Epic win: Jury decides Google has illegal monopoly in app store fight
Epic win: Jury decides Google has illegal monopoly in app store fight
Victory Royale.
Google will appeal the decision: https://www.theverge.com/2023/12/11/23996902/google-will-appeal-the-epic-v-google-verdict
The only thing we've learned today is that Apple's lawyers are far better than Google's...
90Yeah... How the fuck is Google action here "monopolistic" and Apple literally refusing to let anyone in at all somehow isn't? What a joke.
75Because iOS is Apple's OS on Apple's hardware. The court ruled they could do what they want. Android is not Google's OS, even if it's mostly theirs, and they certainly have no control over the hardware apart from Pixels.
Competition is possible on Android in a way it isn't on iOS. Google was being anti-competitive in a space where others can compete, Apple was just being a bully in their own backyard.
24It's so frustrating seeing this question constantly in all these threads when this has been explained.
iOS is locked down. It is not an open, competitive market. That in itself is not against the law, and it won't be considered an anti-trust issue until the market share grows.
Android is not locked down, which means it's a competitive marketplace.
Google was not doing the same thing as Apple. Google was using shady deals to make Android less competitive. iOS was never competitive to begin with.
Apple got off on a technicality, basically.
What Apple does is shitty and deserves regulating, but apparently we have a ways to go before we reach the EU's level of understanding on this.
9
Look, I despise Google as much as anyone these days, and I'm glad they're taking a beating this time around, but at the same time, it's also kind of bullshit. And it's not even because you can sideload apps, or have alternate appstores on Android, but because we have yet to see the same standards being applied to Apple.
57I don't understand, this is bullshit because Apple won their case? Do you mean the Apple case was bullshit?
14On Android you can install unapproved apps and even entire app stores. The barrier to having people install your app is a couple of taps (approximately as difficult as it'd be on Windows when you've got to approve UAC a time or two).
So, it is kind of ridiculous in comparison that they lost but Apple with an entire walled of ecosystem that you can't bypass without finding a zero day exploit won their case.
With that said, I know a lot of people who only buy Apple BECAUSE of that walled off ecosystem and conversely I know people that primarily buy Android for their relatively open system, so I'm in the minority where I think neither Google nor Apple should have to change in this particular regard. Both companies suck, but charging the same price they always have for their app store isn't the issue I'd fight them over.
17
Not disagreeing, but sidelosding is obvious for people like us who have tinkered with smartphones, especially back when most devices used to be 'open' and tons of 3rd party roms were around. It's obvious for us who know about adb commands and developer settings. It's not so obvious when you're a new customer who got their 1st galaxy phone - you'd have no idea there's something else other than Google play for apps.
2
How the heck does Google lose this but apple win it? Not that funny. Weird news.
24apple has a deeper lobbyist checkbook
8Mishaal Rahman talked a bit about this: https://androiddev.social/@MishaalRahman/111564753075960964
4
Shouldn't this set a precedent for apple as well?
22Thing is, Apple is only 30% of the market. Google is the other 70%
12Not in the US. The estimates I've seen are closer to 50-50 which is really saying something about how effective Apple has been.
14
Apple's reasoning is that they also sell their own machines... still bs if you ask me.
5
I think a lot of people here are missing the point that in a court legal != pro-consumer. The US has monopoly laws that Apple (annoyingly) follows but Google does not.
15Apple follows the monopoly laws but Google doesn't? Which one allows you to install alternative app stores again?
3Because Apple does not break monopoly law. Which isn't about installing app stores, would be weird if that's in the law anyways given the age.
Apple sells a device they make, with firmware they create. That firmware allows plugins from a catalogue they curate because it's all their ecosystem, top to bottom.
Google otoh creates an OS. More like MS or Canonical or so.
10
what a hulk of bullshit. I hate Google as much as anyone else but how the fuck do they have a monopoly over the app store when you can literally download .apk files from anywhere and install it?
13They force anybody using the android trademark to include Google Play/Services, not a lawyer but I think that's "tying" when they force you to use one thing with something else.
And juries are unpredictable.
21Why are you mad about this?
Google absolutely does.
Name me 4+ more Android app stores you can use?
-1I'm on GrapheneOS without Play Store OR Aurora Store. I use Obtainium to track open source apps from Github Gitlab Codeberg F droid repos etc, and download the proprietary apps I need from ApkMirror and ApkPure (two third party app stores that you can download to your phone or just use their website and sideload apks).
Good luck doing any of that on iOS.
5
So now what?
3