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Epic vs. Apple Takes a Twist As 35 US States and Department of Justice Weigh in to Back 'Fortnite' Maker
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This is one of those threads where you know the commenters are gonna be mad as hell before even clicking.
Yup, but those threads are always the most fun.
“Go do something else if you don’t like it” is, fortunately, not how these things are decided under color of law.
You know how I know you don't invest? Because AAPL is within 5-7% of ATH meaning that I'd be up on any shares I purchased any day in the history of the company except for approximately within the last month. I'm sorry that you haven't enjoyed any AAPL gains, it was only the most obvious long term investment in the history of our country.
To answer your question though, no, my post about individual states each wanting a say in forcing iOS to be more like Android (read: worse) had nothing to do with AAPL share price. I could see though how it may be confusing to a reader that hasn't yet tackled this resource.
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Unfortunately, I have heard of the dumpster fire Mac OS that is Monterey. That could use a fair bit of tightening up as well, to put it lightly. The goal at the very least is to not make iOS worse than it already is
The problem is, some will only make their apps available outside of the app store. Want app X to control Y account that you have in your life? Well, the owner may chose to only release it as part of their own, much less secure, app store that Apple doesn't have control over the quality of. And as soon as apps can be sideloaded, in come all the same scams that have been plaguing old and dumb people since the dawn of the internet.
Okay Merriam-Webster, my bad about not meeting your definition of cable replacement. The point was that Netflix had a lot more content back in those good old days, which has now been stripped away to a dozen other incredibly sub-par services, making it confusing to find what you want to watch when you want to watch it, and requiring managing relationships with a dozen different companies (lol!) if you want to have relatively easy access to content. Somehow even more expensive and worse than cable. And the games people have to play to get around it (complex overlapping networks of people sharing access to streaming services that the others don't have) are just absurd. The user experience is so bad that it's almost as though all of these companies hate their customers. It's hard to think of a worse model
My mistake, the resemblance was uncannyI'm not. But if you're asking for a personal consultation, I'd say the diagnosis on Joe's chart may be applicable in your case.
Seems like an awful lot of work to usher in a new golden age of piracy after it had been all but extinguished by the availability of incredibly convenient, reasonably priced services that everyone was happy to pay for and use
Let's be honest... Android has had sideloading for years.
Yet nobody cares.
All the major popular apps are still in the official Google Play Store (where they must give a commission to Google)
So it seems like the great "sideload experiment" has already happened... with disappointing results.
Hell... Epic left the Google Play Store and forced people to download Fortnite from the web. And guess what... 18 months later they were back in the Google store.
Epic had Fortnite... which was arguably the most popular game in the world at that time... and even they couldn't get people to sideload it.
So... do we think sideloading on iOS will be different? Probably not. The official Apple App Store will likely be the main place where people download and purchase apps.
I'm not particularly fond of governments forcing Apple to allow sideloading. But I kinda want to see it happen... just so it blows up in everyone's faces.
There will be some schadenfreude when it turns out that sideloading isn't all its cracked up to be...
I imagine there will be plenty of developers who pull their apps out of the App Store... but come crawling back when their numbers aren't what they thought they would be.
?
Yet nobody cares.
All the major popular apps are still in the official Google Play Store (where they must give a commission to Google)
So it seems like the great "sideload experiment" has already happened... with disappointing results.
Hell... Epic left the Google Play Store and forced people to download Fortnite from the web. And guess what... 18 months later they were back in the Google store.
Epic had Fortnite... which was arguably the most popular game in the world at that time... and even they couldn't get people to sideload it.
So... do we think sideloading on iOS will be different? Probably not. The official Apple App Store will likely be the main place where people download and purchase apps.
I'm not particularly fond of governments forcing Apple to allow sideloading. But I kinda want to see it happen... just so it blows up in everyone's faces.
There will be some schadenfreude when it turns out that sideloading isn't all its cracked up to be...
I imagine there will be plenty of developers who pull their apps out of the App Store... but come crawling back when their numbers aren't what they thought they would be.
?
if apple wants to keep their walled garden, they shouldn’t have sold so many iPhones. Apples size has made them subjected to more rules. Microsoft could have made a lot of money if they took 30% of all software that ever released for Windows PC in the last 30 years, but gladly better heads prevailed and Windows has an open app platform. Apple will be forced to do the send.
