Comment by merrywhether | Hacker News Reader

Comment by merrywhether | Hacker News Reader

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Hypothetical progression: Epic sets up alternative App Store which becomes the only source of Fortnite 2.0, which is popular enough to drive installs of new alt store. Some other newly-popular viral app comes along (probably a social app that causes its users to exert pressure on their social group to join) and gambles on going with the Epic store only, piggybacking on Fortnite’s beachhead. Repeat. This process normalizes an alt store, forcing iOS customers to have to choose between trusting a new source vs missing out on apps. They can currently miss out on Android-only apps, but at least currently 99.9% of apps that run on iOS come from the single “trusted” store.

Another maybe-more-realistic version of this would be if some business software used their power over line workers to install things (since end-users are not really the customers in corporate software sales). Microsoft sets up their own store as the only source of Office Redux, and millions of iOS users are forced into this store via their employers. Same process as above: beachhead, gamble, dilution of Apple’s store.

It’s not hard to see how the process could snowball, though it’s certainly not guaranteed as there must be the right combination of events.

Another comment mentioned this. The fragmentation issue that comes up with multiple app stores. I agree that it is an issue that can come up. Pretty sure epic is trying for something like this in android.

But it dosent take away from my point that an alternative store does not affect the quality of apps in the main store.

As for an alt store becoming normalized I feel that users will only install the necessary app from the alt store and not anything else. A lot of alt stores tried to set themselves up in android but didn't succeed. I think it mostly comes down to incentives. Apple can easily change them to make sure no other store gets the upper hand

"I feel that users will only install the necessary app from the alt store and not anything else."

Have you ever had to wipe a relative's computer to get rid of the malware-infested browser toolbars they installed, not knowing any better? Or worse, pay a ransom in bitcoins to unlock the billing systems that help control a gasoline distribution pipeline? You may be somewhat overestimating the sophistication of users when it comes to technology.

I’ve heard it put this way: if you give the user root on the device, you are giving the malware the user is tricked into installing root.

iOS is an OS for people who are non-technical or for applications where people don’t want to worry about that stuff. If you want full control run Linux. MacOS and Windows also offer a balance that is skewed a lot more toward user control because they’re for “pro” use cases.

None of this happens on Android despite allowing multiple app stores. And companies can already install software for their employers via MDM.

Already like this scene in PC gaming, launchers everywhere.

For the apps I am using now, there will be probably:

Netflix Store, Amazon Store, Google Store, Epic Store, EA Store ... and list goes on

Adobe store :shrug:

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