Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Apple Says Spotify Wants 'Limitless Access' to App Store Tools Without Paying
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
To me, this just shows how the majority of people in the EU preferred iOS as it is over the Android alternative. But the EU is forcing Apple to make iOS more Android-like.
oh dear...
If you think a console's online store is any different to a physical store...
All games are vetted and royalties paid the console creator.
They control the marketing (box format, graphic layout, logos).
A physical store is just to appease the shops who want product and will carry the console.
The secondhand games market exists because the purchaser doesnt retain the physical media when they sell it and cant play it anymore.
Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo rule their consoles with an iron fist.
Still on about essential?
A dumb phone can get SMS alerts.
They are nice to have, convenient and desirable but they arent essential like air and water.
So when iPhone launched it had only apple apps.
Jobs wanted web apps for other things.
He was convinced to allow an app store and dev tools.
Android also started out with just OS embedded apps.
Would you prefer devices with just OS apps or a system where you can install millions of apps that meet 99% of your needs?
One or the other.
We have people on here arguing that Android doesnt go far enough and meet their needs...
DMA wont solve any of the issues these people want fixed.
exactly.
All the consoles and their rigid cartridges.
All controlled by the hardware manufacturer.
And royalties paid for each step of the distribution.
Dud games ended up as landfill.
When games loaded from cassettes plenty of people tried tape to tape copies.
It rarely worked.
And companies became smarter when copy protection schemes and then online registration and user validation and codes.
Game devs would release games in multiformats often with some versions better than others.
But every game was approved and money changed hands to get those games on a console.
Deals sometimes done for exclusive releases to boost the appeal of the system.
And back then, noone complained their device didnt have the app.
They bought the one that did if they really wanted it.
Where did you get the info that iOS is dominant?
Mobile Operating System Market Share Europe | Statcounter Global Stats
This graph shows the market share of mobile operating systems in Europe based on over 5 billion monthly page views.
gs.statcounter.com
| Mobile Operating System Market Share in Europe - January 2024 | |
|---|---|
| Mobile Operating Systems | Percentage Market Share |
| Android | 66.09% |
| iOS | 33.42% |
| Samsung | 0.43% |
If Apple wanted to be a monopoly they would need a $50 iPhone to compete with the basic Android ones...
They arent interested.
Mid-range is as far down as they compete for sales.
The quality of hardware though does mean they are often gifted to family and friends and continue to work for years.
They arent interested.
Mid-range is as far down as they compete for sales.
The quality of hardware though does mean they are often gifted to family and friends and continue to work for years.
I hope Apple let EU iPhone users select Settings > Country themselves and pick "Outside EU" if they want the walled garden version
An 85 year old British resident in aged care explained to me what Hobson's Choice was.
Given a choice that is no choice: do you want me to shoot you or poison you?
This is the choice all of us are now facing with forced OS changes many of us dont want.
Last edited:
Apple has a 30’ish% market share while Google has a 70’ish% market share in the EU. Sorry, no. They are the little guy. When Google has a 3:1 market share over Apple, Google is the biggest. If you want to argue about fragmentation of Android phones, you can’t quite do that since that’s like saying Microsoft doesn’t have the largest PC market share. Apple often goes between #1 or #2 PC vendor, but overall, they have somewhere around 10%. Nobody claims Apple is the big dog in the PC market, so that’s why Apple isn’t in the phone market either.
Last edited:
Really? Is that why I can download Netflix, Disney+, Apple TV+, and so on on both my Xbox Series X and my PlayStation 5? I didn’t know those were games?
Yes Epic probably would love to have their own store for the consoles, i’m sure they would like the fees to be lower too.
Again regulators don’t care because it isn’t a big enough market, Sweeney likely recognises this.
I’m not a console gamer so i don’t have much of an opinion but if their are conflicts of interest they should be looked at.
My understanding is the Microsoft Bethesda deal got plenty of scrutiny by regulators.
Unlucky for you Apple’s business practices are getting ripped apart by a certain government
Phones are really useful though; you can do your banking, you can securely purchase items, you can log into government websites, you can track and store your health data, you can maintain all your personal information including your driver license, you can type up or edit documents for your company, you can privately communicate using encryption, all kinds of helpful stuff.
The big difference is nobody cares enough about getting the games consoles opened up
This shows you just how random and subjective anti-trust laws really are. Determining some company has a monopoly is all in the eye of the beholder where no one can agree. Game consoles sell billions of dollars/euros worth of devices and games are an enormous market. But if companies don’t care about busting these game stores/app stores that also charge 30%, that shows just how unjust it can be.
These consoles are more locked down than Apple’s walled garden. Even the “side loaded” games (Blu-rays), assuming the console even has a blu-ray slot, give a cut to the console owner whereas Apple would get nothing if the EU had its way, and when Apple wants a slice of those side loaded apps, they are accused of malicious compliance while no one cares if the console creators get a cut from blu-rays. Meanwhile on the iOS App Store, the vast majority of apps are free with Apple not earning a penny on any of them. There are free games on the consoles, but the vast majority are not. Seems to me, the EU should act on the Switch/Xbox/Playstation if they want to appear fair. But in reality, it’s whoever greased the palms of EU regulators the most who get the EU to go after a company.
I don’t live in an EU member state anymore (i’m from the UK)
Obviously they should drop the BS app rejections, Spotify (or whoever else) should be allowed to use their own payment processor, talk about promotional pricing and link out to their own site or any other site (assuming that does not compromise the privacy and security of the end user). This is an absolute minimum.
If the third party dev uses their own payment processor to facilitate an in app transaction Apple shouldn't get a cut of that. If I buy a kindle book in Amazons app I consider that transaction to be between me and Amazon. If I purchased a Kindle book in chrome on my Mac Apple would get nothing.
Apple should open their services up to real competition on their platform. So no locking down the NFC chip so nobody can compete with Apple Pay, No keeping Siri commands exclusive to Apple Music for years, No restriction on what browser engine can be used etc etc
if they did all that, I don't really care about sideloading or third party stores. I think most would be happy with that.
Also their 'core techology fees' and 'new business terms' are obviously devised to make any circumvention of the App Store and its associated fees and policies completely non viable and should be rejected out of hand.
Last edited:
Again the big difference is no developer complains about the games console to highlight said problem.
There is no reason for any developer to complain about the games consoles as their main purpose is to play games.
Why doesn't the EU go after Amazon and force them to allow Borders, Dillons, Barnes & Noble, et al to have stores on the Kindle? They should also have their own payment processor without having to give anything to Amazon.
Last edited:
No, the main purpose of a developer is not to play games but to make money. There is no difference between a game developer and an app developer. I would point out all of this nonsense started with a game company, Epic Games, the first company to go after Apple. Spotify sensed an opportunity and piled on. All it takes is one game company to make a stink on a console and they’ll get hit, too. US courts weren’t sympathetic at all, but the EU did because they are much more Big Brother than US regulators. The US has plenty of anti-trust laws. They just didn’t agree Apple was being anti-competitive.