-BigMac-
macrumors 68030
Great example!
Are you implying Netflix and Prime dont make any income from their shows/movies?
They run the whole Platform from the goodness of their hearts? Lol
Australia Opens Antitrust Inquiry Into Apple's App Store
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Are you implying Netflix and Prime dont make any income from their shows/movies?
They run the whole Platform from the goodness of their hearts? Lol
-BigMac-
macrumors 68030
It is Apples product, they shouldn’t be forced to change anything on their products unless its a safety or security concern.
If you want to use a different App Store, go for your life. Im sure you’ve heard of Samsung and Google right?
While we’re at it why dont Google/Samsung have the Apple App Store on their Devices? :/
pasamio
macrumors 6502
And then companies sue Apple over restricting the API's and making them not accessible so Apple is forced to open them up for others to use bypassing any of the security.
Microsoft tried to stifle Netscape's development and when threatening them directly didn't work, it then threatened OEMs that it would withhold Windows from them if they shipped Netscape and directly integrated their browser into the operating system all in an attempt to kill competition. That's using a monopoly in an anti-competitive manner.
And in using the different app store you don't pay anything to Apple? At what point does Apple stop bothering to open up their devices any more? Does that hinder competition in the broader smartphone ecosystem by requiring anyone who wants to come into the market to support third party app stores? Or does it only apply to companies that have 40% or more of marketshare? At what point does it become government appropriation of private property?
-BigMac-
macrumors 68030
Killed it mate. With you 100% of the way.
MacBH928
macrumors G3
If TOS is not enforceable whats the point of agreeing to terms and services then? they might as well not add it in.
Update: companies are completely free not to sell their products on this platform and can choose to sell their products via any Android version, Sailfish, Taizen, KaiOS, ChromeOS, LineageOS,Ubuntu Touch, GrapheneOS, or PureOS.
I don't get it. Apple created the iPhone, invested millions in R&D to do so. Invested millions more to spread the product, build market share and then created an App Store so that other developers could create app for it. They didn't have to do this. It's their sandbox. They could just as easily have made it a totally closed platform that they only create apps for. These companys should be grateful they created such a platform and they are allowed to play in it and make money from it with a very simple business model ( Annual fee, 70%/30% split of profits and all tools, support all provided. ) They need to stop whining.
ChrisMoBro
Suspended
It was a) a joke reference to the film Field of Dreams and b) others are suing and I'm referring to the overall situation with Apple's app store policies and not just this investigation.
cocky jeremy
macrumors 604
Users already had a choice, they were just too stupid to know it.
The ACCC is a bit hit and miss: they wrecked the broadband market by forcing the national broadband network to have 121 points of interconnect (where backhaul providers connect to the NBN last mile+) rather than 7, plus rules which limited small ISPs connecting to only a few POIs. OTOH, they're pretty good about things like region locking (e.g. region unlocking DVD players is a legal entitlement, and the same might be true of Blu-Ray players if anyone has bothered to jump though the procedural hoops).
The big issue is likely to be that 30% is an industry standard, and many of the review conditions are also industry standard. That could indicate an efficient market where everyone has been beaten down to that price, or it could indicate unspoken collusion where a handful of established players decide to match prices and rely on market inefficiencies to screw society. If it is the latter, the ACCC will prod them and force them to at least pretend to compete, like they did with the petrol industry.
That did not go over well with regulators when MS did something similar by using unpublished APIs.
Not necessarily: just look at what happened when IE won the first browser war by being cheaper.
There are very strict laws against marketing medical products to patients in Australia (and restrictions, albeit inadequate ones, on marketing to medical professionals). The ECG functions are in an awkward position, because if they claim they're useful as diagnostic tools and get them certified they can't advertise them anywhere visible in Australia, and if they say they're useless that undermines their advertising elsewhere.
shapesinaframe
macrumors 6502
Mate, no politician in Australia does anything without checking with old Rupe first. He wants the Aussie government makes Facebook pay him for the news people share online and now he’s getting them to investigate Apple because News+, TV+ are killing his News Ltd/Foxtel revenues. He’s pissed about not being able to control the new media giants so he’s going after them everywhere he has politicians in his pocket.
The government is more than happy to investigate their citizens favourite device maker and the most used app on it if takes everyone’s attention off the COVID dumpster fire burning on every street corner.
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jlc1978
macrumors 603
As far as I can remember MS never charged for IE and other browsers were still avaiable. What is your concern?
falainber
macrumors 68040
Apple gets paid when they sell the phone. Without the app store (closed phone) they won't be able to sell any phones. They are welcome to try. They can also keep the app store but they would have to offer competitive pricing.
PinkyMacGodess
Suspended
And Facebook doesn't charge (yet) for their hot mess. Are you concerned? You should be. For YOU are the product. You, and your data. All they can vacuum off of your computer and browser history. All the connections you make on their systems. All the connections your connections make on their systems, and make out on the internet.
