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Comment by Spooky23 | Hacker News Reader

The only unique thing is the scale. There’s nothing that Apple is doing that your grocery store, Ticketmaster venue, or mall owner isn’t.

Seems like a weird hill to die on for an email app to me. The market is saturated.

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It's like having only two grocery stores in town, and your kitchen is only able to cook food from one or the other.

Or three console makers....

Because ripping people off by rent seeking is common it’s okay? It’s not okay to steal other people’s work when them building things for it means you sell more iPhones. Apple have this stuff completely backwards, stop there from being an App Store at all and see how many iPhones are sold.

All retailers “rent seek” by that definition.

Sure, but you can only visit one retailer. If there was store competition let Apple charge what they like...

Google and Steam both have potential competitors and they both charge 30%

Google doesn't meaningfully have potential competitors. Alternative stores are severely limited, e.g. they can't update apps in the background.

Is that a bad thing? If I’m using an alternative to a the App Store, I definitely don’t then want an app to be able to run arbitrary code from a server.

But we have an alternate universe where users can install outside of the official store yet hardly anyone takes advantage of it.

> Is that a bad thing? If I?m using an alternative to a the App Store, I definitely don?t then want an app to be able to run arbitrary code from a server.

If you like updating manually, don't give the store you use permission to do it manually. Why are you running software you don't trust anyway!

> But we have an alternate universe where users can install outside of the official store yet hardly anyone takes advantage of it.

See the post you replied to.

That’s the beauty of the App Store. I don’t have to to trust the app maker, just the operating system.

How do you know which app makers to “trust”?

Epic?

https://www.cnet.com/news/just-as-critics-feared-fortnite-fo...

Zoom?

https://www.zdnet.com/article/zoom-defends-use-of-local-web-...

Google?

https://support.google.com/chrome/thread/15235262?hl=en

https://techcrunch.com/2019/01/30/googles-also-peddling-a-da...

The latter is just a great argument why alternatives to Google's app store shouldn't be able to do their job.

They don’t charge on top of services the way Apple does do they?

Yes Google has in app subscriptions.

Do they force you to use their in app subscriptions in the way Apple is? Can I still use my own subscriptions servcie - in fact I know the Answer because Spotify and Hey were not complaining about the Google Play Store.

You’re putting words in my mouth.

How would you write the rules to get what you want? It’s a complex question.

I used to always buy Mancini roasted red peppers for salads and sandwiches. My grocer did a strategic sourcing exercise and now carries a house brand and some other brand. Should they be compelled to carry Mancini?

WalMart requires that vendors be able to fill orders on tight timescales. If you can’t, your out. Is that ok?

Costco requires that I pay them to shop there. Is that ok?

My wife owned a mall kiosk, and part of rent was a cut of the gross. Is that ok?

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