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bengale · 2021-11-17 14:39:54

I’m glad to see the most sensible response float to the top. It seems a lot of people having given any thought, or plain don’t understand, how complicated a program like this would be to implement at a company the size of apple. Just think about how complicated this might be from a supply chain perspective. How about a support perspective?

MBCook | karma 29166 | avg karma 3.93 · | 2012-12-21 02:59:12+00:00

It's not a bad idea, I can see how it would be very useful for some people.

The thing I'm having a problem with is they must have seen this coming. Everyone knows Apple is a control freak. This was entirely foreseeable, and getting the requirements from Apple shouldn't have been due diligence. At a minimum, they should have planned for this possibility from the get-go.

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boucher | karma 4602 | avg karma 3.9 · | 2010-05-17 23:11:18+00:00

This is _extremely_ unlikely. Not only is it far more technically complex than you let on, it goes completely against the ecosystem Apple is building.

CaptSpify | karma 5342 | avg karma 2.15 · | 2018-04-07 05:07:38

I don't see why not. Plenty of other organizations work that way. Why can't Apple?

zdyn5 | karma 282 | avg karma 5.64 · | 2023-05-11 22:37:57

It’s gotta be somehow automated like that - can’t imagine any other way it would be scalable to the entire engineering base at Apple.

thecrazyone | karma 141 | avg karma 0.66 · | 2017-09-14 12:18:38+00:00

well the manufacturers would tie into their system. If apple implemented this, you would be tied to their ecosystem, no? Don't see a way around that :)

imissmyjuno | karma 199 | avg karma 1.55 · | 2012-12-06 19:03:30+00:00

all you sem to be saying is that "Apple can do it" though. Juat because they can doesn't mean they should. Given that they're a for-profit corporation, I'm betting on some kind of financial incentive.

xyst | karma 7011 | avg karma 2.96 · | 2022-03-08 14:55:49

It makes sense, although what I am concerned about is the cost. Apple isn't exactly know for providing services at or near cost.

euroderf | karma 2838 | avg karma 0.82 · | 2023-08-06 09:40:49

I would think that Apple has the level of integration that would make this possible, but then... where's the potential profit that would make it worth their while ?

mkj | karma 2334 | avg karma 2.84 · | 2020-12-31 12:59:59

This seems like the kind of thing that Apple themselves are in a good position to help with. Seems pretty improbable unfortunately.

saetaes | karma 86 | avg karma 3.74 · | 2011-06-14 18:44:55

This seems to be a logical multi-vendor play to me. Especially if Apple's data centers aren't geographically distributed, it needs to get other vendors involved.

keepamovin | karma 6780 | avg karma 2.07 · | 2024-01-21 11:43:17

Would it be at all possible for another business to do this, instead of Apple?

if for not other reason than that being perhaps the most likely way to actually compel apple to do it themselves, hahaha! :)

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twblalock | karma 18047 | avg karma 4.2 · | 2022-07-18 14:54:40

Yes but why should Apple do that? How would Apple benefit from doing that?

freedomben | karma 22645 | avg karma 3.58 · | 2023-11-21 10:55:00

This would be great for consumers and app makers, but do you think this will ultimately help Apple? (honest question)

dan-robertson | karma 9079 | avg karma 3.06 · | 2021-04-13 23:35:38

I don’t think apple would ever adopt such a solution willingly. And I doubt regulations will require them to

ecf | karma 1102 | avg karma 1.26 · | 2020-08-14 17:24:28+00:00

As a savvy software engineer, you should realize how much work it would take to implement a system to allow secondary stores when it would be of absolutely no benefit to Apple.

HeyLaughingBoy | karma 10338 | avg karma 1.69 · | 2024-02-27 21:46:30

Because just being able to do it isn't the point. The real question is whether or not it's a good use of the cash they have available. OP is saying that it doesn't make good business sense for Apple to do this, not that it's impossible for them to pull it off.

tauwauwau | karma 184 | avg karma 2.07 · | 2020-08-19 23:08:04+00:00

Not going to argue about the profit based motivations, I'm sure someone else would do it. How about the power that it gives Apple over developers, is that worth their time?

martinraag | karma 183 | avg karma 10.76 · | 2018-09-21 10:02:35

I’m genuinely stumped that anyone would even think of doing that. It would cause a lot of headache for the end users, while I doubt it would even put a dent in Apples Support.

michelb | karma 815 | avg karma 1.86 · | 2022-05-24 06:28:33

It would take a large team or teams to add the required functionalities, and would take quite some time, maybe a year at least? I don't think Apple is going to do that.