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Apple was just forced to crack open its App Store — but the changes are already being called 'hot garbage'
(ca.finance.yahoo.com)
this post was submitted on 28 Jan 2024
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lol, did you not expect them to be as shitty as possible about this? It’s ridiculous that everyone is all, “oh, we’re so shocked they’re doing this! How dare they! Boo hoo!” they do not fucking care.
wtf, did you think you all won and the fight was over? Hahahaha! Apple are assholes, and they are far from done fighting.
idk, everyone is shitting on them but I'm not sure anyone is surprised. If anything, people are surprised with the regulators that didn't account for that or just turned a blind eye.
I'm not a lawyer, but I think there's "spirit of the law" in EU, which means that even though Apple technically allowed sideloading, their implementation goes against the INTENTION of the law and is illegal.
They aren't even allowing sideloading. They are allowing alternative app stores that they approve, and Apple expects a 27% cut from all app sales after it hits a million downloads.
This means that something like F-Droid on iOS wouldn't be possible due to expense.
Apple isn't going to let you just download an ipa and install it like you can on Android.
You don't own the device you paid for (this could be said about most tech products nowadays)
Meh. It's basically the same thing - an alternative app store is the most user friendly way to do this anyway and the EU courts will force Apple to approve any reasonable app store.
No you're thinking of the changes Apple just made to comply with their recent loss in the USA court. That only applies to the USA.
In the EU (and only the EU) instead of charging a percentage fee there's going to be two* 50 cent fees (per user, per year). Spotify, for example, would pay $100 million per year if they choose to "sideload".
(* the app developer pays 50 cents per user per year, and whoever distributes the app also pays 50 cents per user per year)
Having to pay Apple any amount for distributing apps not on their app store is just rediculous. Apple is not curating or providing support for the app in any way.
App developers don't have to pay the OS developer for any other OS (including Apple with macOS and Google with Android) to distribute apps on their website; why should it be any different with iOS? 50 cents per user per year, along with the same from the app distribution network means that indie developers will be forced to monitize their apps if they have any desire to distribute a sideloaded app on iOS, and the only ones who will be able to run alternative app stores are large companies with the capitol to do so.
Apple wants to dip their fingers where they don't belong. This is complying with the EU regulation in bad faith.
Also on top of that, the same fee applies on Apple's App Store as well.
I hope you're right
Regulators did account for this, Apple will get in legal shit for this.
One can only hope it happens quickly and with great force, so that other companies don't get any bright ideas to copy Apple.
Ridiculous? Of course this is how people should react. If this is NOT the reaction then this kind of shit would be done even more.
I didn’t say people shouldn’t be upset. I just don’t see why anyone is still surprised.
I'm not upset or surprised.
But I do believe Apple has failed to comply with the law, and they either need to start complying or else I'd like to see the EU apply the maximum penalty. Which, by the way, is to split Apple into multiple companies.
Being split up has happened before and it generally doesn't go well for anyone - it'd be a lot better (including for Apple) if they just complied with the law and stopped being so anti-competitive... but ultimately I'm fine with either outcome.
I'm definitely not ok with things continuing as they are right now... but that's not going to happen so I'm not putting any energy into that.
Their malicious compliance and resentful behavior is bad advertisement in any case, both for app developers and for users. Yes, most people don't care but I hope some will realize who they are dealing with.
While it would be nice to imagine this, the reality is that anyone who is part of the Apple walled-garden isn't going to suddenly abandon it because of hypothetical functionality they never had previously anyway. And anyone who has resisted Apple this long... Well, there were probably other reasons driving that long before this.
I can't imagine this having any material impact on marketshare or profit. It will take harsher regulatory action for anything to happen.
Have you seen the maximum penalty for this action? It's pretty harsh.
"the Commission is also empowered to adopt additional remedies such as obliging a gatekeeper to sell a business or parts of it, or banning the gatekeeper from acquiring additional services related to the systemic non-compliance"
Imagine if they forced Apple to sell their iPhone business. The USA did that once when Ma Bell had a monopoly on phones.