Google Defends App Store, Fighting Epic Games' Bid For Major Reforms (reuters.com) 23
Google has asked a U.S. judge not to impose sweeping changes to the Alphabet unit's app store Play that were proposed by "Fortnite" maker Epic Games in the companies' closely-watched antitrust fight. From a report: Google made its filing late on Thursday in San Francisco federal court, where Epic last year persuaded a jury that the tech giant unlawfully stifled competition with its controls over apps downloads on Android devices and payments to developers for in-app transactions. Epic's proposal "would make it nearly impossible for Google to compete," Google's filing said.
The gaming company in March asked U.S. District Judge James Donato in San Francisco to force Google to make it easier for users to download apps from other sources and to allow developers more flexibility in offering and charging for purchases. The Cary, North Carolina-based company also said it should be allowed to bring its Epic Games Store to Android "without delays and barriers." Google agreed in December to pay $700 million to resolve the states' case and, among other reforms, will allow more alternative billing options for in-app purchases.
The gaming company in March asked U.S. District Judge James Donato in San Francisco to force Google to make it easier for users to download apps from other sources and to allow developers more flexibility in offering and charging for purchases. The Cary, North Carolina-based company also said it should be allowed to bring its Epic Games Store to Android "without delays and barriers." Google agreed in December to pay $700 million to resolve the states' case and, among other reforms, will allow more alternative billing options for in-app purchases.
But.... (Score:2)
Android has all these different app stores available, and allows sideloading out of the box. What's the problem here?
If you don't want to comply with google's terms, there's probably a different app store available with terms you can live with. All you have to do is direct your new users to said app store.
Apple (Score:3)
I can understand Epic's arguments about Apple's app store. Their arguments about Google make no sense.
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I can understand Epic's arguments about Apple's app store. Their arguments about Google make no sense.
Their argument is that the GP store is a "the" app store for Android devices, and requiring users to toggle off that "security" setting that prevents installing apps from other sources is a hurdle most users won't jump.
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I can understand Epic's arguments about Apple's app store. Their arguments about Google make no sense.
The Court ruled that nine out of ten of Epic's Arguments made no sense, either.
Epic needs sued into oblivion.
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The problem is that monopolies are horrible and cost you money, even if they're not 100% monopolies. If Google doesn't like the anti-monopoly laws there's plenty of different countries they could move to.
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it doesn't matter because voting wont fix that mess in washington dc anymore, the facade of the democratic process has cracked and the corruption is showing how bad it is
does side loading need an trusted dev's setting li (Score:1)
does side loading need an trusted dev's setting like mac os?
not allowed to set an flag that make side loading on = that other apps can check and then not work?
Why should an banking app be allowed block me from installing an game on my phone?
Why should netflix be allowed to block me from installing an game on my phone?
Re:does side loading need an trusted dev's setting (Score:4, Informative)
No. At least on a Samsung phone, when you try to side-load an app, you get a security prompt from the OS, and you can then use the settings app to grant permission for side-loading once. You can also grant permission for an app to side-load apps without requiring manual approval each time (you'd do this for an app store).
No, an app can't tell if you've granted permission for another app to side-load apps or whether side-loaded apps are installed. Apps can tell if the phone is rooted or has an unsigned bootloader installed, though.
Re: _merlin (Score:2)
Relates to conditions on Google apps (Score:3)
It's something to do with the agreements Google forces on the phone manufacturers. Android itself is free, but Google attaches various conditions to the licenses to sell phones with GMail, Google Maps, etc. pre-installed.
A pretty well-known condition is that Chrome must be pre-installed if any other Google apps are pre-installed. Previously they required that Google apps be the default handlers for everything if Google apps are pre-installed (Chrome must be default web browser, GMail must be default e-mai
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Epic's complaint is that attaching this condition to the licenses to pre-install Google apps unfairly stifles competition, as it prevents them from having their app store pre-installed on phones, raising the minimum effort a potential customer requires to discover/purchase something from them.
...and then Epic will just whine that Google is the Default App Store, like what Apple is going through with Google Search as Default.
You know who is actually benefitting here? The Lawyers. It's all about the Billable Hours, baby!!!
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Why did Google pay $700,000,000 ? I get the argument against Apple but this seems like a troll case when dealing with Android
Well, the Court ruled Against Epic in nine out of ten of their Claims against Apple; so, apparently Epic must just like getting bitch-slapped!
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does side loading need an trusted dev's setting like mac os?
not allowed to set an flag that make side loading on = that other apps can check and then not work?
Why should an banking app be allowed block me from installing an game on my phone?
Why should netflix be allowed to block me from installing an game on my phone?
Apple's VP of Software Engineering, Craig Federighi, already testified as to why the macOS "GateKeeper" "Allow Trusted Devs." Concept simply wouldn't be sufficient for iOS:
"If you took Mac security techniques and applied them to the iOS ecosystem, with all those devices, all that value, it would get run over to a degree dramatically worse than is already happening on the Mac."
https://www.theverge.com/2021/... [theverge.com]
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It seems that Epic has a monopoly on "skins" and "dances" in their games. Why am I not allowed to sell my own skins and dances? They should open up their game to allow me to sell ones I create - and no, they can't take a percentage either. Seems not much different than what they are asking for.
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It seems that Epic has a monopoly on "skins" and "dances" in their games. Why am I not allowed to sell my own skins and dances? They should open up their game to allow me to sell ones I create - and no, they can't take a percentage either. Seems not much different than what they are asking for.
Precisely!
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Epic isn't fighting for *your* right to use different app stores. YOU are not locked in to a particular app store.
Epic is fighting for *their* ability to choose to publish with different app stores.
If you are an Android app developer, you'd better be on the Google Play Store, or you might as well close up shop. Sure, you can host your app on the Samsung Store, or Amazon, but then you are able to reach only Android users who have Samsung phones, or Amazon phones. Smaller Android developers don't have the res
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Epic can have their own app store on Android. It's quite possible to install one, yesyes, Android will give a security warning (which is nothing but reasonable), but there are multiple Android app stores [wikipedia.org], some pre-installed (depending on the vendor), some require user action to install.
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That's beside the point. Just because something is technically possible, doesn't make it realistic. Google doesn't own search because it's technically impossible for others to build search engines. They have dominated the search market through arguably anticompetitive practices, like paying Apple $20 billion to be the default search engine for Safari. The EU has certainly deemed Google Search to be an illegal monopoly and forced changes.
The real point is that there are no other viable alternative app stores