Yes, I did, because the economic concerns you mentioned are analogous. I’m not trivializing either, which you will understand if you’re not arguing in bad faith.
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EU's Digital Markets Act Failed to Lower App Store Prices, Apple-Commissioned Study Says
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Would you agree that any store you visit has the right to sell product A, B, and or C. While not offering product L, N, R, or E? If the store has a right to offer what it wants. Then so does the AppStore. If the maker of products A, B, and C don't want to sell their stuff within that store. They have that right too.The DMA is more than about lowering prices. It's about user choice and freedom. It's about being able to get apps from places besides Apple's App Store because when Apple's in charge, they can pull apps off their store.
Apple pulls two gay dating apps in China under government order
Apple says it has pulled two popular gay dating apps in China following an order from Chinese authorities in the latest evidence of their tightening grip on the LGBTQ+ community.apnews.com
Apple pulls two gay dating apps in China under government order
November 11, 2025
BANGKOK (AP) — Apple said it has pulled two of China’s biggest gay dating apps, Blued and Finka, under pressure from Chinese authorities, in the latest sign of a tightening grip on the LGBTQ+ community.
An Apple spokesperson said in a statement that the company removed the two dating apps from China “based on an order from the Cyberspace Administration of China”, without further elaborating.
Another popular gay dating app, Grindr, was pulled from Apple’s app store in China in 2022.
Last year, Apple also reportedly removed apps including WhatsApp and Threads from its app store in China under an order by the Cyberspace Administration of China.
or Apple can be the moral police and decide what apps (e.g. porn) you cannot have.
So app developers, those who actually create a vibrant attractive App Store, can keep more money and therefore develop more and higher quality apps. Everyone should be happy, even Apple.
EC should send Apple an invoice for their idea that lesds to a sustainable App Store. I mean, Apple could not figure it out by themselves (like the USB-C).
EC should send Apple an invoice for their idea that lesds to a sustainable App Store. I mean, Apple could not figure it out by themselves (like the USB-C).
Nothing but provide the customers.
Who gets to be the arbiter of which companies gets profits and which get less or none?
I agree with that, but I think I should be able to use my phone, that I own at a different store altogether.
If we're doing analogies, and since you're comparing app stores to an actual store, we are...so here you go: My phone is the town, and there is only Wal-Mart.. I want go to Target, but Wal-Mart says no. Walmart doesn't own the town, just like Apple doesn't own my phone, but they still want a cut of everything I buy and refuse to let Target build a store, or by extension, let me decide to go there.
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I disagree. iPhone sales would be in deep trouble if iOS App Store looked like Mac AppStore. Anemic! Apps makes the platform attractive. That is why Mac does not have a large market share, the apps are lacking. Same with iPad, it lacks many full features apps such as MS office. No the apps provide Apple with customers, not the other way around. Feed the app makers and you will be richer as a hardware/OS provider.
Ha! Small developers got more money, therefore this ... program is ... well, it's a total failure is what it is!
Another analogy:
I bought the house when the neighborhood was under a previous HOA board. Back then the HOA fees are high and just as restrictive, but the amenities were well maintained and the roads are smooth.
Now the HOA board changed, and the HOA fees continue to rise while the roads started to get potholes and the amenities go out of order more often.
If the HOA board is not delivering, there's no way we're going to support their restrictive policies.
This is called Goal post moving.
When I see the retail store comparisons, what it really highlights is what an anachronism of the past that really is and how not useful it is in this context.
Devs don't even need a "store" for digital software.
They don't all actually need distribution or marketing or curation assistance of any kind.
That's at the crux of this problem.
Software being confined to a store should be completely a choice being made by a developer, for the benefits it affords (or not).
Devs don't even need a "store" for digital software.
They don't all actually need distribution or marketing or curation assistance of any kind.
That's at the crux of this problem.
Software being confined to a store should be completely a choice being made by a developer, for the benefits it affords (or not).
Well said. The barriers to entry for App stores, and/or distributing software on iOS/iPadOS platforms are completely artificial, unlike actually building a physical store and having limited shelving space, parking, utilities, good locations for building, etc.
That's perfectly fine to think that way. However, we all knew going in what the iPhone could and could not do when it comes to that exact thing. And since the iPhone is not the only mobile phone being made today. One can choose another phone that allows such a function. It's like buying a house and you want it to be on the beach. But the house is currently located in the mountains. And buying it anyway.
This doesn't work. Reason being, you're not forced to purchase an iPhone. Living in iPhone town as your stating here is a decision you made. If you don't want to live in iPhone town, you can leave/move to another town with more store options. This would work if there was only iPhone town to live in with only Wal-Mart stores. But, none of us live in such a town by force. Or being the only option. Google Town exists and has other stores within it. At any time you can move to it and get more options.
The right way to fix this problem that the EU has is to let Apple be Apple, and allow as much local innovatively minding companies build an alternative. Fund it! And then let that product compete against Google and Apple in this space. There are plenty of Open source-able OS's to fit into off the shelf hardware and make another device with. They could even mandate by laws. That all the major tech developers that operate within the EU, MUST create the same apps on this competing device. It could allow all the same "alt-stores" that exist to come to this platform as options the end user can choose from. State the same safety and security laws as required on other platforms. And wallah. There you have an alternative that does everything the EU wants and more.
Now go sell it! 🤓 🤣
How about we have an actual 'independent' study to confirm this eh?
