[itsovermyhead]

It's not about using a different OS. The monopoly is that if you want to distribute through Apple, you have to go through their app store. There's not another app store that you can go through.

At least with Android you can go through f-droid if you don't like the Play Store.

[ecf]

That’s not a monopoly though. No one is being forced into using an iOS device.

A monopoly would be if Apple was literally the only smartphone manufacturer in the entire world.

[itsovermyhead]

I'll defer to Epic's official court filings to make the argument for a monopoly for me. I'm not an expert on such topics, and it would be out of turn for me to speak more on it.

"Apple monopolizes the iOS App Distribution Market".

https://cdn2.unrealengine.com/apple-complaint-734589783.pdf

[viscanti]

How do they reconcile that with the fact that it's possible to side load apps on iOS? Apple might monopolize the Apple App Store Distribution Market, but is that relevant to the legal argument?

[itsovermyhead]

We're on Hacker News, so the amount of people that are comfortable with sideloading apps on iOS is definitely going to be skewed.

I don't think that it's a good argument to make that anyone can do it, because it does require _some_ technical knowledge in order to do it. I'd make the argument that if it's not accessible to everyone, then I don't think it's a viable replacement for an app store.

To lean on F-droid as an example on the Android side, outside of the initial installation of F-droid(which can be done from your phone), you can easily browse F-droid and install apps.

I don't think it's as easy to sideload apps on iOS. I haven't done it in years(since my jailbreak days), but I remember that you needed to be on a Mac and needed xcode to do it. It's probably updated now to make it a bit easier, but from a quick Google it looks like you need to download a separate program in order to do it. It looks like other ways to sideload apps requires some abuse of developer certificates to make it work.

[dayjobpork]

No company can sell or distribute an app without having to use the appstore. Sideloading is restricted by design to not work as a standard installation method

[donor20]

And walmart monopolizes the walmart store distribution market.

Is this seriously the argument?

[itsovermyhead]

That's a pretty poor strawman.

There are multiple stores that you can try and get your product on. If Walmart doesn't work, then you could try Target, or Aldi, or Amazon.

You have literally one option to go with on iOS. You can't even "drive to a new store", as switching to Android costs hundreds of dollars, and not everyone is in a financial situation to purchase a new phone on a whim.

I won't argue about the specifics of this, Epic paid lawyers millions of dollars to draft a court document about the monopolization of the iOS app distribution store. I'd urge you to read the document first before drawing pretty poor parallels.