Reading the responses on here...truly the cult of Apple. They can do no wrong.
You noticed!
I gave up all hope in this thread.
Pretzel logic that always ends with “Apple is right”
lol
Reading the responses on here...truly the cult of Apple. They can do no wrong.
Spotify offers a free tier which is a predatory maneuver by the dominant market player, therefore Spotify is guilty of antitrust behavior.Many of Apple's business units are subsidized by other parts of the business.
Ask yourself: do you think Apple Music, supposing it's not run at a loss, could afford a 30% fee on first year subscribers and still be competitive with Spotify?
Update, after googling around: Apple Music's gross margin is estimated at 15%. That's not enough to cover a 30% first year subscriber fee. And of course there are additional costs in actually running Apple Music (not just paying out royalties).
It's totally unfair to Spotify.
Yes they do.Functionally you are correct, however they pay a fee for the development tools. Technically they don't pay to submit an app but rather they pay for the resources to make one. Apple just doesn't allow apps to be submitted that were not compiled using their software.
But here are few things to keep in mind:
Apple doesn't have a monopoly on app stores.
Why do you keep saying that when the courts have said "it looks like monopoly, let's have a court case to decide". And the court case is later this year.
https://www.theverge.com/2018/6/20/...s-pepper-antitrust-lawsuit-standing-explainer
Spotify offers a free tier which is a predatory maneuver by the dominant market player, therefore Spotify is guilty of antitrust behavior.
See? You can make any argument and it sounds just as good.
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Yes they do.
I would personally drop the Mac platform if they did this to their desktop OS.
Can you clarify your point? Nintendo (an likely Microsoft and Sony as well) restricts the number of games on their platform that can be sold per year by a developer. They can also refuse to approve a game if they don't think it is good enough for release (although this is rarely done). It doesn't matter if you have the option to choose the store it will be sold at if they can decide your game isn't approved to be released for their platform.
I was operating under the condition that you are guilty after a trial, and not before.
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Show me where it says that, because I don't believe that is true.
jlc1978, wtf are you talking about, the app store through the ios is a monopoly, there is NO other option to get an app on an apple product, thats the issue here, there are plenty of other distribution models? on ios there is ONLY 1, the app store. What you said is untrue and just stupid. Factually you are 100% wrong with your statement. There is only 1 way to get an app on an apple product, with apple forcing it that way and charging crazy prices is what literally makes it a monopoly. There is NO other option for people, hence this entire post about apple having a monopoly lol.
This to me is the core issue here. What Apple is doing - entering a market then using their market power to try to "encourage" others to exit that market - is exactly the sort of practice that Microsoft got in trouble for. Microsoft used their market power (they WEREN'T a monopoly - Mac and Unix/Linux existed at the time!) to try to push their browser. Although I still think this situation is a bit worse - Microsoft never forced you to use their browser, they only required it to be preinstalled. The entire idea was "people might be discouraged from using the competition because the UX of using the built in option was better." That's precisely what's happening here - the UX of using Apple Music, along with its potentially lower cost (should Spotify raise prices to compensate for the Apple tax), is quite obviously going to "discourage" people from using the competition.
Microsoft used their market power (they WEREN'T a monopoly - Mac and Unix/Linux existed at the time!) to try to push their browser. Although I still think this situation is a bit worse - Microsoft never forced you to use their browser, they only required it to be preinstalled. The entire idea was "people might be discouraged from using the competition because the UX of using the built in option was better." That's precisely what's happening here - the UX of using Apple Music, along with its potentially lower cost (should Spotify raise prices to compensate for the Apple tax), is quite obviously going to "discourage" people from using the competition.
