this post was submitted on 21 Feb 2024
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Apple
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The people who want a world where iPhones are like Linux by default don’t use iPhones; they use Linux phones.
The vast majority of us just want to have the ability to use our devices to run what we want when we want to. The App Store is a good, fine thing. I like that it exists and I don’t want it to go away.
But I don’t think it’s fair that Apple gets to tell me I can’t run emulators on my phone. It’d be like Ford telling me I can’t drive my car on an interstate or something. The whole concept is weird.
Let me own my device, please. I paid for this hardware; why am I not allowed to choose the software that runs on it?
Android handles this in what I think is a great way. By default, you can’t install 3rd party apps. You have to dig into your settings to enable that and then your phone is unlocked. I do think that’s bad for alternative app stores (but that’s a whole ‘nother problem) but the vast majority of people who seek apps that aren’t available in the phone’s App Store do so because they’re more technically minded and so don’t mind a more technical solution. If you go take a random Android user off the street, 9 times out of 10, they won’t even know you can install apps from outside of the App Store and that’s a good thing.
Apple loves to tout “security” and “efficiency” for why they don’t allow 3rd party apps and that’s so silly to me. If I want a less secure and less efficient phone so that I can use features Apple doesn’t like, that should be purely my decision to make. It doesn’t affect anyone else but me.
I literally buy iPhone mostly because of the walled garden. It's by far the biggest value add they have, and they grew to the scale they are in large part because of the value that adds.
If you want to sell an app on iPhone, you have to follow their human interface guidelines. You have to respect users' privacy (not enough, but as much as they can enforce). You used to be required to take payment through Apple's payment methods that make it incredibly easy to track and cancel subscriptions. Courts taking the payment rules away makes my experience worse. A shitty law forcing Apple to allow apps to pull out of the App Store and do whatever they want would make my experience much worse. (Thank God I'm not in the EU or subject to that.) If I was in the EU, the government be stealing a large portion of the value of the phone I paid for from me, to be replaced by stuff I can already do if I really want to.
These laws aren't giving power to the people. They're taking away Apple's power to protect people and giving the power to fucking China through epic.
Do you honestly think that anything will change if iOS is opened to sideloading, for someone who never wants to leave the walled garden?
Because the answer is no. On Android any App that wants to have any shot at gaining mainstream success (aka 99% of Apps) HAVE to be on the Playstore because 95% of users get spooked if they have to download an APK, toggle some settings in settings App that warn you about this being a bad idea.
The only thing that changes is that the 1% of users who know what the fuck they are doing, can do so on a device they payed good money for.
Facebook/ten cent/etc have literally zero reason to stay off the play store. Google encourages them to be malware, and doesnt curtail their bad behavior is any way.
Apple doesn't. They might not leave while they think they can also destroy the security of iOS in the US, but it is a complete and utter certainty that the literal day any similar law takes effect in the US that Facebook and all their apps leave the App Store completely. They absolutely can trivially walk people through the steps from their website and the apps that are already installed, and they already have the monopoly to force their users to deal with it.
Apple isn't Reddit, building a market by claiming to be open then locking it down. They built their market because the walled garden is a massively better product.
None of this would change. Congrats, you talk about a topic you don't understand
Yes, it would.
They don't leave the play store because, and exclusively because, Google allows them to do anything they want. Apple does not. The literally exact day a similar law goes into effect in the US, it's an absolute guarantee Facebook leaves the App Store with every single app they have. There's not even the slight possibility they stay there.
Lol you think they would just leave and pray everyone follows them? I reckon it would be hilarious to see who wins between iPhones and Instagram when influencers are shown a huge warning about untrusted apps.
No, the truth is that there would be two versions of the app with two different prices, to attract people to the alternative store. Which would probably be Facebook's own closed garden, so again, a low risk for the end user (who would have also to opt into that "risk").
I'm actually wondering, what does Facebook care about that. After all their revenue comes from ads, not in app purchases. Or am I missing something?
There isn't guesswork involved. They know for certain that people will. They have network effect on their side. Their entire audience is captive. Anyone willing to leave already has after the hundreds of different "revelations" of how fucking disgusting everything they have ever touched is.
They aren't selling anything but your privacy. It's Apple's limitations on being overt malware that they'd be bypassing, and it is absolutely guaranteed that they would do so the literal minute they can.