This won’t work with Epic out there. They took games from Steam and made them an Epic Store exclusive. They will do the same on iOS.
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Apple in Breach of EU Competition Law, European Commission Finds
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That's at least questionable. The system security relies on Apple signing executables and managing certificates. For millions of developers worldwide and billions of devices this is a huge and costly infrastructure that Apple finances thru the App Store fees (and not by charging that minimal yearly developer fee). It would be unreasonable to expect Apple to provide this kind of signing and security also for Apps that are outside of it's walled garden, if that were ever to happen.
Don’t know enough about the case to have an opinion either way but glad to see MR is the home of so many experts with so many absolute truths.
Where did you guys read all of the arguments, out of interest?
Where did you guys read all of the arguments, out of interest?
It is funny how people on here defend Apple no matter what. The EU charge is right. Apple is competing in the appstore and due to the fees, other similar services cost more. Why should Spotify or anybody else have to lower their standard price just so they can make the price look the same due to the Apple fee but get less money than Apple?
lol, its fine to love the brand but sometimes it is also ok to criticize them when they are doing wrong.
lol, its fine to love the brand but sometimes it is also ok to criticize them when they are doing wrong.
Apple was always going to lose this against Spotifiy because Apple forces all app's that want to use a pay system to use Apple's pay system. This means companies have to pay Apple to use a pay system they are being forced to use. Therefore to make any kind of profit, companies have to increase the cost of an in-app purchase to compensate for the costs Apple charge for using their pay system whereas Apple have no such issue because they own the app store and thus can charge the basic fee of an in-app purchase.
This is the argument Spotify is making against Apple. Apple can sets costs of $9.99 because they do not have to pay for using their own payment system whereas Spotify have to add the costs of using Apple's pay system on to the cost of the in-app purchase thereby making the system anticompetitive because for Spotify to charge a flat fee of $9.99 to match that of Apple, they would have to incur a loss on every purchase.
Anti competitve laws are very strong in the EU and as a result there is no way Apple was going to win this against Spotify.
This is the argument Spotify is making against Apple. Apple can sets costs of $9.99 because they do not have to pay for using their own payment system whereas Spotify have to add the costs of using Apple's pay system on to the cost of the in-app purchase thereby making the system anticompetitive because for Spotify to charge a flat fee of $9.99 to match that of Apple, they would have to incur a loss on every purchase.
Anti competitve laws are very strong in the EU and as a result there is no way Apple was going to win this against Spotify.
I don’t think europe is nearly as lucrative as china, especially with the UK not being part of the EU.
So why isn't Apple taking a 30% or 15% cut of sales from Amazon, Uber, Starbucks, and other companies that allow purchases to be made through their apps?
Apple can and does let companies avoid their commission fees so your claim that Apple "didn’t create the App Store to be a charity" is nonsense.
I was trying to think of when the scenario you describe has happened to me. I usually use Plex and I do remember occasionally the music app starting, like when I stop for gas and bring phone in gas station. When I come out there have been times where music app starts up as opposed to Plex but not every time. Why do you have anything in music if you use Spotify??? I would suggest removing any music you have loaded into music app. then there wont be anything for it to switch to. Hopefully that will solve that issue for you.
If that's how it's suppose to be, then they're doing it wrong.
Apple wins victory against E.U. as court rules it does not have to pay back-tax fine
An appeals court crimped the European Union’s aggressive antitrust enforcement effort against the tech giant.
www.washingtonpost.com
BRUSSELS — Apple won a major victory Wednesday against European efforts to force it to pay higher taxes, after a European Union appeals court overturned a massive judgment against the tech giant and said that E.U. antitrust regulators erred in imposing a 13 billion euro ($14.8 billion) bill for back taxes.
Well, processing payments for their own services isn't free for Apple either. The transaction fee might be a lot lower than the cut Apple is demanding for in app purchases and subscriptions, but on the other hand they have huge costs operating their own payment systems. If internally Apple operates with cost centers, it might just be that Apple Music / TV / Fitness is charged the same cut as anyone else on the App Store. That's a little bit left pocket, right pocket, but if Spotify would process their own payments with their own software and processing infrastructure, there would also be additional cost that needs to be included in the subscription price.
"So why isn't Apple taking a 30% or 15% cut of sales from Amazon, Uber, Starbucks, and other companies that allow purchases to be made through their apps?
