Epic vs. Google judge says he'll 'tear the barriers down' on Google's app store
theverge.com
theverge.com
Very cool!!
App Store, inability to use runtimes, inability to web distribute, requirements to use Apple Payment rails, Apple user registration rails, Apple UI elements, and jump through arbitrary platform changes is equally draconian.
Apple and Google are both monopolies.
WASM, OS API sandboxes, and web distribution should be the basis for the entire mobile platform. First party should have no unilateral control over a world built on standards.
Win Win imo.
Business running shit needs to stop.
The comments on that are full of people jumping ship, as is to be expected.
Without firefox to point at as an example of how they are not anticompetitive, google is in for an even worse time wrt anti-trust.
And now that firefox won't have Google's money they will need to stand on their own again.
Firefox got markedly worse every year since they started taking Google's money.
Maybe Mozilla shouldn't have wasted so much money on metaverse, AI, chat, social features, etc.
Maybe they could have doubled down on Rust, WASM, the browser, and become a developer tooling vendor that engineers loved.
MDN, Mozdev, Servo, Rustls (not Mozilla, but could have been incubated), and so many other awesome things could have had so much potential if simply thought through, cared about, and coordinated.
The future of everything is making the web first class on mobile. Regulation was always going to catch up and force Apple and Google's hands. Rust, WASM, and Servo could have been the basis of that.
Seems like there's some restrictions especially around storage size (50mb) and push. But it's technically possible again. https://www.mobiloud.com/blog/progressive-web-apps-ios
I choose Android over iOS precisely because there aren't barriers to installing whatever I want. I give up a lot of creature comforts and integrations that iOS users take for granted in order to be a part of an ecosystem where I can count on always being able to install apps that I write for my own use without getting approval from a gatekeeper.
And yet, here we are, with Apple getting a free pass from the US court system because they were completely locked down, while Google's systems get ripped open by a court because they were open enough that they could be anti-competitive.
I worry that decisions like this will backfire horribly—that they'll create an environment where something like Android can never happen again, because no company can take the risk of accidentally creating a market that they might be deemed to monopolize later.
It's not perfect, but we've had a pretty good thing going in the mobile phone space from a consumer perspective:
There's an option that's extremely intuitive, tightly integrated, and secure, at the necessary expense of being locked down. A walled garden in the best sense—a curated environment that's designed to provide a specific experience and keep out things that aren't welcome.
Then there's the option that works okay-but-not-perfectly out of the box but really shines for power users. That system provides all the flexibility you could want (especially when you get into custom ROMs) at the necessary expense of placing a higher maintenance burden on the user.
These efforts to dismantle this balance don't seem at all designed to help consumers—they're exclusively focused on the needs of other, typically large companies, and I strongly suspect that the fallout is going to hurt consumers quite a lot.
But this focus on the customer is irrelevant to whether they’re being anti-competitive. Apple actions in creating a walled garden are detrimental to their direct competitors (Spotify, Netflix, epic games) by either entirely locking them out or forcing them to compete with unfair structural barriers (nobody’s taking 30% of Apple Music subcsriber revenue).
Yes, this is exactly my point. Consumers are going to get a worse experience so companies besides Apple can make more money.
That may or may not be a good thing—all I'm saying is consumers will get hurt.
Do you really believe that taxes just hurts company profits and doesn't hurt products used by the people?
Apple's odd choices for enforcement of the fee (like Patreon) do create a problem for many kinds of apps. I'm just hesitant to dismantle something that mostly works for most people without a very clear idea of what it is we'll end up with.
The endgame here from the perspective of the companies that are pushing for this is to arrive at a similar place to where we are with streaming services: they each want their own store where they will distribute their own apps without a middleman. That's great for the companies, but choosing to stay exclusively in the Apple ecosystem will necessarily be choosing to not use any apps from Epic, Meta, Adobe, Amazon, and whoever else thinks they're big enough to justify their own store.
It's going to be a disaster for app consumers on the same scale as unbundling Netflix was for streaming.
This is the reality on Apple’s own macOS.
This is a pretty weak boogeyman.
