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Comment by blackqueeriroh | Hacker News Reader

For everyone who thinks Google is some paragon of cooperation and openness as compared to Apple, they just got slammed in court effectively attempting to call their platform open while paying off companies to stay in the Play Store in a very similar case to Epic v. Apple. In fact, this was Epic v. Google. Why did Google lose and Apple largely win?

Because Apple had always said their platform was closed and were up front about it.

Google, on the other hand, called their platform open and then engaged in anti-competitive behavior to get the benefits of a closed ecosystem.

You might not like Apple’s approach, but at least they’re up front and honest about it.

https://news.bloomberglaw.com/antitrust/alphabet-loses-googl...

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I don't judge people's policies and actions based on what they say about them. I judge based on the policies and actions themselves.

Apple is demonstrably more closed (which IMO makes them worse) than Google on this axis. What they've both said about their platforms is irrelevant to me.

Apple specifically forbids developers from mentioning the 30% cut in their apps. That means either the users pay more, the developers lose money, or they do what Netflix did and just force the user to figure out how to sign up (because you can't direct people to the site either). Apple has completely draconian rules that very specifically leave users in the dark about how app store revenue works. They are in no way transparent with 99% of their customers.

What would happen if a few big boys like Netflix pulled their apps from Apple in protest? Like using Apple's policies to indirectly attack Apple through its users.

It's not worthwhile for Netflix. They already have people signing up through the website because that's the only way you can sign up now. So they're not giving a cut to Apple at all. If anyone looks up "why can't you sign up for Netflix on the iPhone", they'll find out about Apple's policies. If Netflix pulled their app, they'd be hurting users more than anything, and they'd look like the greedy company who tried to bully Apple. This issue already isn't one-sided; just look at the Reddit or MacRumors comments on any article about sideloading or alternative payment methods. There are a whole lot of Apple apologists who completely support what Apple is doing. So ultimately, the only way this will be fixed is if the government cracks down on them, and even then, it might need to be every individual government.

This is pointless whataboutism, they're both bad. Google is more open as a platform, but sucks in many other ways and Apple doesn't get points for being anti-competitive to begin with.

There's nothing "honest" about deceiving your customers and hiding a 30% fee with NDAs.

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