This was never about lowering prices. This was about fleecing money from Apple and giving Epic and Spotify an upper hand.
iPhone existed before Apps. We need to remember this. The AppStore came "later" because developers were not satisfied with creating just web apps. Which by the way would have been FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE.
So I counter disagree, Apple made the platform. It's their platform. Your buying a complete device as is. If at any point you don't like it. You can either return it if it's early enough. Or sell it off, and buy a product that better suits your needs.
The apps are lacking because Mac sales have always lacked behind that of the PC. And the Mac is as open as some want the iPhone to be. But the iPhone being closed has been more popular??? Make it make sense.
If Apple had its way, it would redo the mac as a closed platform. At this point in time. It doesn't need AMD, or Nvidia, or Intel for that matter to make a computer. It's in almost total control. Which is where Apple works its best. When it controls the whole widget. Some may not like it. Many may not like it in fact. But, that's their secret sauce. And they should be able to have that. And the consumer decides if they want to spend on it.
The iPad was made for a different use case than that of a laptop or desktop mac. And while you can get office on an iPad and iPhone. This is not the same experience in using the app across platforms. You may have an iPad with an external keyboard and mouse. Or you may not. And rely on just the onscreen keyboard. Things like shortcuts are handled differently and just how you use it is different. There are going to be apps that work better on an iPad than on MacOS and vice versa. Just giving more money to App makes is not going to solve the issue of how you make an app great on a touch screen first device, verses a keyboard and mouse first device. Or something that maybe relies on speech.
Then why did you buy an iPhone which has always been locked to Apple?
Sad day when I’d trust trillion dollar corporate Apple over the EU
Why I bought it doesn't matter. What matters is that Apple is allowed to do it, and that they continue to do it.
Dealerships/car manufacturers, by law (in the US), aren't allowed to lock down cars to only be serviced by them. Aftermarket repairs, upgrades and modifications aren't allowed to void a car's warranty, if they didn't cause the issue, again, by law. What makes Apple so special?
Edit: Additionally, Apple hadn't done things like this before I bought it. Had they before, I might have made a difference decision...
Apple removes ICEBlock app after criticism from Trump administration
Google also removed similar apps from the app store for Android devices, although ICEBlock was never available on the Google Play store.
www.nbcnews.com
and this:
Apple, Google and Meta help fund Trump’s $300 million White House ballroom
Several Silicon Valley tech giants are helping fund President Trump’s $300 million plan to add a massive new ballroom to the White House.
www.sfchronicle.com
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Of course. The reason this happened was so that software vendors could make more cut than Apple.
The end user was irrelevant.
The end user was irrelevant.
Indeed. And they've tried very hard to lock it down on the Mac as well with the warnings from downloading things from elsewhere. Choice has to be the deciding factor; otherwise we're screwed.
When you have someone that can raise your cost with the word tariff anytime he wants, you have to play ball ...Why I bought it doesn't matter. What matters is that Apple is allowed to do it, and that they continue to do it.
Dealerships/car manufacturers, by law (in the US), aren't allowed to lock down cars to only be serviced by them. Aftermarket repairs, upgrades and modifications aren't allowed to void a car's warranty, if they didn't cause the issue, again, by law. What makes Apple so special?
Edit: Additionally, Apple hadn't done things like this before I bought it. Had they before, I might have made a difference decision...
Apple removes ICEBlock app after criticism from Trump administration
Google also removed similar apps from the app store for Android devices, although ICEBlock was never available on the Google Play store.
and this:
Apple, Google and Meta help fund Trump’s $300 million White House ballroom
Several Silicon Valley tech giants are helping fund President Trump’s $300 million plan to add a massive new ballroom to the White House.
Absolutely. Great analogy. And yeah the proposition was very different when iPhone launched. Steve Jobs was of course very much against having a store in the first place! Everything was going to be a web app. Possibly not hugely forward looking given how the world is now, but it would be fascinating if we could see what might have been.Why I bought it doesn't matter. What matters is that Apple is allowed to do it, and that they continue to do it.
Dealerships/car manufacturers, by law (in the US), aren't allowed to lock down cars to only be serviced by them. Aftermarket repairs, upgrades and modifications aren't allowed to void a car's warranty, if they didn't cause the issue, again, by law. What makes Apple so special?
Edit: Additionally, Apple hadn't done things like this before I bought it. Had they before, I might have made a difference decision...
Apple removes ICEBlock app after criticism from Trump administration
Google also removed similar apps from the app store for Android devices, although ICEBlock was never available on the Google Play store.
and this:
Apple, Google and Meta help fund Trump’s $300 million White House ballroom
Several Silicon Valley tech giants are helping fund President Trump’s $300 million plan to add a massive new ballroom to the White House.
And as for that last story, yeah, I was kind of shocked when I saw Tim Apple on the list of having funded ... that. Brave absolutely does not describe this new world.
They’re taking the boiling the frog approach on Macs. It’s already impossible to run unsigned apps
Why would I pass the 15% Apple's no longer taking onto my customers and not keep it myself?
It's hard enough try to make a living on writing apps without someone trying to drive down revenue.
Also Apple's tiered pricing system (.99, 1.99, 2.99, etc) doesn't allow for passing on just 15%.
So of course prices remain the same, how could you change them?
It's hard enough try to make a living on writing apps without someone trying to drive down revenue.
Also Apple's tiered pricing system (.99, 1.99, 2.99, etc) doesn't allow for passing on just 15%.
So of course prices remain the same, how could you change them?
Developers paid apple less but consumers of apps from developer did not pay developer less. It's just facts.