https://9to5mac.com/2024/01/09/five-different-app-stores/
While Apple is making behind-the-scenes preparations for allowing third-party app stores to comply with Europe’s antitrust requirements, the company is...
Apple App Store, Apple Music store, Apple Movies store, Apple Television store and uhhh Apple News. Checkmate EU
Really though, claiming your Apple App Store on 5 different hardware categories that you own excludes you from your monopoly is some bonzo horseshit. Can't wait for the response on this one.
We don't have a monopoly on one class of device, we have monopolies on five different classes of device. That's definitely different and better!
This is a fairly fundamental misunderstanding of anything related to monopoly or anti-trust law. Maybe, maybe the iPhone, and even then it's a stretch. edit: at least in the US.
EU says it's not the EU fining Apple. It's actually 27 different countries. Now pay up.
"Your honor, we actually operate 5 different app stores.....that all just so happen to be called the same thing, share the same backend infrastructure, etc. With what you end up being able to see device side depending on device metadata. But they are 5 different stores, we swear"...... /s
Or something like that.
I guess if this gets argued correctly it means Apple could technically get away with not opening up the iPad, Apple TV and Apple Watch to accept other stores (Mac already lets you install apps directly from developers). I can see this still letting Apple continue to have the stranglehold over their ecosystem.
I doubt this will change much though. We all know the EU were specifically thinking about the iPhone which needs opening up.
Mac already lets you install apps directly from developers
I just find this language interesting. How a computer now "lets" you install non-walled garden software, as if that hasn't been the default behavior for personal computers for over 40 years since the beginning.
I get what you’re saying and I hate that I had to write it like that. Was saying it to point out that Mac’s just aren’t as locked down as other Apple devices so won’t be subject to the EU ruling anyway.
The entire argument is stupid anyway.
But I thought that the whole thing about the mac was that it wasn't a personal computer (pc)?
Which were stupid for their phrasing, but marketing genius, lol
Some people literally believe that a Mac cannot be called a PC.
It won’t pass, they were all built with Swift Programming and Apple owns it. This can also be said about all Apple apps in the play store, the requirement for Swift is unavoidable.
Uhhh what? Swift is just one of the languages you can use to make native UI for Apple devices and interact with their API.
Yes but you’ll get problems during uploads. It’s like Google forcing you to use Android Studio instead of verifying by other means. That’s why people often go to pay others because they don’t want to mess with the verification process.
“Oh thank you for letting us know so we can verify that all five have been opened up. Wouldn’t want to miss one”
I think they mean 1 app store for each of their products.
The company in its argument to the EU competition enforcer said it operates five App Stores on iPhones, iPads, Mac computers, Apple TVs and Apple Watches, with each designed to distribute apps for a specific operating system and Apple device.
Ah yes, the classic "I didn't commit a crime, I committed 5 crimes" defense. It's a bold move Cotton, lets see how it works for them.
And as someone who owns both an iPhone and an iPad, it’s obviously complete horseshit; If I buy an app on my iPhone and the same app is available on the iPad, it automatically gets added there too.
It seems to be a way to minimize the incoming damage. The EU would have to prosecute each platform separately if the argument holds.
I would be curious to see how they separate those different catalogs on their backend. I assume that the store detects which device and serves a list of compatible apps.
From the article it's just the different stores for different hardware (iPhone, iPad, etc...)
So let me get this straight.
The EU is finding Apple in breach of their antitrust laws, and requiring Apple to allow third party apps on their platform, like how Android devices can install Fdroid or...can non-Samsung devices install the Galaxy Store? Their argument about why they shouldn't have to do that is "we actually have multiple app stores", at least partially counting MacOS, iPadOS and iOS as separate platforms that just so happen to have converging internal technology (they're all ARM-based platforms now), branding and UI. Why do lawyers get to say irrelevant shit without repercussions?
And why can consumers purchase an app on their iPhone and have it automatically installed on their iPad?
Are iPhone apps that don’t have iPad versions that you install on your iPad anyway coming from the iPhone App Store or from the iPad App Store?
Thought it sounded familiar. And after DuckDuckGoing it, it was indeed a bold comment and the search definitely paid off.