I will stick to the security and peace of mind that the Apple App Store provides, even if an alternative does get created. For the same reason I never jailbreak my iOS devices. On my Macs, I very rarely install apps that are not available through the Mac App Store. Very rarely and only when I am as certain as I can be that they are safe and malware free. On my iOS devices there is simply no need for me to go around the App Store. As I posted earlier, I do pay for Spotify, Netflix, 1Password, etc, directly to the developer. But the apps themselves were obtained via App Store.The gov doesn't have to set the price or percentage. They can force apple to allow alternative iOS app stores. The market can determine the price.
That’s ridiculous. You make the claim that it’s in the rules, I say it’s not, so I have to show you where it’s not? I can’t prove a negative.
Nonetheless, here you go: the short answer is that as long as you upload a valid .ipa (that doesn’t violate other rules), apple doesn’t care how you built it. In fact, they can’t even tell if you used Xcode. You can use Xamarin with visual studio on windows, etc.
http://vojtastavik.com/2018/10/15/building-ios-app-without-xcode/
All those things Nintendo/ms/Sony are doing are not illegal.
What apple is doing (restricting devs and forcing them to use apples store) is possibly illegal and is going to be decided in court (apple vs pepper court case)
A monopoly is being the sole provide of a good/service without close substitute.
Apple is the sole provide of iPhones/services, but Android Phones/services would be considered a close substitute.
All those things Nintendo/ms/Sony are doing are not illegal.
What apple is doing (restricting devs and forcing them to use apples store) is possibly illegal and is going to be decided in court (apple vs pepper court case)
There is a value for being a storefront and handling your payments. 30% is not even close. Would you ok with the bank taking 20%, 25% for holding your money?Why should it be 1-5%? Who decides the value and the costs? Why not 8% or 13%. Is it a number that is close to 0 and therefor feels “fair”.
Microsoft was in fact a monopoly at the time, and were ruled such by a federal judge.
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/judge-rules-microsoft-a-monopoly
People keep using the monopoly term with incorrect understanding of what the term means in applicable law.
In commercial Law, a monopoly is not anyone making a unique product. IOW Ford is not a monopolist in Law, because only they make Ford Cars. There are other cars.
A monopoly is when you are effectively the sole provider of a good/service that has no close substitute.
Microsoft when the owned >95% of the market for all consumer computing devices was a monopoly, and legally determined to be one.
Apple with less than 30% of just mobile is certainly not a monopoly.
You are not a monopolist of your own products, just because only you build/control them. With that mentality nearly every consumer product company is a monopoly. That isn't how it works.
You have to have no close substitutes of significance. Android is certainly a significant close substitute.
FYI there are multiple "legal" terms of the word monopoly. The way you're defining it is just one of the many terms.
If it was as clear cut, you wouldn't have 2 camps here.
These manufacturers created the platform their "App" will be running on... whats the difference? Apple is allowing Apple Music on these third party devices because it knows it can make more money that way. If Apple thinks that is worth 30% why shouldn't they pay these companies?
Please show me this alternate Switch/XBox/PS store where Nintendo/MS/Sony don't get their cut.
Your definition of a monopoly is simply incorrect. Being the sole distribution system for your products does not make you a monopoly unless you can exert market power to set prices; which Apple cannot do
$99/year is effectively free to businesses at this scale. There are no fees for the millions of downloads that Apple is hosting for them and it certainly costs Apple much more than $99/year for the service that Apple is providing, so they are costing Apple much more than they pay.
You are not a monopolist of your own products, just because only you build/control them
Spotify offers a free tier which is a predatory maneuver by the dominant market player, therefore Spotify is guilty of antitrust behavior.
Not really. They want to have the same treatment as Uber who doesn't pay Tax for every App Store transaction.So in summary. Spotify wants Apple to host their app for free while paying artists some of the lowest rates of all services. Good luck with that Spotify. Sounds like desperation from a company that doesn’t know how to turn a profit.
P.S. As a cherry on top:
Since they do have a good service they are always in the top 10 music section which is free publicity. And often on the front page “top free” apps. Companies would gladly pay millions for this kind of exposure.....except poor Spotify.