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Apple Faces Antitrust Probe Into Pre-Installed Apps, App Store, and More in Germany
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So break down a perfectly run company and let other companies run App Store
that have already tried and failed
that have already tried and failed
It is not the legislation at fault here. Most of these cookie nags are not actually complying with the law to start with, they just give the appearance of doing so. The regulators in EU countries just don't do anything about it.
no thanks. longer to setup.
instead of forcing a pre-installed app on someone, you force an setup process and take time and use bandwith to download rather than loaded in factory.
how many questions/choices are they going to make you wade through?
and if you are upgrading a phone, will they make you sit through the options even though you just want the same setup on a new device?
the app stores are there for a reason.
many alternatives exist if you want them.
Many governments are seeing Apple as a big lump of cash. With Covid, many governments are in deep hole. So who are they going to look for? The big lump of cash.
You would think that there are more things to worry about, like post-pandemic recovery, helping small businesses back, helping the unemployed, making sure hospitals are healthcare system are in order... but nope, let's worry about the App Store in your iPhone!
It's like satire, but it's reality.
You're missing the point here. Apple is leveraging it's position in the mobile industry to push consumers into giving them a position in other industries such as music, content creation and delivery, and so on. Sure, some of their efforts have been flops like HomePod, Apple Arcade, and so on but what if they hadn't been? Do you want one company to dominate every single market just because they are flush enough with cash to throw money at something that other competitors can't possibly match? It's the same crap that Amazon pulls, selling stuff like their smart speakers at a loss to try and push out better competitors such as Sonos that can't possibly bankroll something in the same manner.
Installing Adobe CC or Little Snitch is piracy? Cool, I‘m a pirate now!
I seriously doubt it. Microsoft went through the same thing in the 90s when they tried to leverage their operating system to push out competing Internet browsers. They lost.Many governments are seeing Apple as a big lump of cash. With Covid, many governments are in deep hole. So who are they going to look for? The big lump of cash.
You would think that there are more things to worry about, like post-pandemic recovery, helping small businesses back, helping the unemployed, making sure hospitals are healthcare system are in order... but nope, let's worry about the App Store in your iPhone!
It's like satire, but it's reality.
The EU literally already held a case against Google for pre-installed Google software on Google phones, and Google lost. Google can no longer force OEMs to install software that they don't want to get software they do (so OEMs can install just YouTube and the Play Store and leave everything else), and were fined four billion dollars.
Antitrust cases against Google by the European Union - Wikipedia
The average US grocery store profit margin is around 2.2%.
They want the government to protect their right to gather data and use it to make money; not protect the consumer from Apple.
Sure you can, and for digital goods the developers are a lot better of than before.
In addition, how much functionality is built into apps that are part of the OS? For example, what happens to the ability to access contact information cross app if the Apple Contacts app is not installed? Will each app have to have it's own data store and data model instead of use the built in app's store and model? All of a sudden a mail app would no longer be able to access your contacts, for example. Will a mail app recognize a calendar invite and send it to a different developer's calendar app?
Apple could simply make up lost revenue by charging a lot for notarization. If Apple is forced to forgo app store sales they can find other ways to make up for lost revenue.
I have one huge issue with anti-trust law, and that’s the capriciousness of it. The more arbitrary and selectively enforced a law is, the more uncertain your rights and responsibilities under it become and the greater the tendency for tyrranic enforcement of the law. This is true in any area of law, but anti-trust is definitely one of the more capricious, one of the ones more prone to “we don’t like this thing that you’re doing, so we’ll arbitrarily call it anti-trust”.
Just one example of the arbitrariness of anti-trust law. In the US soft drink market, Dr Pepper is usually considered a cola, it has a flavor similar to colas, and it has caffeine. However, for anti-trust purposes, it’s not considered “cola”, it’s considered a “pepper-flavored” drink, a category where Dr Pepper wields considerable market share, despite Dr Pepper’s significantly smaller share of the soft drink market overall. When was the last time you saw 7Up (another Dr Pepper brand, lemon-like flavored) available on a fountain or vending machine in place of Sprite (Coca-Cola’s lemon-lime) or Sierra Mist (Pepsi’s more conventional lemon-lime)?
Just one example of the arbitrariness of anti-trust law. In the US soft drink market, Dr Pepper is usually considered a cola, it has a flavor similar to colas, and it has caffeine. However, for anti-trust purposes, it’s not considered “cola”, it’s considered a “pepper-flavored” drink, a category where Dr Pepper wields considerable market share, despite Dr Pepper’s significantly smaller share of the soft drink market overall. When was the last time you saw 7Up (another Dr Pepper brand, lemon-like flavored) available on a fountain or vending machine in place of Sprite (Coca-Cola’s lemon-lime) or Sierra Mist (Pepsi’s more conventional lemon-lime)?
Yes. If the company does it honestly with hard work and innovation and a cohesive experience.
Yup. I'd much rather the developer fee go up again. (Things like ADC Premier were much pricier than the current model.)
There’s a lot that’s wrong about how apple is conducting business, so I hope this works in the direction of opening doors to ideas like sideloading and such. But the whole preinstalled apps thing is silly - those apps are part of the OS in my view.
Ultimately the customer benefits in the end from probes/investigations like this though so I’m all for it.
Ultimately the customer benefits in the end from probes/investigations like this though so I’m all for it.
Apple definitely does some things that I feel are meant to weaken competition.
However, including its own apps on its own devices is not one of them. This is too far. 🤷🏻♂️
However, including its own apps on its own devices is not one of them. This is too far. 🤷🏻♂️
I, as a German citizen, hereby officially disavow myself from that ridiculous move of my authorities.
Apple is nowhere even close to a monopoly in any business around here.
Apple is nowhere even close to a monopoly in any business around here.
You make it sound like a huge company is a single person graced with the virtue of honesty.
Come on...
Honestly = not running afoul of laws; no underhanded dealings etc. But as we've seen, laws can be created after the fact.
Dr Pepper is "not a cola" from a legal point of view in general, not merely from the point of view of the anti-trust. This was determined in the 60's when Dr Pepper successfully argued in federal court they are "not a cola" to bypass exclusivity deals bottlers signed with Coca-Cola and Pepsi which would have otherwise prevented them to distribute it.
Lol nice why did you not also list fridges and microwaves while we’re at it. It’s real easy to make that argument when we’re making up the lists isn’t it