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If you look at the stats , clearly Google is effecting most of the phone marketplace with all the manufactures using it with its more restrictive behavior, some of which is security/privacy based as android early on had way to many versions released into the wild at the same time. Naturally google worked on getting all the vendors in sync.

Mobile Operating System Market Share Worldwide - June 2021
Android72.83%
iOS26.35%
Samsung0.41%

Almost 3 out of every 4 phones on planet earth. And the IDC projection is for it to quickly head toward 80%. That's 4 out of every 5 smartphones on planet earth run by Google. Now include the burgeoning Chromebook market (Microsoft is thrilled with that) and the near monopoly on the search market (not to mention the biggest data collection corporation on Earth)? Tsk tsk tsk Google. I guess a whollllle lot of people on here who want Apple to be stopped any way possible!! will have 400+% more visceral hatred and get Google! any way possible! 😂
 
I hope the scrutiny goes beyond app stores.
- Google requires OEMs to preinstall many Google apps if they want their handsets to be Google certified (which is required if you want GMS). And many of these apps cannot be uninstalled.
- Now, Google requires developers to submit their app in aab instead of apk, which is exclusive to Google's own Play Store. Of course, there are benefits for users, but if one wants to go anti-trust, this has to be looked at as well.
- Other exclusive deals such as Facebook being pre-installed on many Android phones. This should be a scrutiny as Facebook being anti-competitive, eliminating any chance of other social networks to compete.

If the regulators are only looking at app stores, it means they are only in it for some settlement money, not actually addressing the problems they are screaming about (about big tech). Governments around the world are being dried up due to covid, and everyone is looking for new source of money.
 
The only people who want Google and Apple to win are fanboys, not haters. Locking a system up doesn't benefit any one... and the security thing isn't an argument, look at Android and Mac OS, there aren't big security risks there. The same idiots who go on about having soldered in SSDs for security.... no benefit to the end user, only the manufacturer.
Don't you just love these guys who say "the security thing isn't an argument" but can't come up with an answer to how you achieve the same level of security Apple has managed with iOS that Microsoft failed spectacularly with in Windows?

"the security thing isn't an argument" - is just because you can't argue against it. If you can we'd love to hear how to keep Billions as secure with an opened up OS?
...?
 
So what? They are an monopoly in App Store, not (necessarily) monopoly in smartphone market (hardware wise).
?? That's like saying McDonalds (Apple) is a monopoly since they only provide McDonalds (Apple's App store) burgers in their stores (iOS). Should McDonalds be forced to allow Burger King and FiveGuys to also sell their burgers in McDonalds? :D
 
It seems like between Apple, Microsoft and Google only Microsoft saw where the play was going on the field and called an audible with their new "no commission" Microsoft store option. This should buy them time for when cases come for the games.

Should be interesting to see where both cases go.
 
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?? That's like saying McDonalds (Apple) is a monopoly since they only provide McDonalds (Apple's App store) burgers in their stores (iOS). Should McDonalds be forced to allow Burger King and FiveGuys to also sell their burgers in McDonalds? :D
I’m out.
These similarly dumb arguments of various flavours keeps propping up.
Got my popcorn ready and I just sit and watch the drama unfold. Can’t care much less of the outcome since the ship has long left the port and there is no turning back.
 
I’m out.
These similarly dumb arguments of various flavours keeps propping up.
Got my popcorn ready and I just sit and watch the drama unfold. Can’t care much less of the outcome since the ship has long left the port and there is no turning back.
Well, same with me then seeing "dumb" claims from people who keep saying that the app store is a "monopoly." Cheers. :D
 
It is quite interesting that when Google needs to charge 30% is ok, but when they need to pay royalties for YouTube video and music streaming, they are entitled to rip off every artist and anybody that posts content.
 
At least you have an option to use another store on Android.. I don't see how Apple won't get sued for this as well as their policy is much more strict and your limited to just the Apple App Store. If Apple gets off the hook in the Epic case, I don't see how this case wouldn't get thrown out too. But who knows what will happen in that case.
I don't see how they can be found guilty of anything. If you don't want to use the device, don't. Where would such enforcement stop? What about grocery stores demanding 'shelving fees'? Does a cereal manufacture have a choice to not pay that fee if they want to be in Safeway? What device makers would have any control? Why should any company get to do whatever they want? It's a situation where old thinking (1800's) meets completely new methodologies and freaks out.
 
