Companies are allowed to set pricing for products. Another idiotic waste of time lawsuit.
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Apple Faces £1.5 Billion UK Lawsuit Over App Store 'Overcharging'
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Behavioral science documents the human tendency to stick with previous decisions rather than reconsider them when new information or options become available. This phenomenon is known as status quo bias. This bias can emerge in different situations due to various human tendencies and limitations, including the avoidance of cognitive effort, loss aversion, uncertainty aversion, bounded rationality, habit, the endowment effect, emotional attachment, and likely a few others that don't come to my mind at present.
Antitrust laws are here to stay.
Sadly, how much they make fanboys of a toy-maker corporation cry isn't adequately taken into account by the UK or EU.
Apple has already lost elsewhere. Nothing you said corresponds to any of the facts and laws involved here.
First off, it hasn't been a long time. There are no good alternative store to submit your apps to, yet.
Second, Apple's new behaviour still makes it pretty hard for competition to join (and it's blatantly illegal with required fees for other stores too). The EU will likely rule against that. Still, as for web browser, the correct solution will be letting users select one or more stores as they configure their new phone.
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
Believe whatever you wish. It doesn't really matter what we write in threads like this... or which side we take. This always plays out the same way. History is perfectly clear about the destination once GOVs take stuff like this up. If anyone likes I'll flip right now and argue about this terrible atrocity and how GOVs should mind their own business, "Apple should just buy <country>" or "Apple should pull out of <country>", etc. but it doesn't matter. This always plays out the same way.
It's like the old age vs. athlete cliche: time never loses. And that's no "doom" or "fatalistic"... just pragmatic based on all of history and how every somewhat similar situation plays out when GOVs get involved. Microsoft is still thriving in spite of GOVs dealing with the IE lock. AT&T is still thriving in spite of GOV dealing with their lock. Etc. What has to happen by choice or by eventual legal decrees: play ball or be forced to play ball in time. In the meantime (and hopefully since long before now) be innovating ways to replace the easy money sacrificed by having yet another business lock broken.
Apple WON the capitalism game. At times they are the RICHEST COMPANY IN THE WORLD. They are Kings of the capitalism mountain at times. Not Sony, not Nintendo, etc. Those at the top get the most GOV scrutiny. GOV doesn't want to look the other way for too long and let such locks get completely out of hand. When you become King or one of the Kings of Capitalism, you have to evolve your model to attempt to raise all boats instead of only focusing on your own... a benevolent king if you will. Else, GOV will come... every time.
Based on history, the end outcome of this kind of thing is already decided. It will only take time for it to propagate around the world. Hopefully, Apple is busy innovating revenue replacements for when they finally opt to play ball vs. fighting near endless fights that they will eventually lose.
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When can I buy Sony games on the Nintendo store, or xbox games on the Sony store.
And yet Nintendo, Microsoft (Xbox), and Sony are not a problem? Can’t have it both ways
I don't think that's true.
BT wins £1.3bn class action lawsuit that alleged it overcharged millions of customers
But an appeal may still come
www.datacenterdynamics.com
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
Don't confuse battles for an overall war. Stuff like IE and AT&T long distance got to persist for a LONG time through many cases before their locks were finally broken. Even in your cited example, read the line below the link.
Apple can certainly win some battles here and there. They can drive some compromises in some legislation. They can appeal and appeal to stall the inevitable. Lawyers both appreciate the revenue and fuel the "fight-fight-fight" call (to set themselves up with even more revenue).
But, eventually, a lightning jack gets replaced... or an exclusive on App stores gets competition. The overall "war" can take upwards of a decade or two if a deep pocketed Corp chooses to try every possible legal defense/stall... but the final outcome is always the same.
IMO: read the writing on the wall (or just consult history) and get on with it. If Apple proactively deals with this, THEY get to decide HOW they will address such issues. However, if they play the existing game of fight-fight-fight, bureaucrats with much less knowledge of "best ways forward" will end up influencing the way forward... and lawyers are actually the winner of all such plays.
Once Apple WON the capitalism game, it was already past time to evolve the approach. They are not one of many little starving players all competing for a share of a big pie. Once you are king of something, you can either exploit the position or evolve the approach to proactively avoid this kind of stuff. Best I know, just about no past "kings" of some space or niche chose the latter option and thus had to be forced there by GOVs. But Apple could be perhaps the first Capitalism "King" to "think different."
