Epic win: Jury decides Google has illegal monopoly in app store fight
theverge.com
Google will appeal the decision: https://www.theverge.com/2023/12/11/23996902/google-will-appeal-the-epic-v-google-verdict
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Google will appeal the decision: https://www.theverge.com/2023/12/11/23996902/google-will-appeal-the-epic-v-google-verdict
I think a lot of people here are missing the point that in a court legal != pro-consumer. The US has monopoly laws that Apple (annoyingly) follows but Google does not.
Apple follows the monopoly laws but Google doesn't? Which one allows you to install alternative app stores again?
Because Apple does not break monopoly law. Which isn't about installing app stores, would be weird if that's in the law anyways given the age.
Apple sells a device they make, with firmware they create. That firmware allows plugins from a catalogue they curate because it's all their ecosystem, top to bottom.
Google otoh creates an OS. More like MS or Canonical or so.
It's a clever-evil (clevil?) gambit, right? Become the largest corporation on the planet, but somehow skirt being a monopoly technically. If Apple's iPhone hardware team colludes with Apple's App Store team, it's just collaboration. If they did so with a third party, it'd be collusion.
Meanwhile:
Third party Bluetooth hardware (like smartwatches) has to use an inferior API than Apple's private one for their Bluetooth accessories
Third party browsers have to use Apple's rendering engine in degraded performance to Safari and can't use their own
Third party apps are forced to follow Apple's power policy (ex: background apps can't run over 10 minutes) while Apple's apps can do what they want.
Apple can circumvent third party VPNs to always allow their traffic to 17.0.0.0, so there is basically no way to block an Apple device from talking to Apple HQ except for taking it offline.
On Android you can take an OEM device and change most aspects of it to suit your needs. On iOS, nope. Sad thing is though, Google seems to be slowly closed-sourcing Android to be like a broken version of Apple.
In the end, we all lose.
The laws need updating, also the people in governance need updating so they can comprehend these things.
Edit: Formatting
I must be seriously misunderstanding the US legal system. OEMs can ship whatever store they want next to Play Store. I have a Samsung phone in my hand with Galaxy Store coming out of the box proving that point.
Apple makes its own app store for its own OS to be used on its own devices. It doesn't make anyone else bundle its services on third party devices.
It is more that iOS isn't the market leader. If iOS had Android's marketshare, Apple would have lost its case.
That certainly weighs into it, but take a look at the agreements that Google has handset manufacturers agree to. They're quite a lot like 90's Microsoft.