[pkilgore]

The problem is not quite Google's behavior. It's legal for the same reason it's legal for you to not allow someone inside your house for bad reasons or no reasons at all.

The problem is that we've allowed digital marketplaces to achieve the kind of market power that would make a robber baron blush -- and we're not talking enough about how breaking up FAANG companies into multiple competing companies helps prevent the kinds of harms discussed in the blog above (as well as others).

I purchase software from no less than 5 different digital marketplaces on my computer, but I am all but prevented from downloading software on my phone that does not originate from the Play store. Monopolies are not good for markets.

[2cb]

I have F-Droid installed on all my Android phones. Admittedly it's something you must go out of your way to do, but you can put third party app stores on Android phones very easily, or just sideload apps individually if they have an official APK link (many do).

iPhones on the other hand, yeah very different story.

[summm]

With alternative app stores, you have to approve every single app update, ehich is way inferior to play store.

[my123]

Except if the app has an updater built-in to itself, in which case there is no prompt as far as I remember.

[2cb]

I don't see how it's "way inferior" to manually hit an "update" button, it's a minor inconvenience at best.