Apple can and does let companies avoid their commission fees so your claim that Apple "didn’t create the App Store to be a charity" is nonsense."
Well, actually its not nonsense. Maybe do a little research if you dont know why Apple doesnt take commision from everyone. They spell it out clearly. They take commission on apps that sell subscriptions. And they only take commission when that sale is through the app. So if you buy a sub to Spotify through the web, they dont take commission. Amazon sells products on Amazon app, Your not buying a subscription from Uber or Starbucks.
Apple can and does let companies avoid their commission fees so your claim that Apple "didn’t create the App Store to be a charity" is nonsense."
Well, actually its not nonsense. Maybe do a little research if you dont know why Apple doesnt take commision from everyone. They spell it out clearly. They take commission on apps that sell subscriptions. And they only take commission when that sale is through the app. So if you buy a sub to Spotify through the web, they dont take commission. Amazon sells products on Amazon app, Your not buying a subscription from Uber or Starbucks.
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I am using Apple Pay because privacy and comfort. I DO NOT want anyone else mess with it!
I think Apple may not force anyone to make system working like that. When others allowed, they can impose they solution as the only one, without privacy standard and block Apple Pay for their users. No Way!
I have hoards of compliments to App Store but not willing anyone else would let install sh... in my phone. It is hard even for Apple to keep it clean.
If they profit from scam apps intentionally, of course, fine them.
Excellent analogy. Although the Dueling Tariffs have since been lifted as Airline Pressure told them all to act like Free Market Participants. Protectionist policies will eventually seriously hurt the EU. I look forward to it.
I think you’re right, apple *does* deserve to run their platform the way they want to, even to grant themselves an advantage. However, no company has a right to control such a massive portion of the app store market. They may have earned it fair and square, they may have worked hard to be the best, but it doesn’t really matter because EU citizens deserve to set the rules of the economy, and what’s in the citizen’s best interest is more competition in the app store market space, which is dominated by basically identical two stores: apple’s and google’s.
I feel badly that apple and google will lose out despite having done nothing wrong, but they have been profiting from a system poorly designed for a digital economy. And while that may be a policy shortcoming, not an apple shortcoming, it nonetheless is important that the EU protect the right of the citizen, even if it comes at the expense of the two market dominant corporations.
Wonder if the EU is going to pre-empt the Fortnite case and force Apple to allow alternative payment options outside the AppStore within their iOS framework. Wonder how that would affect PlayStation etc if it happens. Anyhow the stakes are so high I’m sure this will get appealed.
I think the important part is that Amazon, Uber, and Starbucks are not selling digital goods
Well regular stores have the product on shelfs and don’t rely on the supply ability to sell. In this case, not only Apple does not have Spotify music on the shelfs / does not distribute it (costs them nothing), and relies on the supplier ability to sell in their turf (in app). Online stores such as Amazon, actually take care of transportation of the goods they sell and warehousing, if not the markup for third parties sales is way lower …
The sense of your analogy is thiner than air. Bureaucrat? I guess you used that term as an some kind of insult … i will not return in the same kind considering the validity of you opinion.
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Exactly. For that reason, you cannot buy books in the Amazon Kindle app on iOS. Amazon does this to avoid the in app purchase fee.
I don't see Apple making any changes(or at most minor) changes to the App Store business model. Therefore my opinion is they will pay a fine.
I don't expect much of a change if any to the app store. In my opinion, Apple will pay the fine.
Spotify and the rest want to use Apple hardware, apple software, Apple services, apple customers and not pay a dime to Apple. In any other scenario in the world involving private companies where would this ever be okay.
I love these sorts of stories. In seconds of uploading, you'll have angry little wengoids pretending to be armchair lawyers demanding links, sources and research. Go forth and demand! Demand it now!
The fine, if there is one, they will pay regardless. I don’t think there should be a fine. The system does not need fines, needs clearer regulation for digital materials. The regulation is not that clear IMHO, but hey, I’m not a lawyer.
How is the pricing of Apple Music any different than the competition that exists for the "store-brand" in most grocery store chains. The Kroger (or Safeway) Bread is nearly always less than the Pepperidge Farm branded bread. This entire lawsuit is trying to remove the inherent advantage that all store owners have.
At least, Apple allows most viable apps to exist in their store. There are many more hurdles that one needs to jump through to get store space at a traditional retailer.