Google really needs to be more like Apple and close source everything, keep all innovations to themselves and stop giving away software. Apple has shown that locked down operating systems and ecosystems are the most profitable and legal friendly courses of action.
Sometimes I really wish we devs did to Apple/Google what we did when anti-net neutrality were forced on us to get this: unite and stop making apps and updates for one day to get more public attention to the 30% extortion and such arm twitting by these two companies.
If 10 big companies and thousand of devs joined Epic right now, Apple would be willing to bend a lot more than its current stance.
The problem is Apple has no real competition. They can do almost anything they want without fear of retribution because your average consumer has no idea what any of this means.
That's bad news for all us pissed off developers since Apple's new platform will continue to be extremely popular in which case devs are forced to develop for it.
Google seems to be inching towards being a real threat but they also seem extremely unfocused. Does anyone really need a toaster running the latest version of Android?
Apple needs some competition in this space and Android-based mobile devices seem like a really distant second. It's time for Google to kick it up a notch.
Macs may be better, but this has gone beyond healthy competition. This is not right, and we must do what we can to stop it.
Deploying this patent portfolio offensively can only postpone innovation. It's bad for customers, it's bad for the industry, and I'd argue it's bad for humanity.
Coincidentally, Google released Android 4.4 today. It brings a modern browser with much improved battery life to older, less capable hardware.
This is a win for people of average means, and it extends access to the world's information to people in developing countries that wouldn't have had the opportunity on more expensive hardware. Would we be where we are today without Android?
Use the patents as a defense against patent troll attacks. But when you become a patent troll yourself, you are now the enemy.
Fuck Apple. Fuck Microsoft.
I will do everything I can to avoid their products, even if the alternatives aren't as good. They're both a net-negative for humanity.
Google and Microsoft generally are the backstop against an Apple monopoly. Don't like Apple making so many decisions for you as a user? Windows and Android are right there.
Those are good specific examples that I might have missed. Good point. The PlayStore is a train wreck that takes a lot of percentage of revenue from apps and adds little value in return.
Just noting that 45,000 users affected IS NOT the PlayStore failure reference story. It's bigger than that.
10 million uBlock Origin Chrome users are soon to be abandoned due to Google's policies. That's way more interesting, and ties the PlayStore issues to the same Chrome Extension issues.
Apple is credibly watching out for their customers. Google is credibly watching out for Google. Pretty much unapologetically with little pushback.
Personally frustrating for me as I've been a loyal Android user for a long time. Almost ready to switch to an iPhone, despite my unfamiliarity and the much higher price point. Google should pay attention.
It really reeks of the same kind of anticompetitive behavior that got MS in trouble twenty years ago.
Apple is way worse in this regard, but Google is still incentivized to keep at least PWAs from being first class citizens on Android because they don't get their app store sales cuts or microtransaction money from them. And at least on Android you can install other browsers.
People consider the hegemony of Chrome to be the premier threat to the open web but I keep feeling iOS Safari is the real drag. Apple is so heavily incentivized to sabotage web tech that could encroach on their app store revenue.
This is why we have antitrust law. Google has been fined for pushing their own services on Android, because they have multiple times the market share of Apple. I'm sure if Apple went far enough they would get dealt with too.
Google and Apple have gotten too big. They're harming our industry. It's time to break them up.
Besides, our devices are computers. The next evolution of laptops for most people. We should be able to run whatever software we want on them. Google and Apple purposefully acted like mafia to keep them as locked down as they could, while they both benefited from the web and open source to rise to and ultimately cement their position.
The first paragraph is not the main point of the article, but Google trying to portray its ecosystem as benign because it’s supposedly more “free and open” than Apple has been a sick joke for a long time.
For one, Android is not truly free and open - there is AOSP, but for building modern apps you would need significant resources to fill in all the gaps left by stripping out interfaces to essential things like notifications and other proprietary Google services (edit: and besides, most modern Android devices - at least in the US - have manufacturer/carrier malware and locked bootloaders). So Android is “open core” at best. Second, I’m actually somewhat OK with paying Apple more and knowing that their business model is not primarily about tracking my every move and selling that information.
Apple is by no means “Good” (with a capital “G”), but in my book Google are as Bad as Apple, if not more so.
I always thought the difference now between Apple and Google is that Apple is competing through licensing whereas Google is trying to compete through technology. This is what makes people question Apple - refusing Google Voice and Flash through the app store approvals, refusing Flash cross-compiling and Google/AdMob ads through the developer's license. Google usually comes across as being more open and willing to compete through the actual marketplace instead of in court, which I think appeals more to most developers and technologists.
And I don't think Gruber is making a coherent point here. Why even argue about who started it? That just comes across as whining and a ultimately a semantic argument. Of course companies will compete - let's talk about the implementations, what is best for consumers, and which is best for developers.
Apple and Google are 99% of the smartphone market. Together they set an unreasonable set of rules for mobile application development and distribution. They control search, advertising, and web technology, and there's little control individuals or other companies - even big ones - can exert against them.
They both need to be stripped of their extraordinary powers so that user freedom and proper capitalistic competition can be restored.
It's likely that any regulatory action taken against Apple and Google will force the companies to innovate more and become healthier themselves.
Apple top management should have seen this coming ~years~ ago. Both Apple and Google could have prevented this by being smarter and less greedy in the first place, understanding the central role of developers and third party companies in their ecosystems.
Not sure about this lawsuit, I don't really care at this point, the whole process in unrolling and won't stop until this is over, and this won't end up in a nice place for Apple.
One thing I wish the piece touched on is the way that these platforms have evolved into anti-competitive environments due to a kind of vertical integration.
Google doesn't just control the operating system or the OEMs. Their agreements with OEMs benefit their own applications over the competition's, effectively allowing Google to leverage its power as a platform to benefit its apps developed for its platform. We've seen the exact same dynamic play out with Amazon and its products. It's only this year that Apple has allowed third party apps to serve as replacements for its default web browser and other apps on iOS. This particular kind of anticompetitive behavior definitely meets the standard of negatively affecting consumers because of the extent to which it intentionally limits the end-user's ability to choose the competition.
Agree. We absolutely cannot let Google chase after Apple like this - it will crush innovation, and consolidate all services into 3 or 4 monolithic companies.
For example with Apple, it's very clearly becoming a bad idea to do anything they may also want to do.
Why would anyone in their right mind take on the risk to:
A) Buy Apple's developer licenses and tools
B) Learn Apple's Apple-Only-Languages
C) Build applications for Apple ecosystem
D) Let Apple gather information about your pricing and success
E) Pray that they do not deem you successful enough to compete with
We give walmart and amazon endless headache for using data gathered from people selling their products on walmart/amazon shelves to launch competing products, yet we applaud apple for launching apple fitness or whatever while the #1 fitness app on the apple tv is peloton's workout app? How long until apple delves into Apple Dating because they need to scrounge up more new growth? How long could tinder survive while having 30% less money to reinvest back into the product than a hypothetical Apple Dating?
I can't believe that 2020 is making Windows look like a respectful steward of open platforms.
And take Apple to task as well - their app store policies and new app signing requirements for OSX are absurd.
Amazon has just started abusing it's monopoly so they'll be in the next antitrust wave I imagine and get away here.
Don't even get me started on Whatsapp.
Consistently anti-user and competition crushing behaviour in tech should be dealt with forcefully. Not some 5 billion $ chickenshit fine please.
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