t trust them all. Apple sees themselves as responsible for protecting all of their customers from this reality. Some call them “gatekeepers”. The example here is sharing an email address with developers. There are other examples like “no background processes”. Developers hate this becuase they see _themselves_ as trustworthy but the reality still stands: developers at scale cannot be trusted to do the right thing. Now let me add my opinion on this: Should we have a platform that allows consumers to make a single choice ie) choose Apple, and by proxy never needs to trust developers at scale? Absolutely. Many people, especially developers, would rather trade some developer flexibility (multiple payment processors) and push some responsibility onto Apple’s users to continue making an opt-in choice for Apple. I choose them for my phone. I choose them again for in-app purchases. Continue making choices in support of Apple for each layer of the system. I am not really sure what this buys the consumer. What is Apple blocking from you by forcing you to make that choice once, and then being forced to “never trust developers at scale” for the remainder of being an iPhone customer? Is it blocking “innovation”? Some people think that. I don’t see it. I see a company that pushes the hardware envelope with sensors, battery, operating system, etc, and works hard to give developers access to THOSE things. Maybe not a users email address, but is that really innovation anyway? I looked at this Paddle payment processor and they have some things like “pause subscription”. Is pause really an innovation that is being blocked by only using Apple’s system? Google has supported pause for a long time. Users want it, but to developers really want users pausing their subs? probably not.

pg_1234 5y ago
Look at it from the countries perspective, why should it let some foreign corporation dictate how transactions are performed on their platform (where their platform is all business in their national jurisdiction). The country's users are it's citizens, and it may act to ensure what it deems best for them. If Apple doesn't like that ... it can find another 'store'.
- enos_feedler 5y ago
  Because a country has an interest in protecting the safety and security of its citizens, not choose winners and losers of a global market. And considering Apple’s valuable brand is essentially built on safety and security it would be a bit strange to kick them or build rules that only they seem to breaking. If you want to look at “transaction” as the activity that a government should look closely at then I think there is a bigger thing to look at right now; people tossing their money into shitcoins. If governments aren’t spending cycles looking carefully into the blockchain transactions of their citizens they shouldnt be spending too much time worrying about whether an iPhone user can choose to use their credit card with a different processor inside of apps
  - shadilay 5y ago
    If Europe forces Apple to lower its commission by say 25%, that goes directly into the pockets of European companies, individuals, and taxes. It's a huge economic benefit. Why should they care if it makes some American monopoly sad?
    - bradknowles 5y ago
      No, it doesn’t. Relatively little of that money will stay local. The primary result will be that Apple will be hurt, and other multinational companies that benefit from Apple being hurt will rejoice — and the politicians who passed the laws will make their multinational paymasters happy.
    - enos_feedler 5y ago
      Even if this cause/effective were to be true, are we really going to reduce the job of Europe and other nations to ignore reason/philosophy/etc and set rules just to put more money into the pockets of local companies/people? I mean in that case, there are LOTS of things a government could arbitrarily do with their power to bring more money home. But they don’t. Because they have principles

pg_1234 5y ago

Look at it from the countries perspective, why should it let some foreign corporation dictate how transactions are performed on their platform (where their platform is all business in their national jurisdiction). The country's users are it's citizens, and it may act to ensure what it deems best for them. If Apple doesn't like that ... it can find another 'store'.

enos_feedler 5y ago
Because a country has an interest in protecting the safety and security of its citizens, not choose winners and losers of a global market. And considering Apple’s valuable brand is essentially built on safety and security it would be a bit strange to kick them or build rules that only they seem to breaking. If you want to look at “transaction” as the activity that a government should look closely at then I think there is a bigger thing to look at right now; people tossing their money into shitcoins. If governments aren’t spending cycles looking carefully into the blockchain transactions of their citizens they shouldnt be spending too much time worrying about whether an iPhone user can choose to use their credit card with a different processor inside of apps
- shadilay 5y ago
  If Europe forces Apple to lower its commission by say 25%, that goes directly into the pockets of European companies, individuals, and taxes. It's a huge economic benefit. Why should they care if it makes some American monopoly sad?
  - bradknowles 5y ago
    No, it doesn’t. Relatively little of that money will stay local. The primary result will be that Apple will be hurt, and other multinational companies that benefit from Apple being hurt will rejoice — and the politicians who passed the laws will make their multinational paymasters happy.
  - enos_feedler 5y ago
    Even if this cause/effective were to be true, are we really going to reduce the job of Europe and other nations to ignore reason/philosophy/etc and set rules just to put more money into the pockets of local companies/people? I mean in that case, there are LOTS of things a government could arbitrarily do with their power to bring more money home. But they don’t. Because they have principles