Apple and Google Agree To Change App Stores After 'Effective Duopoly' Claim (bbc.com) 21
Apple and Google have agreed to a set of commitments to the UK's Competition and Markets Authority that will prevent them from giving preferential treatment to their own apps and require greater transparency around how third-party apps are approved for sale.
The CMA announced the measures on Tuesday, seven months after it declared that the two companies held an "effective duopoly" over the UK's mobile app ecosystem. Both companies also committed to not using data gathered from third-party developers in ways the regulator deems unfair. The CMA granted both app stores "strategic market status" in October 2025, a designation that gave it the authority to demand changes.
CMA head Sarah Cardell called the commitments "important first steps" and said the regulator would "closely monitor" implementation. Technology analyst Paolo Pescatore described the announcement as a "pragmatic first step" but noted some may see it as "addressing the low-hanging fruit." The UK's app economy is the largest in Europe by revenue and number of developers, generating an estimated 1.5% of the country's GDP.
The CMA announced the measures on Tuesday, seven months after it declared that the two companies held an "effective duopoly" over the UK's mobile app ecosystem. Both companies also committed to not using data gathered from third-party developers in ways the regulator deems unfair. The CMA granted both app stores "strategic market status" in October 2025, a designation that gave it the authority to demand changes.
CMA head Sarah Cardell called the commitments "important first steps" and said the regulator would "closely monitor" implementation. Technology analyst Paolo Pescatore described the announcement as a "pragmatic first step" but noted some may see it as "addressing the low-hanging fruit." The UK's app economy is the largest in Europe by revenue and number of developers, generating an estimated 1.5% of the country's GDP.
End the App Store tax (Score:1)
Apple and Google charge 30% on app purchases and in app purchases. It is discourage on developers, especially small Indie developers. It also violates our sovereignty over our devices by forcing us to use their rent seeking stores.
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It also provides a great deal of infrastructure that used to be required of individual publishers. App stores provide a service to both developers and customers, they are not merely "rent seeking".
Also, no one "sovereignty" is "violated", no one takes you seriously with dumb comments like that. Cell phones are not required to offer apps at all. Don't like smart phone terms? Don't use a smart phone.
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The operational costs are neglible, and run at most in hundreds of millions. Google made ~$10B on Play Store in 2025 (20% of estimated $50B revenue). 99% of what you pay for is monopoly pricing, fundamental cost is two magnitudes less than that. Moreover, the developer "support" is abysmal, as Google has near zero motivation to deal with small time developers in monopoly market.
> Cell phones are not required to offer apps at all. Don't like smart phone terms? Don't use a smart phone.
That's a relevant arg
"You can't afford the truth!" (Score:2)
Nice FP branch and I concur with much of it, but I'm still looking for solutions and jokes. Hence my new Subject, which is supposed to be a joke about a solution. (The sub-subject should be something about "cesspool of the vanities", but there are so many of them these days and it seems we're always swimming in one or t'other.)
My main point of agreement is that Apple and the google could be providing valuable services that justify their cuts of the app market. That's mostly in terms of security requirements
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Would you believe I was writing in theoretical terms? Or should I share the long rant against the google that I just wrote and published elsewhere?
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Don't like smart phone terms? Don't use a smart phone.
That's still possible, but increasingly difficult. More and more fundamental services - such as banking - are getting harder and harder to use without a smart phone.
Also, I don't even want to think about crossing the American border and saying to a CBP officer "Sorry, I only have a dumbphone, so I have no internet or social media data to show you". That's a recipe for, at best, a very shitty day.
Re: End the App Store tax (Score:2)
"provides" is a funny way of saying it forces it on them. It's a simping kind of way in fact
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That would all be a good offer, if they wouldn't that strongly force users into using a single appstore. And don't talk about sideloading on Android, even without the new plans to make it more complicated they already do everything to scare away users.
"You need to enable sideloading."
"Sideloading is DANGEROUS. Are you sure?"
"App X wants to install packages. Allow it?"
"Are you SURE you want to allow it?"
"App X wants to install package Y. (install) (cancel)"
If then App X wants to update package Y, you get aga
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Re: End the App Store tax (Score:2)
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Only in the UK. This agreement doesn't cover any other place in the world.
Want a cellphone that's more mine than theirs (Score:2)
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On this front, I'd like both these companies to introduce something in the Settings of their OSs. Namely, in the Accounts section, if one chooses not to have a Google or an iCloud account, to have a section where one can enter the URL of an alternate storage site. It may be either something like DropBox or Carbonite or anything else, or if one happens to have a home NAS, one can even enter that URL - let's call it storage.foo.bar. If one enters that, then all the settings of the device that would normall
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It's interesting using a 2-meter Ham radio. They are tough, reliable, some submersible, and unlike cellphones--not theirs.Either you have something that collects all your data for it's AI and advertising needs--or you have something that you cannot control. I hate the world of our cellphones. I hate my cellphone.
One possible alternative for you is an Android phone for which there is a LineageOS version available. Not perfect, but way, way better than whatever Android version the phone ships with.
I've been doing that for about 10 years now. I use Firefox and DDG browsers, and for YouTube I use PipePipe. Protonmail, Proton Drive, and ProtonVPN can replace a lot of Google-hosted stuff. I still hate my phone, but I hate it a lot less than regular Android. For a more turnkey solution along these lines, check out the Bra
I like the preferential treatment (Score:2)
Hear me out, I'm not entirely crazy. I'd rather see the "better" apps than be swamped with tons of AI generated crap apps when searching for an app.
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One thing I like about Apple's store - them requiring vendors to make their services IPv6 accessible, if they want to be available on their store. I for one certainly laud that. iOS, Android and in future, even Windows promises to be IPv6-mostly, allowing for IPv4 hosts and services to be accessible via xLAT-464, reducing the dependence on IPv4 backbones
fsck Apple & Google both (Score:2)