Remember that I choose Android for the flexibility. I like the wild west of the WWW. I'm here defending the interests of a group that isn't well represented on HN: Apple users who actually like having exactly one App Store that they can count on to look out for them and moderate what apps can and can't do.
We already have Wild West platforms. For a while we had one that was better regulated, and people flocked to it. Large companies are lobbying government to dismantle that platform for their own selfish interests, and you're cheering it on rather than just picking the ecosystem that already provides what you want.
If people can juggle getting weather in one app, videos in another, and banking in a third, they can “juggle” the hassle of a one time search to find where to purchase the game.
Because I’m happy to identify 100 media companies for every 1 that you identify that offers their content exclusively on their own streaming platform
They would fundamentally have to change how app stores work with Apple. Yes, things will change for everyone.
You will continue to have that right.
Simply don't install other app stores.
What you won't be able to do is force other people to do what you want them to do, with their iPhones.
It has nothing to do with you choosing what you want to do with your own phone.
Instead, you want to force restrictions onto other people's phones.
> this balance don't seem at all designed to help consumers
It's designed to give those who want it, the ability to control all phones that they own.
Few people would have a problem with you being given the option to lock down your phone if that's what you want.
This is what everyone says, but we know that's not how it will work. Epic doesn't want their own store because they want to put their stuff in both places—Epic wants their own store because they want to bypass Apple and Google entirely.
We're going to see a proliferation of app stores the way we've seen a proliferation of streaming platforms, with apps only being available in the Epic Store or the Apple Store or the Amazon Store or the Meta Store, and it's not going to be fun for anyone to navigate.
Then don't install the Epic App store. Thats your right.
If you are still upset then that means that yes this is about forcing other people and other companies to do what they want with their store and their phones.
If thats your opinion, fine. Just say that out loud. Don't hide behind "Well, people should be able to choose what they want!" Type arguments.
Just explicitly say that you don't care about consumer choice or a companies choice to make their own app store, and leave it at that.
> Just explicitly say that you don't care about consumer choice or a companies choice to make their own app store, and leave it at that.
I very much do care about consumer choice. As a consumer, I chose Android because it has the flexibility to allow me to install what I want from where I want. As a consumer, my wife chose iOS because it currently offers a tightly integrated experience that doesn't get in her way.
The EU and many on HN are trying to dismantle the experience that my wife chose to make it more like Android. That's a net loss in consumer choice directly caused by lobbying on the part of already-wealthy businesses who try to make it sound like the choices of billions of Apple users don't count so that they can justify their push to make more money themselves.
Correct, yes. That is the same advice that you are trying to tell other people. "if you don't like it, just go buy something else", basically.
So yes, take your own advice and only install the app store that you prefer.
If that doesn't satisfy you, then you would have to admit that none of this is about choice, instead it would be about you wanting to force companies or other users to do what you want in your own way.
You can't have this both ways here. Every single time you throw around arguments like "go buy a different thing", that same exact line of thinking can be thrown back at you, to tell you to just not install the app stores that you don't like.
Pick one. This argument either is bad, or it can be thrown back at you when you use it. You can't use that argument and then run away when its thrown back at you.
> As a consumer, my wife chose iOS because it currently offers a tightly integrated experience that doesn't get in her way.
They can still have that. Just don't install those other app stores. Thats your advice that you throw around. So follow it.
You may approve of that change, but you can't deny it's a change for the worse for the majority of Apple users who don't care about the flexibility but were happy to have an app store whose interests were more or less aligned with their own.
The FTC and consumer protection agencies are elected by people (even if indirectly).
Apple does not act in the best interest of its customers. Not when those interests are in conflict with it’s own.
Which they very rarely have been for the majority of Apple users. There's a very small contingent of Apple users who spend time on HN who feel differently, but for most Apple users the experience that Apple offers is far and away better than that of any other tech company precisely because Apple's interests align with their own so well.
I'm just flummoxed why that small contingent of Apple users on HN gets behind the large companies' efforts to dismantle the ecosystem rather than just picking the other ecosystem that already offers the flexibility they want. It's inconsiderate of the majority of people who actually like what Apple is offering.
