EU antitrust chief to Tim Cook: Apple must allow third-party app stores

L4sBot@lemmy.worldmod to Technology@lemmy.world – 341 points – EU antitrust chief tells Tim Cook Apple must allow third-party app stores
appleinsider.com

EU antitrust chief to Tim Cook: Apple must allow third-party app stores::The European Union's Margrethe Vestager has met with leaders of US Big Tech firms to discuss their operations in the EU, and with Apple's Tim Cook concentrated on the App Store and Apple Music.

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The EU is literally the only major entity actually trying at this point. Thank you!

Actually a bunch of other countries are considering the same thing. Including the USA.

Yea, but they only copy EU, which does the hard work. So I bet nobody would do anything, if EU wouldn’t.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brussels_effect

Here's the summary for the wikipedia article you mentioned in your comment:

The Brussels effect is the process of unilateral regulatory globalisation caused by the European Union de facto (but not necessarily de jure) externalising its laws outside its borders through market mechanisms. Through the Brussels effect, regulated entities, especially corporations, end up complying with EU laws even outside the EU for a variety of reasons.

^to^ ^opt^ ^out^^,^ ^pm^ ^me^ ^'optout'.^ ^article^ ^|^ ^about^

People should move to EU

Y'all seem to be doing fine without my vote... The United States on the other hand... Definitely needs to keep my vote...

I'm already planning to do that, but the Schengen Area imposes visa restrictions on us, and there's a 20% chance I'll get denied anyway.

And no, the country that I wanna go to is not the Netherlands, despite my username looking like someone from that country. I still like it doe.

There's already too many non Europeans in Europe.

that's okay. When yo live in a capitalist economy where globalization plays an important part , you can't choose who can come and who can't. The power is not with you or me to decide. We can whine but that's about it.

The only third party store that should be allowed is fdroid (or fios ig), everything else that is sideloaded is either malware or pirated apps

You don't like free stuff? Piracy is the only way. Ahoy!! 🏴‍☠️🦜

Ofc i do, i won't have jackshit in my jellyfin without it. But apps, nah..cracked apps are full of shit

And as they are opened up major companies can go to them for better deals allowing for the free market to work as intended.

Android has sideloading, does google take a lower cut than apple? No. Even with sideloading allowed, 99% people don't use it, majority android users probably don't even know about this thing called apks.

The option is there. Windows has an open platform, do you buy all your software and games through Microsoft or do you use the developer's website and third party launchers that have to compete on experience pricing?

Whether they are used or not doesn't matter, the first step is opening it up. And there are multiple apps that I get through alternative stores than the play store and it benefits the developer more so I don't really care what the other 99% are up to.

Thats because windows didn't have a store before 8, so everybody is used to downloading exe. And even today there isn't much on windows store. And i am not agaisnt sideloading, but there should be some safety measures too (maybe thats why windows needs antivirus?) to idiot proof sideloading. F droid is a great example of what sideloading should be.

So in the case that you are arguing there would be safeguards...you could continue to use the app store unhindered.

People should be free to install what they want, if they end up with malware that is their problem I'm not giving 30% to Apple because fuckwits can't excercise caution and educate themselves.

F droid is exactly what we are arguing for in this case, literally the exact thing this side of the argument is trying to make Apple facilitate.

If poor security practices only affected those responsible, I might agree with you on that front. As shown from the 23andMe "breach" and also how botnets are formed, individuals' poor security practices can affect many more people than just themselves. I feel we have a responsibility to protect people from doing stupid things, even if that might not be the most free thing to do.

Android has sideloading and Google takes 30% cut too. Sideloading is pointless if majority people don't know about it. Google for example will give you a fat warning if when you install f droid...oh this shit danger bro...don't install it. Yeah, it is dangerous ..for your business. Apple will do the same, oh technically we allow sideloading EU. And they will keep fearmongering. That is why this mentality of people that sideloading is alway bad needs to go away, for that only store like f droid should be allowed.

So you're argument is that because we can't get to perfect we shouldn't even bother trying good?

Competition regulators can mandate that large companies make their service available on multiple storefronts in the future but now we need them to mandate multiple storefronts.

The regulators can prevent Google from making it more difficult to use an alternative store. These are iterative changes.

