How on earth is what the EU doing 'protecting the big guys'? because the EU rules affect everyone. EVERYONE in the EU that wants to trade and EVERYONE outside the EU that wants to trade with the EU must supply business credentials. All the EU is doing is protecting it's consumers from illegal and unscrupulous behaviour from those who want to sell their goods/products/services to EU consumers. Why is it you have a problem with that?
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Apps That Didn't Add 'Trader' Contact Info in the EU Removed From App Store
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…and if government and law enforcement didn’t exist (both paid by tax dollars/Euros), no trustworthy marketplaces would exist.
To sell OS licenses, hardware devices and/or additional software.
Microsoft has successfully been doing it for decades.
So has Apple with their Mac platform.
No different than Apple laughing in app developers’ faces and saying: “You owe us 30% for nothing”.
No, it is not “either … or”:
- Less quality
- More expensive
- Less supracompetitive margins and earning 👉 that is what I want and what benefits consumers.
…unless the market is competitive.
You’re ignoring the fact that Apple is raking in billions of dollars in earnings every year. Cash that’s just sitting in Apple’s bank accounts basically, doing jack **** to improve their products!
Given how hugely profitable Apple is (and that includes operating margins), what you are describing is market failure.
Worse products at higher prices are not how well competitive markets work.
The market is failing consumers. Failing them to benefit from better and/or more affordable products and services.
And when a market and competition is failing, it’s up to government and regulators to intervene.
That’s what the Digital Markets Act is intended to induce: more competition.
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I want to sell my app, in order to do so I need a phone number I need insurance I need a PO Box I need this permit etc. Let's just say it all costs 20K just to start. The 17 year old in college making an app doesn't have 20K. I am not going to enter the market. So who wins? Those with money aka the big guys.
If I have to form a LLC and get insurance to sell Lemonade for a day who's going to do that? People with money.
So you don't get app development at all. I understand now. Your dream is everyones nightmare both small and large. Do you know what it takes to maintain an app for Apple and Android? Now you think companies are going to maintain apps for 10-15 OS platforms?
How soon we forget that Windows Phone died because it wasn't "worth it" for companies to make apps for it. Windows Phone wouldn't be dead if your logic worked.
The entire premise that somehow these companies are going to continue putting the same amount of money into something you use every day with profits slashed in half makes no sense. Thinking about it, Windows Phone and how few apps it had when it died is basically what you are asking for.
The reason why Android and Apple are successful is because its rare an app isn't available for both more competition will just mean more app fragmentation. If you are a small time dev you will have to pick and choose.
"If you don't have a factual argument to make, let's resort to an ad hominem" 🤡
Of course not. Where did I ever say something like that!?
Quite the contrary: I've always said that no one has interest in ten operating systems competing in the same form factor. Consumers and developers have converged on a duopoly of Apple iOS and Google Android. And the DMA, somewhat tacitly acknowledges that by preventing large platform operators from abusing their duopoly and leveraging it to unfairly compete on related markets.
Of course. We fully agree on that. Windows Phone didn’t make it due to a lack of third-party app ecosystem.
...while not being available for any other platform.
Apple and Google gave away their developer resources and respective marketplaces away for (basically) free early on. And through that successfully cornered the market for mobile operating system and distribution of applications.
Increasing competition drives down firms' profit margins.
In a perfectly competitive market, firms/producers earn zero economic profit in the long run.
I'm by no means advocating for Apple or Google to make zero profit.
As you said: "There is zero reason for Apple and Alphabet to spend money maintaining an OS they don't make good money off of."
Then again, there's little reason to innovate or - more importantly - deviate in design and OS functionality from what your competitor does, when there's a duopoly and consumers have to buy and use your OS anyway.
As it stands, both firms are - increasingly - earning money through software distribution: Commissions on sales of third-party software applications, for which they have dominant market positions as intermediaries.
And there's where the DMA comes in to regulate the market.
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If it is going to cost you that much to sell your app then blame the country you are in for charging so much because that is not the EU's fault.
The problem I see here is one of selfishness because all your doing is thinking of yourself, how hard it would be for you to sell your app, how difficult this, how difficult that. There is no thought about consumers/customers. For years there has been an issue of resolution when an app fails to work properly. App developers creating an app, getting their money and then doing a runner. The app starts causing issues or fails to work or stops working due to a iOS update and the ONLY way disgruntled customers can contact the app developer is via app feedback because the app developer did not leave an contact details. So, thousands of app customers are left with an app that no longer works and have no way of contacting the app developer whilst the app developer has run off with the money.
The lemonade stand, where is the protection for customers if the batch of lemonade is not made properly with the result being customers start getting ill? where is the customer protection? As far as I am aware it's near on impossible to sue a 5yr old child.
You need to look past your own concerns and look into the concerns of consumers/customers and that is exactly what the EU is doing, making sure app developers stop thinking about themselves and start thinking about their customers.
To be fair…
- it may not be the app developers’ fault that the app stopped working (it may be the OS)
- you can’t force app developers to continue supporting their app
- selling an app “as is”, supporting only the current OS and without promising future OS support, is fair enough
- buy an iPhone
- have a hardware defect covered by warranty (or statutory warranty rights)
- have it serviced and updated - or the mainboard replaced in the process
Then again, the app developer may have promised and/or marketed support for future OS versions. Or you may have “bought” a year-long subscription. In which case it’s entirely reasonable to want to contact the developer and hold them accountable.
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I disagree. If I am spending my hard earned money on an app I expect that app to be supported for the next few years to come. It is utterly disingenuous of app developers who are expecting people to pay for their app with having no intention of offering support or update for their app. If there is to be no support or updates then the app developer should make it clear in their app.
The app store should only contain app's from developers who offer continued support for their app and updates to their app. Again this is something the EU is addressing with this trader info. An app dev who is selling their app and has no intention of doing what is right by their customers (offering long term support and updates) should not be allowed in the app store because it prevents customers from having resolution/recourse with the app dev is something goes wrong.
App dev's who sell their apps who have no intention of supporting their app as in they just want the money from the sales and that's it are not going to go through the process of giving their details and these are exactly the app dev's the EU wants to weed out.
Do you really expect phone support for all your apps, whether they cost $2 or $200? Whether for entertainment or productivity? Why doesn't a Discord channel, or online forum, count as support?
You also equate not having a phone number with not intending to put out app updates, which is ridiculous.
Big companies just as likely, if not more likely, to "just want money from sales", but the EU rule doesn't hurt them.
I agree that the EU rule will weed out some vaporware and shovelware. It does this by also weeding out small but legitimate developers. Those developers are perfectly justified in complaining about it. That doesn't make them lazy or greedy.
(One last point: I am not a lawyer but as far as I can tell, the EU requirement doesn't actually require customer service or support! It's basically to establish that you are a legitimate business that can be taxed and held legally liable. Will this rule weed out some bad actors? Absolutely! But you still won't be able to get phone support from Facebook if hackers lock you out of your account. Or have any recourse when Disney shuts down an MMO you spent hundreds of dollars in.)