Which does not stop them from suing the US. The reason they are filing a complaint in the EU is in the belief they have a chance there. In the US, it is pretty slim, considering the political climate.
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Spotify on Apple's Response to App Store Dispute: 'Every Monopolist Will Suggest They Have Done Nothing Wrong'
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Which does not stop them from suing the US. The reason they are filing a complaint in the EU is in the belief they have a chance there. In the US, it is pretty slim, considering the political climate.
I think Spotify eliminating the free tier for users beyond a certain amount of time, is the most sane-insane kamikaze thing they could do. They’d become significantly more profitable in a relatively short time. MANY users would gladly pay for Spotify if they were required to after awhile.
I am not too sure if "monopoly" is the right word, but it's clear that Apple has "monopolised" the best customers for itself, so to speak. Because Apple has won mobile, this gives them an advantage when they want to pivot into another market whose success is intricately linked to mobile.
For example, Apple is having little problems selling apple watches because wanting an Apple Watch implies you already have an iPhone, and iPhone users tend to be willing to spend more. Same goes for AirPods. Even the HomePod, widely criticised here as a failure, is believed to have sold about 4 million units in its first year, which I feel is a very respectable amount.
Even the iOS App Store reportedly rakes in more revenue than the Google Play Store despite the latter's higher market share.
This will also give the rumoured Apple Glasses an advantage when it does get released, again because Apple users can and are willing to spend.
This is also why Google is willing to pay Apple so much money just to keep their search engine as the preinstalled default, because iOS users are generally considered a more lucrative demographic.
Does this make Apple a monopoly in the traditional sense of the word? I think that as long as it continues to cater primarily to the premium market segment, it will always have a minority market share compared to Android, which should go some way in shielding it from accusations of being considered a monopoly. You can't complain that iPhones are too expensive when there are cheaper android phones available, and Spotify can't complain that it's facing unfair competition from Apple Music when it's also available on Android, plus Google too has its own music streaming service.
The fact that they are a European company and Apple are American wouldn’t be in their favour in the US. However the EU commission get a bee in their bonnet about these types of issues so I think Spotify know they have a good chance of wining there. Look at the google ruling. Can’t see much wrong with google having their apps preinstalled on android phones but the EU don’t like it.
Microsoft doesn’t need the store. It is just a nice addition. Only Apple people think of it as a struggle. There are thousands of Windows programs, most of them are not in the store. The difference here is that Microsoft has nothing against a company using the store to link to their own site. There are no rules against that and so many companies do just that. Contrast that with Apple that forces you to use the store and gives you no other options. As for games, remember both Steam and Origin run on Windows with no interference from Microsoft.
People and developers have a choice as to whether they want to use the Microsoft store, on Apple... No choice or option.
Hi,
All my personal tech is from Apple. iPad Pro, iPhone Apple Watch, AirPods, MacBook Pro, Apple TV. This is just me, and I have my kids iPad's, wife MacBook Pro, Apple Watch, iPhone ...
So. I am an Apple customer.
Still I cannot understand some arguments against Spotify voiced by my Apple co-customers in this forum. All of the sudden people seam to care about how well artists are being payed.
What about Apple drilling artists wallets? No?
+$200 for stupid 16GB of RAM, +$600 for 32GB of RAM!!!!
So what's the logic?
I know artists and I can assure you that only an extremely small minority can afford Apple products. And the independent ones that can, probably most of earning go to these tools.
No, this is not at all about Artists being well paied in anyway what so ever.
I am Apple customer. Heck I'm a customer of many companies. The idea that Apple feels that I need protection from other companies its ludicrous. Totally ludicrous. That is not why I buy Apple products.
Honestly, I am getting tired of Mr Tim and his hypocritical rhetoric. You don't make something right with a wrong and much less with another right!!!
In defense of Apple.
App Store its a Store. Its not a directory of apps. Its a S T O R E. In that sense Apple its a retailer, much as Amazon and many others are. It just happens that the goods the store sells are Apps and Digital Services.
In this context, Apple is not doing anything else different than any other. For centuries retailers would sell their own products in their stores along with others.
If this is right or wrong and its scope is up to courts to decide.
All my personal tech is from Apple. iPad Pro, iPhone Apple Watch, AirPods, MacBook Pro, Apple TV. This is just me, and I have my kids iPad's, wife MacBook Pro, Apple Watch, iPhone ...
So. I am an Apple customer.
Still I cannot understand some arguments against Spotify voiced by my Apple co-customers in this forum. All of the sudden people seam to care about how well artists are being payed.
What about Apple drilling artists wallets? No?
+$200 for stupid 16GB of RAM, +$600 for 32GB of RAM!!!!
So what's the logic?
I know artists and I can assure you that only an extremely small minority can afford Apple products. And the independent ones that can, probably most of earning go to these tools.
No, this is not at all about Artists being well paied in anyway what so ever.
I am Apple customer. Heck I'm a customer of many companies. The idea that Apple feels that I need protection from other companies its ludicrous. Totally ludicrous. That is not why I buy Apple products.
Honestly, I am getting tired of Mr Tim and his hypocritical rhetoric. You don't make something right with a wrong and much less with another right!!!
In defense of Apple.
App Store its a Store. Its not a directory of apps. Its a S T O R E. In that sense Apple its a retailer, much as Amazon and many others are. It just happens that the goods the store sells are Apps and Digital Services.
In this context, Apple is not doing anything else different than any other. For centuries retailers would sell their own products in their stores along with others.
If this is right or wrong and its scope is up to courts to decide.
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A platform will also quickly die if it doesn’t have the apps and services people want.