Which is stupid. It's Google's platform. As long as there is an alternative, let Google do what they want.
It’s not that simple. Google has taken steps to make it difficult and warning-filled when users try to install software from outside the Play Store.
 
What you mentioned above is one important factor, but still not the most important one.

Apple’s App Store have always had this payment system requirement, on the other hand, Google’s Play Store only starts to add this extra requirement after it has established its monopolistic status. In another word, Google used favorable terms to establish monopoly, then make use of that monopoly to force developers to accept less-favorable terms, that is exactly the definition of anti-trust.
The biggest difference is that few of the devices running Android are actually built and sold by Google.
On the other hand every iOS device is sold by Apple. They are more like a TV or Car manufacturer that creates yhe hardware and the software to control it. The support quite a few 3rd parties but only as long as doing so is profitable enough based on their standards, as it should.
 
Sometimes things that are not legal when you dominate a market are legal when you don’t.
It is also an issue when you sell your things to multiple players and can be described as a cartel, differently then only controlling the whole widget.

However, given that Amazon’s application store exist on Android, as does Samsung’s, I am not sure how this makes any sense. I think an argument that since Google claims to allow other application stores on Android, the warning they issue for those downloaded stores should be neutral, perhaps with something like a Store Policy Nutrition Label that any store that wants easy installation needs to have. Beyond that, I do not see how their store’s policies on their open platform should be an issue.
 
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You can absolutely have that today! Nobody is stopping you!

Go buy an android device!

And leave iOS and its vastly superior security model for the rest of us who don’t want to deal with all the android malware and spyware.

Thanks!
Don't understand the downvotes on this. This is literally the selling point of Apple. While Android being completely blown open is the selling point of Android.

If you want good security and a phone that you know will always work as intended at the cost of a walled garden and limited customization, get an iPhone.

If you want a phone that lets you do whatever you want at the cost of stability and limited lifespan updates/bad security, get an Android.
 
We can only hope.
If it is considered anti trust to give other companies a platform to use APIs and tech they would have used themselves to build massive businesses only to stab them in the back. If it is anti-trust the solution is to reset the clock and close the store completely if it is illegal to make a profit from your investments and creations via the store you created from nothing. Make all 3rd parties going forward use web apps to access the iOS and only use APIs internally. There will be no competition because there is no App Store and all Apple App will be included in a 3 tier service pack like Apple One or bake it into the cost of the devices. Pay one get everything.
 
What's interesting is the claim that developers want more options on IOS to deliver their software. The irony is they will have made the App Store like the Play Store. And that means I won't buy or install any apps that are not included with the iPhone.

I'm a developer, I know what can happen from this, so I will choose not to purchase any more apps. And even then I am put more at risk because other app stores can introduce vulnerabilities to Apples services, which I consume.

There is a reason I chose the 'walled garden'. It isn't perfect, but not much is...
 
Then….don’t install them?
You do not seem to get it. One reason the App Store is typically the first target even where Apple has under 20% is that application developers do not have to worry about piracy (a serious problem with Android). Eliminating that benefit eliminates that advantage. Opening the system to side loading and additional application stores will just guarantee that some major developers like Facebook who hate the privacy policies will only support one of those application stores (maybe even their own), that will make it so people that want the secure, curated experience offered by Apple today will not be able to have it.

You have a choice that offers you want you want (Android). Please stop trying to ruin the choice that hundreds of millions (if not more) have consciously made. We like the walled garden. That is why we are here!
 
It's about time IOS gets opened up, that way we can finally have true third party browsers with adding. We can have torrents and emulators and all the good stuff Android gets. I mean having Youtube with off screen playback without having to do the desktop trick would be great too.

Sideloading on IOS would make it so much more appealing, it also means better developer support as people like Epic don't want the App Store.
exactly what the majority of iPhone users want - NOT
 
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