[kennend3]

This is what i find most interesting about this whole debate.

Read the comments on the article itself, it is just full of "i dont want to do this".. so great, don't sideload apps (no one is forcing them to), but why are they so keen on preventing others from doing it as well?

[yamtaddle]

Apple's leverage has given it de-facto regulatory power that it has, to a considerable extent, used in my favor.

It might be that nothing changes if sideloading is made much easier, or other browser engines allowed, or whatever. But, that's not guaranteed.

Since I like the current situation—at least, better than the alternative of having no one push back on things like spyware-loving megacorps—I'm not in favor of risking changes to it.

My ideal situation would be that a lot of what Apple prevents on their platform were illegal everywhere so it'd hardly matter, but the US, at least, does not seem to be heading that direction anytime soon.

So, that's why. It risks changing the current situation such that I would find it worse, overall, and I'd prefer not to risk that.

[stale2002]

> Apple's leverage has given it de-facto regulatory power

Indeed. This is called "being an monopoly" and "using anti-competitive practices to control a market, in violation of anti monopoly laws".

Yes, anti competitive practices work.

Yes, being a monopoly works.

And yes, it has produced some good things like Apple's focus on privacy.

But it has also produced other very not good things, like the 30% Apple tax.

But, it is at least comforting that people are now saying the quiet part out loud, which is "yep, Apple had anti competitive market power the whole time, I just like monopolies".

[yamtaddle]

> But, it is at least comforting that people are now saying the white part out loud, which is "yep, Apple had anti competive power the whole time, I just like monopolies".

It's... been the entire argument, the whole time, for the "please don't change it" side. I'm not even aware of another angle on it. It's never been "quiet".

> I just like monopolies

I like my life being better than it might otherwise be. In this case, yes, that means I'd rather this monopoly stick around at least a while longer. I'm entirely not a fan of black-and-white positions on most issues. Monopolies generally suck. In this case, however, one particular monopoly seems to be giving me significant benefits I might not otherwise have. Now, if I could trade Apple's monopoly for a harsh crackdown on monopolies across the whole economy, that'd be easily worth it—yes, please. Just to "liberate" iOS devices, though? Nah, I'd rather they leave it alone.

[stale2002]

> . It's never been "quiet".

Well, it gets conveniently ignored anytime someone would bring up problems with said monopoly.

For example, the 30% Apple fee is a consequence of their anti-competitive market power.

And yet, if you start complaining about that, the response will be to pretend like the anti-competitive market power doesn't exist, and that you should just "go publish on a different app store" if you don't want to pay that monopolistic fee.

You can't have it both ways here. You cannot say that you like their monopoly power, and then pretend like it doesn't exist when the same exact market power allows Apple to extra 30% of the money from the app store market.

> Now, if I could trade Apple's monopoly....... Just to "liberate" iOS devices, though? Nah, I'd rather they leave it alone.

Well then you should blame Apple for the situation we are in now.

People wouldn't be forced to regulate Apple, if they hadn't been abusing their market power for a decade.

If Apple had instead chosen to lower their app store fee, to 5%, then we could have gotten the best of all worlds, which is a focus on privacy, and no monopolistic fees.

Its too late for that now. If only Apple hadn't fought these efforts so much, they could have given everyone a worthwhile compromise.

[bee_rider]

I like the phrase “de-facto regulatory power.” Not only is it the case that we don’t have to deal with annoying stuff like “enable the facebook store to download our app,” that is, poorly behaving apps in non-official stores. It also takes away one of bluffs that Facebook and friends could make. They don’t even have the ability to say “Apple, make your rules more permissive or I’ll open up a Facebook store.” They don’t even get to negotiate. It is great.

If alternative app stores were allowed, I’d probably download a GNU iOS store. But that’s about it, and it just isn’t worth it.

[DHPersonal]

It's probably a misguided fear based on how bad things are even with the App Store, but I'm worried about each company moving its software to its own sites and requiring a more complicated, frustrating, or more privacy-invasive process to use the software over the requirements set by the App Store.

[JohnMakin]

> Read the comments on the article itself, it is just full of "i dont want to do this".. so great, don't sideload apps (no one is forcing them to), but why are they so keen on preventing others from doing it as well?

because it's going to make unscrupulous companies like google/fb/etc all force you to go through their app clients to install their sideloaded apps, without any of the scrutiny and control the apple store has provided historically. that's not really a world I want to live in. While yes, I can just uninstall those apps, some are nearly intrinsic to a mobile experience, like the youtube app.

[rtpg]

Shouldn’t most of the protections come at the OS layer? Weird tracking nonsense isn’t stopped by App Store policy alone (far from it!)

[JohnMakin]

Apple can and has threatened to pull apps from the store for unscrupulous behavior. Absolutely no one is claiming that the app store itself provides protection. It's the fact that Apple can decide who gets to publish on a device that over a billion people use.

I'm also not really sure how OS level protections would prevent an app from sending out data it shouldn't. Apple is acting as a regulator here because no one else is.

[planede]

Similarly how they do it on Android?

[yamtaddle]

1) Android doesn't restrict spying as much as Apple does,

2) Android is far, far less lucrative per-user than iOS.

Maybe sideloading on iOS will work out like Android has. Maybe not.

[m3kw9]

You will be forced to if say an app you depend on goes outside