Yes. Generally I maintain the same view as you covered in your reply. However, Apple is a monopoly in the traditional sense which indicates that they have no close competitor or suitable replacement in the profit game (profitable app market). The Google Play Store is not really a suitable replacement for app developers. I don’t even bother coding for Android at all, and if the App Store disappeared, I still wouldn’t. I’d do something else. To me the Play store is so saturated it’s not even worth bothering. I’d rather go it alone and get back to basics.
If it were a game of Monopoly it would basically be like Google owning all of the properties except the rail roads, utilities, and the side of the board with Boardwalk. With those few things Apple is cleaning out the bank and closer to the goal of complete financial dominance (although it would never actually be achieved), lol. As a company Apple isn’t a monopoly, Google holds its own, but where they compete financially it’s not even a fair fight.
A grocery store doesn't get to decide which store the supplier can sell their products in. Apple forces iOS devs to sell their iOS apps in Apple's iOS app store. iOS devs can't choose what store to sell in. There is only one iOS app store. Apple's store.
Apple are a monopoly in the IOS market because they are the sole makers of devices that run iOS. Likewise unless you jail break your phone you can only install apps from the App Store.
On android there are many OEMs which have their own AppStore’s in addition to the play store. Then there are all the AppStore’s outside which are easily accessible from any android device. You simply change a setting. Fortnite were able to bypass the play store altogether. They couldn’t do that on iOS. They still need their app to be on the App Store. So they still need to play nice with Apple.
Being an iOS dev IS the choice here.
There are plenty more stores the “supplier” can use, namely PS4, Xbox, Windows, MacOS, SmartTVs, Steam, Apple TV, ROKU or Android.
What Microsoft did to get sued was include an internet browser that they made to accompany the operating system that they made that was installed on the computers that people willingly bought that they knew %100 had Windows and Internet Explorer installed. They could have bought a computer that had a different operating system. Just as Microsoft included a music player called Windows Media Player and a photo viewer called Microsoft Paint and text editor called Notepad, those "horrible people" included a simple basic program to view the internet as part of their OS to do the basic things that people expected, just exactly as Apple has. If the didn't make Internet Explorer then they would have included Netscape and Netscape would have been sued for the "audacity" of being popular. That is it. There is nothing any bit what so ever wrong with what they did. Apple includes Text Edit, Safari, iTunes, Preview and its ok. Absolutely every single person back then could have downloaded their preferred internet browser, they could have installed Netscape or Mosaic or Opera or Lynx or they could have installed their preferred music player or photo viewer or text editor. It's not any different then Apple including Safari with macOS and iOS along with Apple Music and Text Edit or iTunes or Preview. Literally no different any bit what so ever aside from the FACT that Apple won't even let you change the default internet browser or camera app on iOS from Safari or the camera app. So what I'm saying is, if you google facts, why wouldn't you defend Microsoft in the 90's? They didn't do anything wrong.
That is not a monopoly. I understand how you can see it that way, but a company that controls their hardware stack and software stack does not define them a monopoly. That’s basic business, most companies did exactly that. It wasn’t until Microsoft released windows that the idea of a system independent of hardware even entered the corporate arena. Prior to that, all hardware companies controlled their software stack in a closed system.
That would be like thinking that a company which makes smart toys (dogs with artificial intelligence) and codes their own software is monopoly because they don’t allow outsiders to create toys using their software. It doesn’t work like that. Similarly, just because a company makes hardware, doesn’t mean they are required to let others play with it however they want.
You’re basically claiming “I can’t do whatever I want with your proprietary hardware, that makes you a monopoly!!” nah man, that’s basic business.
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Sad to see so many Apple shareholders arguing with each other in the thread here.
Spotify’s case ends up benefitting me, the consumer, by providing a better experience and promoting competition through even playing fields.
Spotify’s case ends up benefitting me, the consumer, by providing a better experience and promoting competition through even playing fields.
Prefer Apple Music because it’s integrated into the same app as my music library. Not only does this mean that I don’t have to navigate two separate apps. Additionally it has a head start on recommending music to me as it can see my own music library (purchase songs). Apple Music also has a large selection of music videos. I also prefer the layout of the Apple Music app. It’s cleaner. However I think they are all essentially the same thing.
I am currently trying out the Soor app.
Soor ▹ by Tanmay Sonawane https://itunes.apple.com/sg/app/soor/id1439731526?mt=8
It’s a third party Apple Music app that has a rather interesting layout which basically lets me access all my playlists on one page. Pity it doesn’t yet have an iPad app but it’s been a great experience thus far.
I saw that app recommended by dailyTek in one of his videos but I haven’t had a look at it yet. It looked quite good in his video though.
It basically saves me the hassle of having to toggle between different tabs to get to the different music sections, by consolidating them all on one page.
Just a simple question Id like to get opinions on.
I know it does not work as simply as this, but just for the sake of debate...........
Let's say Apple charges you $10 a month for music and also Spotify also charges $10 a month.
Apple takes all of this money, and distributes the whole $10 divided up to the artists.
Apple takes 30% of the $10 Spotify gets just $7. So Spotify divides up this $7 to the artists.
The artists get 30% less money.
We are happy with this? or feel Apple should not take that amount so more money to the artists?
I know it does not work as simply as this, but just for the sake of debate...........
Let's say Apple charges you $10 a month for music and also Spotify also charges $10 a month.
Apple takes all of this money, and distributes the whole $10 divided up to the artists.
Apple takes 30% of the $10 Spotify gets just $7. So Spotify divides up this $7 to the artists.
The artists get 30% less money.
We are happy with this? or feel Apple should not take that amount so more money to the artists?
Retailers are probably selling gift cards as loss leaders when there’s a big cut, although I expect they also normally pay Apple very slightly less than the face value, otherwise why would any store stock them?
With Spotify, Apple are just creaming that percentage off the top of what Spotify would otherwise get, but on an ongoing basis.