If you look at macOS, you see that even apps not installed through the app store need to be signed from apple in order to not trigger a big ass warning. Apple on it’s own proofs that the security aspect is not an argument. Edit: I think windows does this as well to some degree

Windoss doesn't do jack shit, that defender crap will block good cracked apps but won't block actual malware. No wonder windows has bad rep about about virus, security etc

Software on Windows is still a bit of a mess compared to most other platforms though. The fact that it is normalized to download and install things from the various developer websites, without much verification and without permissions/restrictions on what the apps can do is not a plus in my mind. winget has been helpful in managing the installation and updating of things though.

Everyone having their own launcher is also not great, especially since they are not all created equal with respect to features, stability, and resource consumption. Games have had this problem for some time with EA, Ubisoft, Epic, etc having their own launchers. As like what happened to games, I don't think it will necessarily end up with more freedom to buy the apps from the store you want, but rather you'll be forced to download a store/launcher based on the whims of the app publisher. Some may publish to multiple stores but I don't expect all to.

If the mandate to open the platform up to more stores came with some kind of requirement that apps be available across multiple stores so that the stores actually had to be competitive on their own features, not app exclusivity, I would be more inclined to support having more stores.

You can't mandate that until there are multiple storefronts. That should be the next step.

As for everyone making you use their own app store, that will go down just as well as people who make me install their app, I won't.

Multiple storefronts doesn't mean taking a single app away from the app store. It means you can subscribe to Spotify for 30% less by using an alternative. It means developer's can argue for a larger cut of their revenue simply by having alternatives.

As for individual game launchers, steam is far and away the most popular and well liked and it, with the exception of a few of their own titles, a third party launcher.

Competition is good for the consumer.

Yea, because with cydia zebra and sileo, you can only install malware /s

thats not what i meant, i meant that it just opens the door for malware. And even with android, how many people actually install apks? Not many, bcs everything is there on the play store.

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No, thank you. I will continue to use Apple's App Store. What made me switch to the iPhone was the fact that I could trust the apps in the App Store. I knew there was no chance of downloading malware. It's a liberating experience.

I don't want it to be like Android.

I've been on android for 10+ years and never downloaded malware.

Don't try to download cracked apps and you'll be fine.

There have been some genuine apps that then download malware in the background, often after months.

But the same thing exists on the apple store.

I was going to say something similar, if you use the play Store you're about as safe as you use the Apple app Store. They do the same kind of checks. Some apps that are allowed I would not personally install as I consider them spyware (like TikTok or anything by Meta).

You should always be considerate what you Install, if you Install a video call app that needs camera permission fine, if you Install a digital clock app that needs camera permission not fine at all.

No freedom to choose

"Liberating"

Uh huh. Try thinking about other people. Just because you don't want freedom doesn't mean other people don't deserve it. You can always just choose to stick to Apple's crap if you really want to. But right now, people can't choose what they want because gaining control over their own damn device is so difficult by design. That's the point.

So do. Just because you only want one shop doesn't mean other should have to shop there.

Try thinking of other people and how you might differ from them.

Lol, there IS some malware in the App Store and there is not more malware in the playstore.

Only difference, on android it is easy to sideload, for example, emulators. And that there exists an alternative opensource app store (Fdroid)

I'd be more worried about every company trying to force their users into using their own store to access their apps.

No one is forcing you to use another app store. I'm sure the operating system will also allow you to turn off apps from unknown sources just like Android. More options for other people is not a bad thing. People paid for the device, they should be able to use it however they wish.

All these corporations just getting greedy. There will be a pirated app store and I will be the first to endorse it!!

Don't you think app developers should have the freedom of choice for app stores? Android has multiple places to get apps, lots of FOSS apps aren't on play store, and likely aren't on iOS at all. Having the option for 3rd party store gives not just users, but developers too, an option and access to more apps/users that wouldn't otherwise be available. You want safe secure apps, that's all good.
You mentioned that an app might move away from the app store to a 3rd party store, if you already use and trust that developer's product how will having to get it from a different location change that?
Now, not to sound too harsh, but why your convenience of not having to go get another store more important than a devs ability to host their product in a different location?

I don't think anyone would be forcing you to use a different app store.

This would just make the option available for those who want to.

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