Tim Cook Threatened to Remove Uber From the App Store Over iPhone Tagging Tactics

[gugy]

Here's where I am conflicted. I love the service, even as I find some of their practices deplorable, and as long as Uber continues to operate in my country, I will never use another taxi for as long as I live.

The taxi companies really have only themselves to blame for becoming so lazy and complacent and allowing themselves to be disrupted by a better, more efficient service. The uber drivers I have encountered are way more polite, knowledgeable and have a better attitude overall compared to the taxi drivers I have come across.

Very true. I can attest this in USA and Brazil. Uber is hands down better service and for people who have kids is perfect. My teenager gets it at all times and it is nice to know who is driving him and the route. You feel more secure. Add the cheaper prices is a win-win.

 

[talones]

...

I have never got an Uber and don't plan on doing so. I expect they'll have some serious competition sometime soon and I will look at using a competitor. I just hear too many stories about Uber that steers me clear of them.

Ive used Uber or Lyft probably over 100 times in the last few years. Ive used Taxi's in the US probably 25 times in the last 5 years. In that time I have had more incidents with taxis of someone trying to rip me off, extremely aggressive driving, or the driver getting completely lost because he either didnt use GPS or was trying to get more money out of me. I think I've only had maybe 3 or 4 bad Uber experiences, and maybe 20 bad taxi experiences. Yet Uber is cheaper.

 

[davie18]

Makes me want to support them even more.

Punishing innocent people who have meetings to attend, holidays to enjoy, doctors to see, children to pick up from school is something you support?

Aren't you lovely.

 

[talones]

When it comes down to hitting a pedestrian or an oncoming car, what would an autonomous vehicle decide was better?

What are you trying to convey in this post? Did you know that autonomous hardware has to go through 1,000,000 miles of PERFECT testing before its allowed to be used on the road. If I had a person vs a machine that had .2 seconds to decide whether to hit a ped or a car I would probably rely on the car more often since it can at least make a decision in that time.

 

[Foggydog]

I have both Uber and lyft on my phone. I almost never use Uber anymore because of their business practices. Buy lyft , just how easy can it be. Just before I need my ride a call lyft. On the screen it says how far away and about how many minutes until arriving. I meet them at the gate, get I , get to destination say have a great day, give 4-5 stars and a tip right in the app, and keep on going.
Now trying to find a phone number for taxi, and calling them (must use Bluetooth) wait 20 minutes and how in the heck could I even tip? I haven't carried cash in about 6 years now.
I bet I could call up lyft in any country if I visited one. If not, just Uber a ride.

 

[Gasu E.]

When it comes down to hitting a pedestrian or an oncoming car, what would an autonomous vehicle decide was better?

Which would a human driver choose?

 

[tridley68]

Get them Tim GRRRRRRR.

 

[talones]

So it's not just proper taxi drivers that get screwed over when they have to compete with a company that can operate much more cheaply by simply not following any of the regulations they have to follow or be put out of business, the company probably screws over their own drivers even more than that.

You may not see an issue in some Uber drivers making so little they have to live in their cars and like a Trump supporter you're probably start going on about how the drivers are just lazy and that Uber isn't meant to be anything beyond a second job to make ends me. I however will put my foot down and demand that either the people what provide me with products and services are paid a living wage or I take my business elsewhere.

I get your point here about Uber being an unfair business, but your other points arguing that Uber isnt a more convenient service is just silly. Yes Taxi's NOW have uber style apps because they had to, yet most of those companies still dont provide the feature to see where the taxi is at in real time. Also yes, sometimes Uber is a long wait also, but at least with Uber at an airport you KNOW how long youre waiting, you arent just standing in the cold, because its a first come first serve line, waiting for a taxi to come around the corner.

 

[MysteryMii215]

Uber's business tactics are starting to concern me a little, since to me, it looks like their main goal is to try to drive (no pun intended) Lyft, their main competitor, out of business and become a monopoly (at least in the US, that is), and Kalanick's handling of the company is only making things worse. I honestly want him to resign.

 

[Kabeyun]

They are very lucky Cook was CEO. If Jobs was still running the show, there would have been no meeting.

Agreed.
And +1 for Lyft.

 

[Cineplex]

Some critical thinking here, maybe he didn't want to disenfranchise millions of customers and gave the company time to fix it.

You're right. Why have rules? Let's treat big companies with compassion and forgiveness while stepping all over the little people. Rules are only for the little people and not for the giant corporations. Pooor pooooor Uber. Can't follow the rules and needs forgiveness with special treatment. Small business does it and they shall be damned! Praise Apple! May the thinness be with you! And also with you!

Critical thinking = Apple apologists.
[doublepost=1493046234][/doublepost]

The concept of equality has always been more of an aspiration than a reality. With wealth comes greater power and influence. You can't expect a small time app developer to be accorded the same attention or treatment as a more influential, major player like Uber or Facebook.

Banning Uber from their iOS platform would have damaged Apple as much as Uber. We can argue until the cows come home about whether Apple would have carried out their threat had Uber not capitulated, but at the end of the day, the issue was resolved and all's well that ends well.

But hey, Apple dared to expunge Google Maps from iOS, so that was clearly a dare Uber's CEO decided he wasn't prepared to take Apple up on.

As long as you have $ you can break all the rules you want! Good to know.

 

[Abazigal]

You're right. Why have rules? Let's treat big companies with compassion and forgiveness while stepping all over the little people. Rules are only for the little people and not for the giant corporations. Pooor pooooor Uber. Can't follow the rules and needs forgiveness with special treatment. Small business does it and they shall be damned! Praise Apple! May the thinness be with you! And also with you!