Steam is a way better product than the appstore. Appstore is full of toxic games with gambling monetization and in app purchases, steam is full of games you buy upfront and dlc is clearly labeled with dollar signs in the app store instead of premium gems etc.
I blame the apple appstore for creating that toxic ecosystem that made phonegames suck so hard. If there were alternatives things would be so much better, like you have in pc gaming. Steam launching game stores in the phones would be a massive win for everyone.
Interesting. I blame the medium [1] and the size of the audience [2]. I guess we'll see who is right, but either way I'm unconvinced a better phone gaming experience is worth letting Meta create its own app store that allows privacy shenanigans that Apple has successfully banned.
[1] Smartphones are attention-monopolizing devices by their very nature in a way that a tower PC just isn't.
[2] The majority of games on a platform will appeal to the lowest common denominator, and since ~everyone has a smartphone the lowest common denominator is very low.
The enemy of my enemy is not my friend. If Meta is doing impinging on people's privacy we need to make it illegal, not let it be used by Apple as a selling feature for their anti-competitive practices.
I am equally flummoxed why others defend the same clearly anti-competitive behaviour. Voting with our feet is no substitute for voting with our votes.
PC gaming is a good example of why the complaints about the 30% tax are overblown, but it's also a terrific example of what happens to consumers when a platform isn't able to vertically control every aspect of the distribution experience. It's not great.
I want to support the companies I want to support, not the companies I'm being forced to support because I bought a piece of hardware from them.
I would 1000% prefer the experience of steam over the App Store. Heck I would prefer the Epic Game Store.
This whole situation seems Kafkaesque. Apple sold billions of iOS devices because party because of the experience they were offering. People like me sort that experience out. Now people saying are that no, that experience was anti consumer.
There’s less choice in the mobile smart phone space because of this. I have no idea why people want iOS to be Android when there’s already Android. And apparently Google’s Android model isn’t good enough either.
This won’t be an option for many people. Once there’s an Adobe App Store you’re going to have to get on board with their bullshit to use the software. Look at the Windows game stores situation.
You’re describing a website with a purchase button, the exact situation we have on all non-mobile devices.
> Look at the Windows game stores situation.
Yes and look at their competition: GoG, Steam, Humble Bundle, Epic Games, Origin, etc. Don’t like Windows game stores, no problem just use a competitor.
Just like those “competitive” windows game stores.
And if you have concerns about privacy or shady business practices (I do too) remember that Facebook, TikTok, and Twitter are allowed on the App Store and get preferential treatment.
The third party I want protecting me from sharing practices isn’t Apple (who is whole unaccountable) it’s the government.
This is literally their point. Windows gaming is a convoluted mess of stores that you have to juggle, a far cry from the experience Apple has been trying to offer to consumers.
And analogies to streaming services don’t hold up for a few reasons:
1. There’s no ongoing cost to have an account at the each, purchases are one time.
2. Games do not leave services the way shows leave streaming sites.
This already isn’t accurate, and it’s getting less so all the time.
Yes it will be.
Do what you do with every other product. Don't install it if you don't like it.
But let other people decide what they want to do with their own phones.
If you want an open ecosystem get an Android phone already, don't try to dictate what other people are allowed to buy.
(Writing as a happy Android user who chose it for F-Droid!)
This notion of freedom is compelling in its elegance, but it's not how freedom is generally understood in contexts where most people have pre-existing commitments and investments which constrain their exercise of a particular high-level choice.
For example while it's true that people who live in an authoritarian state generally do have the ability to leave, we don't consider that option to absolve the authoritarian state of its responsibility to grant rights to its citizens. The reason is that it's very hard for most people to switch countries: it requires learning a new language, re-buying all the possessions and property that can't be relocated, and losing all the connections and efficiencies people depend on to make their lives work well.
Because of the high switching cost, people who had the misfortune to settle in a state which turned authoritarian are likely to submit to conditions which they don't actually agree with or like. We don't consider such people to be free, despite the nominal first-order freedom of choice they do have.
So then people who want to install whatever app store on their iPhone should be allowed to do so. And those who disagree can not do that.
