this post was submitted on 21 Mar 2024
175 points (96.3% liked)

Technology

59534 readers
3183 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.


Our Rules


  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related content.
  3. Be excellent to each another!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed

Approved Bots


founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

cross-posted from: https://sopuli.xyz/post/10657352

The lock-in problem at the heart of the Apple monopoly lawsuit

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[โ€“] moonpiedumplings@programming.dev 0 points 8 months ago (1 children)

No, it is lock in. If apple allowed for multiple app stores other than their own, then users could pay for an app on one app store, and then not have to pay again on another, potentially even on non-apple devices.

I encountered this when I first purchased minecraft bedrock edition on the amazon kindle. Rather than repurchasing it on the google play store when on a non-amazon, I simply tracked down the Amazon app store for non-amazon devices, and redownloaded it from there. No lock in to Amazon or other android devices, both ways.

Now, the Apple app store would still probably not work on androids... but now they would actually have to compete for users on the app store, by offering something potentially better than transferable purchases across ecosystems.

I suspect the upcoming Epic store for iOS and android may be like that... pay for a game/app on one OS, get it available for all platforms where you have the Epic store. But the only reason the Epic store is even coming to iOS is because Apple has been forced to open up their ecosystem.

[โ€“] evident5051@lemm.ee 1 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

Erm, that's not the same thing that the comment was referring to. We're talking about paying twice for essentially the same app on two different operating systems.

That's different from the lock in that you are referring to. Your explanation involves installing the same purchased app on two devices running Android.

Also, I have a lot of apps and games that only require me to make a one time purchase on either Android or iOS.