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0 pointslolinder1y ago0 comments

Tying Google's hands while giving Apple a clean bill of health isn't going to increase competition, it's going to solidify Apple's lead in the US.

The competition that actually matters is between whole platforms, it's only Epic's lawyers who want everyone to get fixated on the idea that the app store markets are the whole story (or even really a significant portion of the story). I could totally get behind efforts to prevent Google and Apple from together duopolizing the entire mobile phone space, but this is not that.

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ethbr11y ago

The important competition isn't Google v Apple.

It's everyone else v Google and/or Apple.

Ironically, forcing this onto Google might be the best thing for Android, as it's the openness the platform really needed to compete against Apple, but costs Google too much revenue to ever do it if left to their own decision.

wokwokwok1y ago

> it's the openness the platform really needed to compete against Apple

It’s hard to believe the best way to compete with Apple is by being more open then they are.

If that worked, we would all be running some unix os on our phones.

It’s clearly an utterly false premise.

This is going to hurt google and do literally nothing to Apple, except perhaps scare some people into the “saftey” of its curated ecosystem.

achenet1y ago

apologies for the pendantic nitpick, but:

iOS is based on Darwin which is BSD based, and Android is based on Linux, which is heavily inspired by Unix.

So technically, we are "all running some unix os on our phones"... perhaps you mean some open-source OS? Even then, Android markets itself as being open-source (although I imagine they must add some closed source stuff on top of it).

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elevatedastalt1y ago

Then why is there one result for Google and the opposite one for Apple?

madeofpalk1y ago

The main thing Google got in trouble for is all the emails and deals they sent to device manufacturers to prevent competition with Play Store.

Apple inherently never sent these emails. There’s no deals they made because they were closed from the get go.

Google created a market of “android app distribution”, and then put its thumb on the scales so it always wins. That is why Google lost and Apple didn’t lose (as much).

ethbr11y ago

Because the law isn't written the way fairness is written in our heads, and judges decide based on the law.

johnnyanmac1y ago

follow the money. Which judges handled which cases in which location?

but the non-partisan bailey answer is along the lines of "android promised freedom, IOS never did".

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j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

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ethbr11y ago

The important competition isn't Google v Apple.

It's everyone else v Google and/or Apple.

wokwokwok1y ago

> it's the openness the platform really needed to compete against Apple

It’s hard to believe the best way to compete with Apple is by being more open then they are.

If that worked, we would all be running some unix os on our phones.

It’s clearly an utterly false premise.

This is going to hurt google and do literally nothing to Apple, except perhaps scare some people into the “saftey” of its curated ecosystem.

achenet1y ago

apologies for the pendantic nitpick, but:

iOS is based on Darwin which is BSD based, and Android is based on Linux, which is heavily inspired by Unix.

1 more reply

elevatedastalt1y ago

Then why is there one result for Google and the opposite one for Apple?

madeofpalk1y ago

The main thing Google got in trouble for is all the emails and deals they sent to device manufacturers to prevent competition with Play Store.

Apple inherently never sent these emails. There’s no deals they made because they were closed from the get go.

Google created a market of “android app distribution”, and then put its thumb on the scales so it always wins. That is why Google lost and Apple didn’t lose (as much).

ethbr11y ago

Because the law isn't written the way fairness is written in our heads, and judges decide based on the law.

johnnyanmac1y ago

follow the money. Which judges handled which cases in which location?

but the non-partisan bailey answer is along the lines of "android promised freedom, IOS never did".

1 more reply

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse