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Tying Google's hands while giving Apple a clean bill of health isn't going to increase competition, it's going to solidify Apple's lead in the US. The competit

Tying Google's hands while giving Apple a clean bill of health isn't going to increase competition, it's going to solidify Apple's lead in the US. The competition that actually matters is between whole platforms, it's only Epic's lawyers who want everyone to get fixated on the idea that the app store markets are the whole story (or even really a significant portion of the story). I could totally get behind efforts to prevent Google and Apple from together duopolizing the entire mobile phone space, but this is not that.

ethbr1 2y ago
The important competition isn't Google v Apple. It's everyone else v Google and/or Apple. Ironically, forcing this onto Google might be the best thing for Android, as it's the openness the platform really needed to compete against Apple, but costs Google too much revenue to ever do it if left to their own decision.
- elevatedastalt 2y ago
  Then why is there one result for Google and the opposite one for Apple?
  - johnnyanmac 2y ago
    follow the money. Which judges handled which cases in which location? but the non-partisan bailey answer is along the lines of "android promised freedom, IOS never did".
    - elevatedastalt 2y ago
      So it's better to be bad than to try to be good and fail?
      - johnnyanmac 2y ago
        Based on the legelese here, yea. I guess an equivalent is how you can be a for profit corporation with no issue, but if you're a non profit and you honestly mismanage some $10k as an accounting error, you get the book thrown at you.
  - ethbr1 2y ago
    Because the law isn't written the way fairness is written in our heads, and judges decide based on the law.
  - madeofpalk 2y ago
    The main thing Google got in trouble for is all the emails and deals they sent to device manufacturers to prevent competition with Play Store. Apple inherently never sent these emails. There’s no deals they made because they were closed from the get go. Google created a market of “android app distribution”, and then put its thumb on the scales so it always wins. That is why Google lost and Apple didn’t lose (as much).
- wokwokwok 2y ago
  > it's the openness the platform really needed to compete against Apple It’s hard to believe the best way to compete with Apple is by being more open then they are. If that worked, we would all be running some unix os on our phones. It’s clearly an utterly false premise. This is going to hurt google and do literally nothing to Apple, except perhaps scare some people into the “saftey” of its curated ecosystem.
  - achenet 2y ago
    apologies for the pendantic nitpick, but: iOS is based on Darwin which is BSD based, and Android is based on Linux, which is heavily inspired by Unix. So technically, we are "all running some unix os on our phones"... perhaps you mean some open-source OS? Even then, Android markets itself as being open-source (although I imagine they must add some closed source stuff on top of it).
    - westurner 2y ago
      Apple XCode is required to compile code for Apple iOS. Android Studio is not required to compile code for Android. Android Studio doesn't run on Android. XCode IDE doesn't run on iOS. XCode IDE requires an MacOS device. Android Studio works on Win/Mac/Linux/Chromebook_with_containers. Android Studio runs in a Linux container. XCode only runs on MacOS. Apple does not allow, and per a recent ruling, and DOES NOT HAVE TO allow 3rd party app stores. (There are already 3rd party app "stores" for Android like FDroid.) Android already allows, and per a recent ruling, MUST allow 3rd party app stores. In terms of Application stores, (after trying to trademark the phrase "app store" to anticompete Amazon) Apple gets protectionism for their walled garden, and Android may not have a walled garden.
      - westurner 2y ago
        Apple went with Objective-C; C with standard macros; IIRC before C++? Apple built a new language called Swift. The Java pitch was "write once, run anywhere" because you port the JVM, and J2ME. Google rewrote many parts of the Java stack. Google ported to Apache Harmony/ OpenJDK to port away from Sun then Oracle Java. Google built a language called Kotlin. Swift runs on MacOS, iOS, and Android. Kotlin runs on Android/iOS/Win/Mac/Linux/JS. Dart lang also runs on any platform. Flutter also runs on any platform.

ethbr1 2y ago

The important competition isn't Google v Apple. It's everyone else v Google and/or Apple. Ironically, forcing this onto Google might be the best thing for Android, as it's the openness the platform really needed to compete against Apple, but costs Google too much revenue to ever do it if left to their own decision.

elevatedastalt 2y ago
Then why is there one result for Google and the opposite one for Apple?
- johnnyanmac 2y ago
  follow the money. Which judges handled which cases in which location? but the non-partisan bailey answer is along the lines of "android promised freedom, IOS never did".
  - elevatedastalt 2y ago
    So it's better to be bad than to try to be good and fail?
    - johnnyanmac 2y ago
      Based on the legelese here, yea. I guess an equivalent is how you can be a for profit corporation with no issue, but if you're a non profit and you honestly mismanage some $10k as an accounting error, you get the book thrown at you.
- ethbr1 2y ago
  Because the law isn't written the way fairness is written in our heads, and judges decide based on the law.
- madeofpalk 2y ago
  The main thing Google got in trouble for is all the emails and deals they sent to device manufacturers to prevent competition with Play Store. Apple inherently never sent these emails. There’s no deals they made because they were closed from the get go. Google created a market of “android app distribution”, and then put its thumb on the scales so it always wins. That is why Google lost and Apple didn’t lose (as much).
wokwokwok 2y ago
> it's the openness the platform really needed to compete against Apple It’s hard to believe the best way to compete with Apple is by being more open then they are. If that worked, we would all be running some unix os on our phones. It’s clearly an utterly false premise. This is going to hurt google and do literally nothing to Apple, except perhaps scare some people into the “saftey” of its curated ecosystem.
- achenet 2y ago
  apologies for the pendantic nitpick, but: iOS is based on Darwin which is BSD based, and Android is based on Linux, which is heavily inspired by Unix. So technically, we are "all running some unix os on our phones"... perhaps you mean some open-source OS? Even then, Android markets itself as being open-source (although I imagine they must add some closed source stuff on top of it).
  - westurner 2y ago
    Apple XCode is required to compile code for Apple iOS. Android Studio is not required to compile code for Android. Android Studio doesn't run on Android. XCode IDE doesn't run on iOS. XCode IDE requires an MacOS device. Android Studio works on Win/Mac/Linux/Chromebook_with_containers. Android Studio runs in a Linux container. XCode only runs on MacOS. Apple does not allow, and per a recent ruling, and DOES NOT HAVE TO allow 3rd party app stores. (There are already 3rd party app "stores" for Android like FDroid.) Android already allows, and per a recent ruling, MUST allow 3rd party app stores. In terms of Application stores, (after trying to trademark the phrase "app store" to anticompete Amazon) Apple gets protectionism for their walled garden, and Android may not have a walled garden.
    - westurner 2y ago
      Apple went with Objective-C; C with standard macros; IIRC before C++? Apple built a new language called Swift. The Java pitch was "write once, run anywhere" because you port the JVM, and J2ME. Google rewrote many parts of the Java stack. Google ported to Apache Harmony/ OpenJDK to port away from Sun then Oracle Java. Google built a language called Kotlin. Swift runs on MacOS, iOS, and Android. Kotlin runs on Android/iOS/Win/Mac/Linux/JS. Dart lang also runs on any platform. Flutter also runs on any platform.