We are talking about free apps that come pre-installed with your device. How exactly is Apple benefiting from this? How are you losing out exactly again?
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Apple Adjusts App Store Algorithm After Realizing Many Apple Apps Dominate Search Results
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We are talking about free apps that come pre-installed with your device. How exactly is Apple benefiting from this? How are you losing out exactly again?
Same reasoning the DOJ has been speculated to use for Google and Facebook in their burgeoning antitrust investigations as well - that the value of a consumer who is given "free" apps and services is not zero but instead quite a bit a money, based on the economic value of capturing that customer to sell ads and future services to.
And what exactly am I being sold by having these free preinstalled iOS apps on my phone? Apple doesn't capture my data, or use it to serve me ads or services. The argument against Google and Facebook just doesn't seem to apply to Apple as much as you make it out to be.
We are wasting our breath responding to these people. Companies apparently cannot listen to feedback and make changes, without that being a complete admission of far reaching fraud and corruption. At least, not when Apple is concerned.
So when is the government going to go after Walmart and Target for featuring their in-store brands over the competition?
I think your wrong, and Google are facing an anti trust investigation in the US.
Your trying to deflect away from the facts here, not option but facts.
IMO Apple is guilty though judging by there behaviour recently.. but the EU commission will find out and rule.
As I said anti competition regulations are FAR better in the EU compared to other parts of the world including the US, so you have a different mentality about it.
What third-party products sold at Walmart and Target are prohibited from being distributed in other stores like how Apple prohibits third-party apps from being distributed outside of Apple's App Store?
Well, I'm sorry Mr.Blacky, but you appear to be one of those dumb readers you railed about in your post… the FaceTime app was first released as a "beta" app for Mac OS X 10.6 in October 2010 after the feature was released with the iPhone 4 in June (of 2010). In February of 2011, the app left beta and was officially released in the Mac App Store for $0.99 for all users of Mac OS X 10.6.6. In July 2011—a year after shipping on the iPhone, 9 months after first appearing for the Mac, and 4 months being for sale in the Mac App Store—FaceTime was shipped as an integrated component of the $29.99 Mac OS X 10.7 Lion upgrade. Apple still continued to offer the 99¢ FaceTime app in the Mac App Store for users of Mac OS X 10.6.6/7/8.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FaceTime
However… due to the way the Mac App Store worked, users of later major versions of Mac OS X could, in fact, still purchase it, even if it was already on their computers. And they did! (Read the quite unflattering reviews.)
In fact, although FaceTime.app is hidden now from search in the Mac App Store (at least it is in Mojave 10.14.6), it is still for sale for 99¢.
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/facetime/id414307850
And it is currently #8 in the Social Networking Top 10!
How do you think that is happening? Do you REALLY believe that there are that many Mac OS X 10.6.8 users—an operating system released 8 years ago!—purchasing that app to push it to #8??
Developers can't compete against free apps distributed by Apple, who makes money on the hardware and owns the platform. The result is no developers. VERY stupid it took Apple this long to figure it out.
An update to this story, based on what has been reported by Stratechery (which I am subscribed to).
https://twitter.com/drbarnard/status/1171382087670280192
Based on a series of tweets by David Barnard, an iOS app developer, he claims the reason why this happened is because the iOS app store's search function is fundamentally broken. It's not wrong for the search function to return Apple's own stock apps in their search results when by definition, they would count as one of the most popular apps available, especially considering that iOS 10 allows them to be deleted (which means you have a ton of people deleting them, and then searching for them on the App Store to re-download them, resulting in a constant feedback loop).
In short, this isn't because Apple is deliberately favouring their own apps, but because of a perfect storm of a couple of incidents happening in tandem.
I don't know whether it's supposed to be a consolation that this is happening more due to Apple's incompetence than malice, but make of it what you will.
Incorrect. You really think you buy a $1000 phone you own all of it and everything in it?
No.
Firstly, the issue in this article is about apps. And except with open source or other such cases the OWNER of a piece of SOFTWARE is the company or individual that makes it or the company or individual who pays the millions or billions to the company or individual who made it, for all the IP (intellectual prompt) that makes it up.