> The majority of Apple users chose phones for the tightly curated, easy to navigate Apple ecosystem
Once again. If you want that, few people would be opposed to a "lock down" button that turns your phone into an "apple ecosystem only" phone.
But other people should be able to install whatever they want and their own iPhone.
> If you want an open ecosystem get an Android phone already,
Or, instead of that, people should be allowed to do whatever they want with their phones, including their own iPhones.
You can have your lockdown button if you want, and most governments would be fine with that. But other people should be allowed to do what they want with their own iPhone, including installing other app stores.
Thats not going to satify you, because what you actually want to do is control other people's iPhones.
I don't want to control your phone. Lock it down, all you want. Apple can even include a helpful lockdown feature and it would be with everyone else.
Just let other people do what they want with their own iPhones.
> don't try to dictate what other people are allowed to buy.
You would be the one dictating what other people do with their phones. I am perfectly fine with you having a locked down iPhone as long as it is possible for other people, who are not you, to have a not locked down iPhone.
See the difference?
A bit of a nit, but what they won't be able to do is use their market power to lock competitors out or extract monopolistic taxes for access to their large segment of the mobile market. It has nothing to do with consumers per se - we could be back here in 3 years because all of the app stores have formed a cartel to decide the vig for apps, same way Amazon and Apple did for e-books.
The US Government got involved in that agreement and declared it illegal because it hurt Amazon's bottom line…and the publishing industry is in a much worse situation with Amazon controlling even more of the income than ever, while now diverting revenue to shitty LLM-publishers and away from humans who try to write things that people want to read.
Basically, that decision by the government was wrong, and we’re all suffering for it. Upcoming decisions and the DMA are different, but they are making many of the same mistakes as the US Government did with the publishing agreement, in that these intervention will:
- reduce overall security on devices that must be more secure than personal computers because they often act as payment devices, personal IDs, and other matters (this is not guaranteed, but many of the moves being advocated are going to lead to bad actors getting to pretend that they are equivalent to the operating system, or provide access to Secure Enclave data in ways that encourage large criminal and nation state attacks on the ecosystem)
- reduce overall payment security and convenience for real people (you think that cancelling a NYT subscription is hard, let Tim Sweeney design a payment flow and it will take a personal visit to Epic to cancel a subscription, and even then it will take more time than it should)
Everyone focuses on the 30%. It should be lower; there should be wider access and less gatekeeping‡. But if you want it to be zero, start taking on the PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch monopolies, too as they charge as much and sometimes more.
‡ I think that Apple (and probably Google) need to get over their American prudishness. This would require having better categorization and parental controls that could be enabled by device owners and even providing applications ways of applying parental controls (let Tumblr bring its adult-oriented content back, but enable the Tumblr app to apply parental controls via an API). There are other changes that I would like to see, but absolutely none of them involve letting Tim Sweeney / Epic get involved in taking payment details, because I trust him far less than I trust Tim Cook / Apple (or even Google).
Thats called anti-competive behavior to raise prices.
Price dumping isn't a thing. Its basically not illegal, and is instead something that the US government, and its population, want to encourage.
I am sure that there are some outdated economics textbooks that put out this hypothetical of the extremely rare "bad kind" of price dumping, and one or 2 long irrelevant court cases. But these days, its basically not a bad thing.
Complaints about price dumping are almost never done in good faith. Instead, they are done by monopolistic entities that want to screw over customers by illegally coordinating price increases.
> Basically, that decision by the government was wrong, and we’re all suffering for it.
I am going to say that the monopolistic group of sellers who were trying to raise prices was wrong. And the law supports me.
> But if you want it to be zero, start taking on the PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch monopolies, too as they charge as much and sometimes more.
Or, instead of that, we can use the government to force it to be zero in whatever ways that we can, even if we don't effect other markets.
Those other markets, while maybe deserving of some scrutiny, are smaller than the smartphone market. Therefore, it is perfectly reasonable to care about the much larger and more important market, and to make those fees 0.
> letting Tim Sweeney / Epic get involved in taking payment details, because I trust him far less than I trust Tim Cook / Apple
Then use your consumer rights to not install the epic app store. And leave other people's phone's alone.