Facebook is like the little brother listening in to your life and telling everyone, who gives them money, all the stuff you do.
How does it feel to have your privacy savaged by a hot mess of a company? That's why I quit Facebook. If people I went to high school and college with, and ex-friends want to find me, they will have to seek another way. The vitriol and bile being spewed out just added to the dire need to dump that toxic mess.
Microsoft was caught using secret APIs and bribing computer companies to not put competing browsers on their computers, coupled with a whole lot of other badness. Microsoft got off cheap with the incoming new administration's agenda. They were facing some serious hard time, but basically got off with a pat on the back. Antitrust lawsuits have helped the world, but they also have the potential to be used as a weapon. I question if all of the focus on Apple isn't somehow politically driven to some extent. It's all too possible it is. But enough about politics.
I can't imagine a navy blue iPhone! I would hard pass on a green one. I grew up in a house with green appliances, green sinks, toilets, and even green carpet. YIKES!!! Hard pass on green. Oh yeah... EWWWWWWW...
It did a lot of harm to the entire computing ecosystem over subsequent years: because IE was everywhere, developers targeted IE, systems depended on IE6 features rather than open standards (so people had to use IE6), and so on. Even MS eventually realised that that was a bad idea, because it meant making their software even remotely secure was incredibly difficult.
planteater
Cancelled
If the forces that want alternative stores wins, I’ll refuse to buy any app that doesn’t come from the Apple store. Anyone that values privacy and security would do well to do the same.
DownUnderDan
macrumors 6502a
As an Australian I would have to disagree. We've got some "interesting" characters in our political ranks for sure, but it takes a special level of dumb to get what you have in your Congress.
PinkyMacGodess
Suspended
A rather infamous US legislator once referred to the Internet as a series of tubes. I really wish I was joking. Given the average age of politicians, and how 'sheltered' they largely have been through their lives, I'm surprised it's not worse than it is.
pasamio
macrumors 6502
Last I looked their App Store was competitively priced, they take 30% just like Google takes 30%, Samsung takes 30%, Sony takes 30%, Xbox takes 30%, Nintendo takes 30%, Steam takes 30%.
If you're talking about having a third party app store on the phone that doesn't have to cover the costs of producing the phone, selling the phone, developing the phone's hardware, developing the operating system, developing the APIs, developing the SDKs and developing the developer tools and supporting the ecosystem services then that's hardly fair competition. Of course that other app store could provide lower rates because it's not actually paying to develop anything.
Apple have established this model for selling phones where the App Store is tied into their ecosystem. You know what is crazy? People are buying them. It is absolutely insane, it's like for 12 years now Apple have said it's their way or the highway and you know what is happening? More people than ever before have iPhones. People could choose Android phones that let them side load apps, run their third party app stores and aren't limited to the apps that Apple approves on their devices and the limitation Apple applies to them. For some reason though, people aren't picking that. People aren't choosing to go to the open ecosystem. They all must be crazy.
PinkyMacGodess
Suspended
It's like jobs in the US. Of course China would have cheaper labor back then. DUH! But when China labor gets too expensive, where will they go? They got that covered! Cambodia. Really? Vietnam, India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and all the other third world wannabes that can build stuff cheap and flood the world with substandard crap.
There always, so far, seems to be a 'cheaper labor market'. But the race to the bottom only leads one place. Badness.
Buggy software, filled with malware and spyware, keystroke loggers, camera grabbers, location trackers, peeping tom hacks, revenge porn: nastiness. Pretty soon, after they kill encryption and sandboxing, the internet will actually be the 'Wild Wild West' that the hysterics of the 90's said it was back then.
Prepare for the 'New Dark Ages'?
When can people go to Mars?
JKAussieSkater
macrumors 6502
Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Apple introduce the fee as 30%, and then the competition copied after?
This doesn't mean the status-quo is ethical or fair, it simply means arbitrary pricing became standardised because the "competition" understood "if Apple can get away with sky-high commissions, then we can too.".
jlc1978
macrumors 603
Which is why I don't use Facebook, Instagram, et. al.
Which is different than simply selling a product at a low enough price that makes it hard for oters to match. Even with IE there were competing browsers that had advantages over IE.
But that is a problem with network effects, rather than the product itself. The best technology doesn't always win if consumers prefer one significantly more, as Betamax vs VHS proved.
Open standards are great, but if a closed one provides percieved benefits that the open one does not either the open one evolves or fades away. In the end, most consumers simply want to know stuff will work reliably when they send a document or open a web page; so the most popular standard wins out. Is it the best technology? Maybe not but that is not what is most important in the overall market.
Ultimately, that is the consumer's fault because they refuse to pay for higher quality items. They buy on price, which results in a race to the bottom. Quality is cheaper in the long run; but most people only see the initial price and not the TCO.
We have met the enemy, and he is us.