When a customer buys an “app” he/she does not own the app. He/she owns a LICENSE to USE the app.
Same with music, movies, etc. Do you think when you buy a CD or DVD you OWN the songs/movie/whatever on it? Software is no different.
But regardless, second, even with hardware you buy (eg the phone) you don’t own everything in it. You don’t own any of the IP or the firmware or the OS, etc. An iPhone is not a device that’s worth $1000 or whatever. The iPhone is worth billions, when you count all the IP in it.
If you want to OWN a phone and an OS and a bunch of apps that you can do whatever you want with, then you’ll have to design and build it yourself. Otherwise your measly $1000 is buying a bunch of metal and plastic plus LICENSES to use all the engineering and IP that’s in it.
And those licenses come with conditions that the manufacturer is allowed to place in them. (Or do you actually believe your driver’s LICENSE allows you to do whatever the hell you want on the road?) If you don’t like the conditions, don’t buy it. Plenty of other options out there from many other companies.
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Nope, it’s Apple’s. You just bought a license to use it.
Their is no antitrust here. Apple is not inhibiting competition in any marketplace.
The problem here is people think the iPhone is a marketplace, or the iOS App Store is a marketplace. No the iOS App Store is a product, or maybe a service. The iPhone is a product. These are two products/services of many products/services Apple offers in various markets.
They happen to work really well together and even rely on each other to survive, as do most of Apple’s products and services. That doesn’t make either of them a marketplace in itself, nor a monopoly. There are plenty of other phones with their app stores and other integrated services.
Funnily enough, just like most of Apple’s stuff tends to work well together, most of Microsoft’s stuff tends to work somewhat well together and most of Google’s stuff tends to work somewhat well together.
What are we going to say next? Apple has a monopoly on operating systems for its products because they won’t let you run Android on iPhones? Let’s see how well that flies.
Apple offers a range of products and services in various markets. The iPhone, its OS, its tie in to the iOS App Store (wait, which App Store? Ah yes, the iOS App Store) and a bunch of others. If you don’t like Apple’s offerings there are other offerings in the same and similar markets (other phones with other app stores) that all have their pros and cons for you to choose from - to use apps in or to develop apps for. That’s capitalism.
Saying Apple’s iOS App Store is a market in itself favoring its own apps is like saying Toyota’s network of corporate owned dealerships favoring selling genuine Toyota parts is a market in itself.
The markets are cars and car parts not Toyotas and Toyota parts. Likewise the markets are phones and apps not iPhones and iOS Apps.
So then iOS App Store is not a market that Apple is monopolizing. The iOS App Store is Apple’s product. They can do whatever they want with it. If customers don’t like it they’ll speak with their wallets and go somewhere else. (Except that doesn’t seem to be happening much. Probably because as much as Apple’s offerings sometimes suck, the competition sucks more).
All you people are up in arms because you’re pissed Apple won’t offer THEIR products to YOUR specifications or following YOUR idea of the rules. Why should they? It’s THEIR products. They’ve spent $Billions on market research or whatever else and determined what THEY want THEIR products to be. That’s their prerogative. If you want to make the rules for a phone, an OS and an app store, then build your own. Let’s see how well yours stacks up in those markets against the competition (which will include Apple’s offerings of course). Maybe you can do it better. Go for it!
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Apple doesn’t prohibit any developer from building and distributing the same apps for Android or any other OS or device and distributing them there.
So I'm curious, when you drive by a Ford dealership, are you outraged that they don't have an equal number of Toyota vehicles on the lot? People on here seem remarkably adept at saying anti-trust laws, written before people even had computers, anticipated these issues and that Apple clearly and "factually" are in violation of those laws.
What facts am I deflecting from? Holy moly....
We both see the same "facts," we just reach different conclusions. And whereas I don't mind others reaching different conclusions... you and others do not, and have to fight to the end insisting that it's a clear and obvious issue with only one possible conclusion.
Your understanding of antitrust law is too narrow. It's not based on whether there are alternative marketplaces, and whether a vendor controls or manipulates those as well. It's based on whether a company engages in anti-competitive behavior in any market, which is defined as taking actions that specifically inhibit or encumber competition.