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Comment by bzzzt | Hacker News Reader

Why would I care as a consumer? And why act like it's a disgrace?

Somebody has to pay for the 'core technology' Apple develops. I think Facebook can handle a fee of 1/1000 of their yearly revenue.

If it's about licensing why doesn't the EU go after Microsoft or Oracle? Especially the second one has a tendency to get very creative with licensing requirements.

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I would think it would be obvious why consumers should care about a handful of corporations acting like feudal lords and controlling what smaller developers can do, technically or economically. To spell it out: because you are affected. In the best case scenario, only the Apple tax is passed on to you. In the worst case, the app you get will be discreetly censored at Apple's whims [1,2,3].

But of course you can rely on altruistic developers willing to forego half of the mobile market to get uncensored apps.

[1] https://www.theverge.com/2019/10/7/20903613/apple-hiding-tai...

[2] https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/alexkantrowitz/apple-ch...

[3] https://www.wsj.com/articles/apple-pulls-hong-kong-cop-track...

Of course there's ample evidence Apple is not on the brink of bankruptcy, but we've settled for current IP laws which permit companies to own stuff and charge consumers for it. If the price is too high consumers won't buy but given the current state of the app store it doesn't look like there's a lack of people and companies building apps despite the "Apple tax".

I'm not entirely against opening up the app store but it remains to be seen if that would change things for the better. Apple may censor a flag, but they also repel a lot of attempts by companies to get my personal data. I'm much more concerned about the latter and would gladly pay a bit more to have less tracking.

I Paid for the core technology when I PAID THEM FOR THE FREAKING PHONE

Clearly not

Thanks for the valuable contribution

What if you don’t though? I’m not saying it’s accurate but what if they were like “ok you can side-load but we didn’t price that into the $1000 phone, side-loading costs $4000”

Then Samsung's market share goes up?

They're not going after Oracle because that's a stagnant company with no real market power. Apple is running the most brutal and successful display of monopoly power in the history of technology.

I don't know why you think that EU isn't going after Microsoft. Apple is not being singled out here, a bunch of companies including MS are also in the scope for the DMA. The distinction is just that the other companies seem to intend to actually comply with the regulations, unlike Apple whose public posture is one of whining, and actions are those of malicious compliance.

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