EU to Investigate Apple Over Spotify's Antitrust Complaint

[TVOR]

Would users care? It's not like Spotify is offering any incentive to users to sign up outside the app. Who's going to type in a URL to a website when they can just touch the subscribe button?

I don’t mean to be rude... but if opening your browser (one tap/click) and then typing “www.spotify.com” (15 keystrokes) in order to have tens of millions of songs available to you 24/7 is the hardest thing you have to do in life then you aren’t suffering any hardship at all!! You may, however, have a bad case of the “First World Problems” :/

I just tried it...an extra 8 seconds over clicking a button...are people really that time poor these days?? Because if you don’t have that extra 8 seconds (a one time thing) then you have bigger problems than the unavailability of an IAP button...

 

[ipponrg]

Then I guess Netflix better get banned from the App Store. And I better get a ticket for going 31 in a posted 30... or, maybe, the emails aren’t a problem.

If the emails weren’t a problem, then why is that rule there? As far as Netflix is concerned, just because they do it does not mean it’s not against the rules.

https://www.macrumors.com/2018/12/28/netflix-no-more-itunes-billing-options/

If Apple makes an exception to this, then why doesn’t it apply to Spotify? Hint: it has something to do with direct competition

 

[ROGmaster]

And there we have it! Ireland/Apple signed a treaty and agreed with certain terms in order to be allowed to enter a certain marketplace. As they signed that treaty they shouldn’t really complain about the terms and should accept the EU’s decision. Now let’s swap a few words...

Spotify signed a contract and agreed certain terms in order to be allowed to enter a certain marketplace. As they signed the contract they shouldn’t really complain about the terms and should accept Apple’s decision...

See what I did there??

You didn't do anything. Spotify's situation is different in general but also because it's directly competing with Apple Music. You can be certain the EU Commission won't ignore this aspect.

 

[UBS28]

Thankfully Apple, consumers and developers all would laugh at your idea.

• Thanks to the App store, the price of apps has plummeted. Most, 85%, are FREE.

• Thanks to the App store, the nearly one BILLION iOS users have a secure platform where apps are screened for security and privacy. Any problems with the App you downloaded and Apple gives you a refund directly. You never need to share your private information with the developer

• Thanks to the App store, a one person developer anywhere in the world can pay a $100 and have instant access to close to a BILLION people anywhere in the world, and all the developer has to do is worry about their App. Apple screens the customers, takes care of all billing, and spends the billions to maintain the platform that makes it all possible. Those many hundreds of thousands of developers couldn't exist without the App store.

• Thanks to the App store the developer community has raked in close to 150 BILLION dollars!

On PC and Mac, there are free apps that are much better than paid apps on iOS. And the other points is exactly the reason why the App store is filled with so much garbage.

However great “apps” won’t make it to the App store because of Apple’s their limitations.

The app store is one of the reasons why iOS will never be at the same level as PC or Mac.

Take a look at the App store on MAC. The only thing I bought there was Logic X, the rest is from outside the Mac App store.

Also on Linux, pretty much 99.9% on my Linux setup was free and much better than iOS.

 

[dilbert99]

Hardly a refutation of my statement. If you don't like the way a product works, don't buy it.

Was just meaning that if I did that I wouldn't have a company left to buy any products from. No one gets it 100% right.

But for the record, I am using a Dell XPS rather than a mac book pro now.
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I am not a developer so perhaps one of the forum members who is a developer could chime in here...is there anything in the Developer T&Cs/TOS which prevents you from offer sign-up routes/special offers in your own, private email communications with your customers via email and entirely outside of the App Store?? I find that hard to believe...

as a developer I am happy to chime in

• If you want to unlock features or functionality within your app, (by way of example: subscriptions, in-game currencies, game levels, access to premium content, or unlocking a full version), you must use in-app purchase. Apps may not use their own mechanisms to unlock content or functionality, such as license keys, augmented reality markers, QR codes, etc. Apps and their metadata may not include buttons, external links, or other calls to action that direct customers to purchasing mechanisms other than in-app purchase.

[doublepost=1557479548][/doublepost]

I find that hard to believe...

This is Apple we are talking about.

 

[ravenstar]

I don’t mean to be rude... but if opening your browser (one tap/click) and then typing “www.spotify.com” (15 keystrokes) in order to have tens of millions of songs available to you 24/7 is the hardest thing you have to do in life then you aren’t suffering any hardship at all!! You may, however, have a bad case of the “First World Problems” :/

I just tried it...an extra 8 seconds over clicking a button...are people really that time poor these days?? Because if you don’t have that extra 8 seconds (a one time thing) then you have bigger problems than the unavailability of an IAP button...

You miss the point. Why would a customer bother to do that when they have a button available to them? The only benefit is to Spotify, and I doubt few if any customers care. If Spotify's library or other aspect of their service were so much better than Apple's as to instill that level of loyalty in customers then Spotify could charge more for its IAPs to make up for the Apple fees. They can't because they aren't able to differentiate their product from Apple's and make people want it enough to give up even 8 seconds of time. It's almost as if Spotify doesn't know the meaning of competition.

 

[UBS28]

Apple is screwed imo. Google got fined as companies offering the same services could not compete against Google their own services by the setup of the their search engine.

This case of Spotify is clear anti-competition practises done by Apple (even to a greater extend then what Google did) as Apple Music does have an unfair advantage and wins by default (as other companies are at least 30% more expensive than what Apple can offer)

Now you might say that this fair because it is Apple their platform .... that argument goes out of the window when you are big player like Apple (which is why Google also got into trouble).

 

[Appleman3546]

Apple competes directly with Spotify, but Apple does not take a 30% cut. Apple either needs to choose whether or not they want to distribute apps or compete with services. If Apple decides not to distribute apps, then Apple can do what they want on their own platform. But Apple has announced paid services like News+, Apple Music, Tv+, and Apple Arcade, meaning that all of those services will be competing with other similar apps who have to pay the Apple tax (although maybe Apple is launching these services because the App Store monopoly end is inevitable and Apple wants to build up a group of users that still subscribe to their services before that happens). Consumers have to ask themselves, if Apple drives out Spotify with a lower price point then consumers only other choice is to not subscribe to music streaming which is anti-consumer (yes, a user could buy songs from apple or cd stores, but there would be no streaming competitors to Apple’s service). Apple Music is on google play, but google takes no cut of that whereas Apple has a lot of consumers on iOS that they have built a paywall for competitors to access (not to mention Apple Music is built in and bugs users to subscribe which Spotify does not have similar ability to do). Furthermore, Apple has prevented apps from being available temporarily like Spotify or screentime competitors when they do not meet Apple’s standards even though that is the point of competition (to allow consumers to decide).

 

[FairlyKors]

[QUOTE Comparing an online store to a patent troll is a fine non-sequitur.[/QUOTE]

Thank you.