[barelysapient]

Apple's concerned that developers will use the Apple App Store as simple lead gen for the "real" app in 3rd party store. App quality in Apple's store would fall which would be bad for Apple's store.

So publish the same app in both stores or don't publish in our store.

Seems reasonable to me.

[goodSteveramos]

The entire point of alternative app stores is to allow more features than Apple’s. If large Apps have to give up on adding new features for their alt store versions to avoid losing their existing business on Apple’s store then how are Alt stores supposed to compete? The only reason this strategy works for Apple is because they have a dominant position already. This is textbook anticompetitive behavior.

[barelysapient]

Yes and third party app stores are happening.

What's more likely to happen, is that those big apps will simply start to split into two apps. The basic one will remain at feature parity on both stores. Then app mfg will then make a new "Super" or "2.0" app that they'll launch only on the third party store. That'll probably satisfy Apple.

Stores choose what and what not to sell all the time. It's no more anticompetitive than LHVM stores choosing not to sell canned soup or Mercedes choosing to not sell Ford.

[goodSteveramos]

> It's no more anticompetitive than LHVM stores choosing not to sell canned soup or Mercedes choosing to not sell Ford.

Neither of those companies are monopolies and neither of them forbid brands they stock from selling different versions of those products at different stores.

[jsnell]

If that really is Apple's worry, they clearly have no confidence in the App Store providing the developers with reasonable value. There they are, with their store being the only one preinstalled on iPhones and with the most recognizable brand in the space, and they think that developers would not publish real apps on their store? That's pretty embarrassing!

If they really are providing so little value, maybe they could invest in making their platform less shitty or offer better terms? Like, you know, compete.

[goodSteveramos]

The App store being the only way to install software on iOS is like the car dealership you bought your car from being the only place to get an oil change. It’s purely to prop up a bad product by bundling it with a good product.