5 ms·

Any loosening of Apple hardware restrictions is going to be judged internally on what impact it will have on App Store revenue & related DRM / IP contracts. I'

by ethbr1 1y ago

Any loosening of Apple hardware restrictions is going to be judged internally on what impact it will have on App Store revenue & related DRM / IP contracts. I'm not sure Tim Cook is the guy to overrule that based on a vision of the future.

walterbell 1y ago
Let's see if the $599 MacBook (iPhone SoC!) can run VMs and software distributed outside App Store, i.e. like existing MacBooks. If Pixel phones (with inferior hardware) can run Debian Linux VMs with external USB-c display, so can Apple tablets/phones. Apple and Google app stores have similar business incentives and antitrust constraints.
- ericmay 1y ago
  You are spot on, they can indeed run that software. The problem that you and others with similar interests are running into is that you’re asking Apple to spend perhaps tens of millions of dollars to make a change that, frankly, almost nobody wants or cares about. I don’t want it or care about it whatsoever, nor does my grandma. That’s why this all plays out in court and in countries that want to stick a finger in the eye of American tech companies. Anti-trust concerns tend to just be multi-billion dollar corporations (Apple, Meta, Epic, Netflix, etc.) arguing over who gets the slice of your wallet. None of these companies lower prices when they win court battles, experiences don’t get better, and as Apple in particular loses more and more control over the App Store they lose the ability, however flawed, to collectively bargain on behalf of regular folks against developers [1]. Can anyone point to a single major technology product/service/app, like Spotify or something where after Apple has ceded control over the App Store the company has lowered prices, or perhaps instituted tougher privacy controls than Apple has demanded on the App Store? Is there a single example? [1] Items like forced private Sign in with Apple, or disclosing how data is used, don’t and won’t exist on “the Meta App Store” because as a single person or small group you’d rather have access to Facebook and you’ll give up data for it. But Apple can listen to users and then force Meta to comply with those demands, however flawed the situation may be and however self-serving Apple’s interests may be.
  - ethbr1 1y ago
    > Can anyone point to a single major technology product/service/app, like Spotify or something where after Apple has ceded control over the App Store the company has lowered prices, or perhaps instituted tougher privacy controls than Apple has demanded on the App Store? Epic?
    - ericmay 1y ago
      What prices were lowered? Or was there another improvement such as further privacy restrictions against developers?
      - ethbr1 1y ago
        The original 2020 discount was literally what sparked the Apple/Google-Epic lawsuits. https://www.vg247.com/fortnite-v-bucks-discount-epic-direct https://www.vg247.com/fortnite-v-bucks-discount-epic-direct
        ericmay 1y ago
        That was prior to ceding control - now that companies have the ability to stand up their own app stores and do direct payments (as I understand to be the case now at least), where have prices gone down? VBucks are still $8 aren't they?
        ethbr1 1y ago
        With 20% Epic rewards, if you use Epic's store. https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/news/better-deals-in-fortnite-and-more-players-get-20-back-in-epic-rewards-starting-today https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/news/better-deals-in-fortn...
        ericmay 1y ago
        So after all the legal mess and crusading and white knighting about the Apple App Store what we got in return is now buy the same product as I did before for the same price in dollars, but I can get 20% of my purchase price back in what is the equivalent of carnival tokens if I use Epic’s proprietary payment system? Do you wholeheartedly believe that this counts as lowering prices or providing improvements? Are the Vbucks still $8 or no?

by ethbr1 1y ago

walterbell 1y ago

Let's see if the $599 MacBook (iPhone SoC!) can run VMs and software distributed outside App Store, i.e. like existing MacBooks. If Pixel phones (with inferior hardware) can run Debian Linux VMs with external USB-c display, so can Apple tablets/phones. Apple and Google app stores have similar business incentives and antitrust constraints.

ericmay 1y ago
You are spot on, they can indeed run that software. The problem that you and others with similar interests are running into is that you’re asking Apple to spend perhaps tens of millions of dollars to make a change that, frankly, almost nobody wants or cares about. I don’t want it or care about it whatsoever, nor does my grandma. That’s why this all plays out in court and in countries that want to stick a finger in the eye of American tech companies. Anti-trust concerns tend to just be multi-billion dollar corporations (Apple, Meta, Epic, Netflix, etc.) arguing over who gets the slice of your wallet. None of these companies lower prices when they win court battles, experiences don’t get better, and as Apple in particular loses more and more control over the App Store they lose the ability, however flawed, to collectively bargain on behalf of regular folks against developers [1]. Can anyone point to a single major technology product/service/app, like Spotify or something where after Apple has ceded control over the App Store the company has lowered prices, or perhaps instituted tougher privacy controls than Apple has demanded on the App Store? Is there a single example? [1] Items like forced private Sign in with Apple, or disclosing how data is used, don’t and won’t exist on “the Meta App Store” because as a single person or small group you’d rather have access to Facebook and you’ll give up data for it. But Apple can listen to users and then force Meta to comply with those demands, however flawed the situation may be and however self-serving Apple’s interests may be.
- ethbr1 1y ago
  > Can anyone point to a single major technology product/service/app, like Spotify or something where after Apple has ceded control over the App Store the company has lowered prices, or perhaps instituted tougher privacy controls than Apple has demanded on the App Store? Epic?
  - ericmay 1y ago
    What prices were lowered? Or was there another improvement such as further privacy restrictions against developers?
    - ethbr1 1y ago
      The original 2020 discount was literally what sparked the Apple/Google-Epic lawsuits. https://www.vg247.com/fortnite-v-bucks-discount-epic-direct https://www.vg247.com/fortnite-v-bucks-discount-epic-direct
      - ericmay 1y ago
        That was prior to ceding control - now that companies have the ability to stand up their own app stores and do direct payments (as I understand to be the case now at least), where have prices gone down? VBucks are still $8 aren't they?
        ethbr1 1y ago
        With 20% Epic rewards, if you use Epic's store. https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/news/better-deals-in-fortnite-and-more-players-get-20-back-in-epic-rewards-starting-today https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/news/better-deals-in-fortn...
        ericmay 1y ago
        So after all the legal mess and crusading and white knighting about the Apple App Store what we got in return is now buy the same product as I did before for the same price in dollars, but I can get 20% of my purchase price back in what is the equivalent of carnival tokens if I use Epic’s proprietary payment system? Do you wholeheartedly believe that this counts as lowering prices or providing improvements? Are the Vbucks still $8 or no?