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Comment by oldmanjay | Hacker News Reader

The technical points mixed with the politics is a little boring. I'm really over people trying to make a moral issue out of iOS. You totally have the freedom to ignore platforms that don't work the way you want.

I also agree you have the freedom to complain about things over and over endlessly but yawn

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iOS has 42% marketshare. You can't ignore it. When a company is moving in the direction of removing freedoms from 42% of the market, that's a political problem that should be addressed and not ignored.

Sure he can. And besides, Apple won't change course because us devs worrying and they never have in the past. Neither did Microsoft, at least not out of free will.

The only power we have is buying power. Ranting and politically complaining as the article does won't change anything.

> Ranting and politically complaining as the article does won't change anything.

Yes it does, it educates readers, it can convince others not to buy iOS devices.

Other articles have certainly convinced me of that, for which I am very thankful to the authors.

These articles are not for Apple, they are for the people. People like us in Internet forums, who then discuss them, learn something (or not), and then make a decision (or not).

Back when Microsoft had 90% of the browser market share they could have pulled an Apple and locked everybody else out of the web. The only reason they didn't do that was because the antitrust regulators didn't let them. But if it had been left up to the "buying power" of consumers we would have lost one of the greatest inventions of our time to an awful greedy corporation. The iPhone probably wouldn't even exist or they would have to license IE from Microsoft.

"The only power we have is buying power."

That's what this article is trying to fix.

42% in the US, not in the real world

I think that this percentage does not matter as Apple controls 100% of the entry into market of iOS applications.

In case of Microsoft IE, every other company was able to provide software for Windows without MS vetoing it. This situation is different - Apple is 100% controlling the entry into market for other entities.

Excellent point. It's hard to track the unfair advantages which Apple has reserved for itself, especially when their control of one axis is 100% (fish in water).

In the 90s when Microsoft was in the same position I agreed with your point regarding Java and a host of other t technology that I thought was unfairly pushed out of the market... The thing is though by the time that remediation under regulation got underway the sea change had already started. Technology is one of the only sectors where that k kind of thing happens.

Another commenter also had a good point about global markets... Apple has that market share in the us... It's actually very small globally.

You make valid points though... Just saying that this stuff moves very fast.

I second to this.

I think that we, software developers have a moral obligation to make ethically right decisions. Supporting or ignoring app store business model(1) is in my opinion not one of them.

(1) this is, having one entity to control entry into market for everyone else - this creates monopolies - no, it does not matter that Apple has only 42% of the smart phone market share - it has 100% of iOS market share and is using its monopoly power to control this market.

We should force everyone to have their security lowered to Android level is hardly the ethical summit.

Users should be in control of their phones. There's a big gap between allowing malware all over the place and limiting things to a single app store that takes a 30% cut and randomly delays updates or pulls apps altogether.

You are making it appear as Apple control over app store is about security when it is not. I would believe it when they blocked and removed only malicious applications but instead they are also removing applications that they think would compete with their own products or with their business strategy.

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