Critical thinking = Apple apologists.
[doublepost=1493046234][/doublepost]
As long as you have $ you can break all the rules you want! Good to know.

You get the justice you can afford.

 

[lowendlinux]

Punishing innocent people who have meetings to attend, holidays to enjoy, doctors to see, children to pick up from school is something you support?

Aren't you lovely.

Yes you said you were inconvenienced but some things are more important than yours or my convenience.

 

[OldSchoolMacGuy]

Here's where I am conflicted. I love the service, even as I find some of their practices deplorable, and as long as Uber continues to operate in my country, I will never use another taxi for as long as I live.

The taxi companies really have only themselves to blame for becoming so lazy and complacent and allowing themselves to be disrupted by a better, more efficient service. The uber drivers I have encountered are way more polite, knowledgeable and have a better attitude overall compared to the taxi drivers I have come across.

So you're OK with a company violating our personal privacy through practices like tracking users without their knowledge, as long as you get a convenient ride? You've got some messed up priorities.

 

[I7guy]

You're right. Why have rules? Let's treat big companies with compassion and forgiveness while stepping all over the little people. Rules are only for the little people and not for the giant corporations. Pooor pooooor Uber. Can't follow the rules and needs forgiveness with special treatment. Small business does it and they shall be damned! Praise Apple! May the thinness be with you! And also with you!

Critical thinking = Apple apologists.
[doublepost=1493046234][/doublepost]
As long as you have $ you can break all the rules you want! Good to know.

First, the name calling invalidates your entire "argument". Impossible to discuss without some Tim Cook bashing meme or name calling for some people.

The CEO has a balancing act here and seems to have done his job. The app was changed to conform to the rules. Whether you "believe" they received special treatment is irrelevant; cook acted in good faith. This is the same "good faith" displayed to devs when their apps violate the agreement.

 

[CrystalQuest76]

I don't know how their board of governance sits back and allows this type of behavior year after year. Being privately held they can do whatever they want I guess.

The members of the board have one goal. MAKE MONEY.

 

[phillipduran]

It's about time Apple toughened up against the big companies in the App Store.

If you're an independent developer, your app is removed immediately at the slightest infraction.

If you're Facebook (background silent audio), Spotify (in-app purchase violation), or now Uber, you get a slap on the wrist and a meeting with the CEO.

Uber should have been booted from the App Store the moment this was discovered.

I think that is necessary and logical and even fair to have separate classes of app policy enforcement. When you are a small app, you get treated as small apps do. You're an app among millions of other apps, there simply isn't the manpower to have a face to face interview every time there is an issue. All small apps will be in this category and all get treated that way.

When you become a big app, and your app has wide spread impact on the income of others and or has impact on services that people rely on, you get big app treatment. Imagine if the Uber apps was just turned off or rejected. What would be the impact to the drivers, the users etc? It can be very disruptive. Big apps that have big impact will and should be handled different than smaller apps. When the consequences for shutting something down are high, the approach to policy violations should move slowly with an escalating set of consequences including the final rejection or shutdown of the app.

Unfair? No, different classes of apps and they should be treated differently. If your small app goes big, then you should get big app treatment as well when that happens.

 

[Brookzy]

When you become a big app, and your app has wide spread impact on the income of others and or has impact on services that people rely on, you get big app treatment. Imagine if the Uber apps was just turned off or rejected. What would be the impact to the drivers, the users etc? It can be very disruptive. Big apps that have big impact will and should be handled different than smaller apps.

I take a different perspective: the potential disruption caused by app removal would (or should) stop the likes of Uber from breaking the rules in the first place.

 

[AZREOSpecialist]

Cook should have pulled the app. Does Apple give the same deference to any other company whose apps get pulled? This smacks of preferential treatment.

UBER DESERVES TO DIE!

 

[MrX8503]

Switched to Lyft a while back and I'm happy I did.

 

[H2SO4]

You 100% support them intentionally blocking roads and causing huge traffic jams in London numerous times?

Are you sure you'd still say the same thing if your day was messed up due to black cabs being plonkers as they usually are?

This. They way they go all the way around the roundabouts in the outside lane incenses me.

 

[remo72tg]

Simple, #deleteuber ..other options available for us with companies treating their drivers better.

 

[slingshott]

Ive used Uber or Lyft probably over 100 times in the last few years. Ive used Taxi's in the US probably 25 times in the last 5 years. In that time I have had more incidents with taxis of someone trying to rip me off, extremely aggressive driving, or the driver getting completely lost because he either didnt use GPS or was trying to get more money out of me. I think I've only had maybe 3 or 4 bad Uber experiences, and maybe 20 bad taxi experiences. Yet Uber is cheaper.

I feel the same. Uber offers an inherently better service than traditional taxis despite the old guard's complaints. The biggest issue before was safety, especially for women. They've almost resolved that issue completely. For that reason alone I'm happy to tolerate a few questionable practices.

 

[macsrcool1234]

Its a dubious company with dodgy business practices. I'm 100% all in support for the London black Cab drivers whose trade is being affected.

Found the cabbie.

Ironically, cabbies are amongst the most unethical people I know. They block roads, 'break' credit card machines to block payment.

 

[MadeMyDay]

I'm not a fan of Uber's practices, but you've got to admit that geofencing Apple's HQ is pretty ingenious.

Similar tactic did not work out too well for Volkswagen diesel.
http://blog.caranddriver.com/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-vw-diesel-emissions-scandal/