Apple can certainly win some battles here and there. They can drive some compromises in some legislation. They can appeal and appeal to stall the inevitable. Lawyers both appreciate the revenue and fuel the "fight-fight-fight" call (to set themselves up with even more revenue).
But, eventually, a lightning jack gets replaced... or an exclusive on App stores gets competition. The overall "war" can take upwards of a decade or two if a deep pocketed Corp chooses to try every possible legal defense/stall... but the final outcome is always the same.
IMO: read the writing on the wall (or just consult history) and get on with it. If Apple proactively deals with this, THEY get to decide HOW they will address such issues. However, if they play the existing game of fight-fight-fight, bureaucrats with much less knowledge of "best ways forward" will end up influencing the way forward... and lawyers are actually the winner of all such plays.
Once Apple WON the capitalism game, it was already past time to evolve the approach. They are not one of many little starving players all competing for a share of a big pie. Once you are king of something, you can either exploit the position or evolve the approach to proactively avoid this kind of stuff. Best I know, just about no past "kings" of some space or niche chose the latter option and thus had to be forced there by GOVs. But Apple could be perhaps the first Capitalism "King" to "think different."
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Unlike iOS apps which must be purchased through Apple's App Store (except now in the EU), you can buy Sony, Microsoft (Xbox) and Nintendo games in places other than Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo stores.
The primary issue (again, except in the EU) is with Apple not allowing any alternative iOS app store competition.
We have set the expectation that user are NOT responsible for their own security. Change that and everything gets better. It is our tolerance for this kind of BS that allows this problem to fester.
I know Apple is a 3 Trillion company...
But that's still one heck of a fine 😱
But that's still one heck of a fine 😱
It will never happen. Why? Because mobile apps were already at rock bottom prices before the DMA. The EU picked the market with the cheapest prices (by a VERY wide margin) and then claimed they were going to improve those prices.
Those other places don't provide better prices though. The reality for software is that, aside from temporary sales, the prices are going to be the same from one store to the next.
We have a choice. This is the choice many want. I dont use a PC for gaming I use a PS5 because it's an appliance. My phone is an appliance. I choose to use an iPhone that is an appliance. If I want to carry around a little computer I will choose Android.
This cannot be emphasized enough. The EU chose a super competitive efficient market because a few big companies want that 30% for themselves but dont represent the majority of businesses. It's like making business policy just for Walmart, Amazon, MS, Google, and Apple. Dumb.
I look forward to the EU busting up the Switch, Sony, and Microsoft stores.
There are many things you can only buy in the digital stores.
However, even if it those products didn't exists it's still not a counter example the way you are stating. There is only one Switch app store and no one can sell something legit that works on the PS5 or Switch that Nintendo or Sony did not approve. The fundamental right to control the software that runs on the hardware exists for the Switch and the iPhone. And it's great!
Better deals for me the consumer? 99 percent of my apps are free. Will the new platforms have apps that pay me to download them?
So this lawyer thinks Apple should provide all the iOS software libraries, the programming reference manuals and development tools like Xcode for free so that developers can make 100% profit on a different app store? Where is the incentive for a company to build and maintain all this development infrastructure if they can't profit from it? Businesses aren't charities.
Apple should allow alternative app stores in the UK, but block any program that uses their copyrighted code libraries. Someone else can invest the resources to build all of the APIs and UI libraries for the alternative store apps to use. I'd be interested to see how many make the effort....
Apple should allow alternative app stores in the UK, but block any program that uses their copyrighted code libraries. Someone else can invest the resources to build all of the APIs and UI libraries for the alternative store apps to use. I'd be interested to see how many make the effort....
This is the part where Apple needs to shut down all of their infrastructure in the UK -- close all Apple Stores, close all research labs, close it all. If the UK wants to behave like an extortionist banana republic, then treat them that way.
Yeah we could do away with that, but it’d also mean doing away with our free healthcare soooo nah you’re ok thanks 😂
Some do offer lower prices and/or lower commission rates, temporary or not, in markets where alternatives are allowed. In the UK, Apple has been restricting iOS app access competition by not allowing alternative iOS app stores and the possibility of lower prices/costs. Hence the issue and class-action lawsuit.