Yes I am considering this situation from my own perspective, but I am also an independent developer in my own right, as well as working in software development. I was developing software long before app stores existed. Prior to the release of xCode it was perfectly normal to have to spend hundreds of dollars for a compiler, and hundreds more on other parts of the development process, linker, assembler, etc. Yes, this is going back quite some time, but the App Store for me has been truly liberating as an independent developer.
The reality is that you don’t get something for nothing, and if developers can free themselves from the Apple payment system, then they should expect that Apple will find a different way to charge them for the considerable investment that Apple makes to keep its ecosystem running.
The iOS App Store is the one stop shop, as an independent developer, and also for small developers, I know that if I do a good job and create a worthwhile product, it will be seen by users. The fact my App has made it through the many hurdles required on the App Store gives users the confidence to download and try my software without fear of malware.
The fact my app must use the Apple Payment system gives my users the reassurance that the purchase they are making is guaranteed my Apple and they can be confident that if there are problems they won’t just be dealing with a small company.
iOS vs Android Apps: Which Should You Build Your Mobile App on First
Now that it is time to build your app, choosing which operating system to launch on can be difficult. Learn the difference between iOS vs Android apps.
buildfire.com
In the above link there is a graph that shows you the percentage of paid vs free apps on each system. It’s clear that if you want to monetise your software, iOS is the place to start. Why is this? It’s because people are much more confident about spending their hard earnt money in this fenced off system where they have the reassurances both in terms of quality, security and payment. This is what is at risk with this action, and this is the ‘market’ you want to tap into if you are a smaller developer.
The people who stand to benefit from this are not the independent and small developers, they will end up being suffocated by the bigger companies, and struggle to get users to spend on their programs, just like what happens on Android. Rather it is the large software houses that have the capital to invest in development tools, marketing and finance systems who will reap all the benefits.
You would make a great point if the majority of phones were iPhones but unfortunately they are not. iOS accounts for less than 30%, with Android at 70% and the rest attributable to other OS.
On the other hand, Windows is now on around 74% of computers. I’m sure if Microsoft could have established itself in a similar manner as Apple with regard to the App Store they probably would have, but 30 years ago there was no way you were going to be downloading Office off a 56k modem. In fact, the strategy Microsoft used was the strategy everyone had been using since the beginning of the personal computer revolution, open systems that allow the user to do whatever they like and install whatever they want.
I guarantee they’re making far more money from offering their content on their own services, rather than being paid pennies by Netflix, than they’re losing from any increase in piracy. Disney in particular is making a killing. And it’s not like pirating isn’t a pain in the ass in and of itself. Pirating is not convenient. Especially if you demand high quality video and audio.
It's true. If you invite me over to your house but I steal your jewelry, would you call it burglary or larceny?
Which would be a real shame.
As long we agree that developers sell apps not license them. That every copy of an app that is sold should lower the value of the app since used copies could and should flood the market. Any app that doesn't drop in price a week after being released should be treated as an app no one wants and have zero value if stolen.
That doesn't change the fact that some people still sideload. We can't have it both ways. Either developers have no say in how their content is distributed or they have no say in how it's redistributed. The only reason change should occur with the status quo is if we want to shift power from Apple to the customer. Developers shouldn't have a voice in this. It's in the developer's best interest to protect Apple's business model right now because it's the only reason people buy their own copy. Because if could buy a used license for less than new I am going to buy the used one. Then the developer only makes money off the original sale and never again.
But aren't developers behind all this?!?!?
Epic, Spotify, Hey... they are developers.
Customer John Smith from Idaho isn't filing lawsuits demanding he be allowed to purchase and sideload iOS apps from some developer's website.
It's developers who are demanding changes to the App Store policies... not customers.
Sure... someone might make the argument that these changes would create lower app prices for customers.
But I highly doubt that. Any "savings" would likely go back into the developer's pocket.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
To me, as a voter my opinion is that these legislators should keep their hands off successful companies instead of going around the courts for some back-door legislation. Nothing disingenuous about the response, but horses for courses.
I agree what happens, happens, doesn’t mean I have to be on board.
All valid points. Just a huge shame that the customer suffers. I maintain that it'd be a huge shame to see a similar (legally forced) transition in Apple's app ecosystem.