Victory Royale.

Well, I’ll be damned. They finally won one it sounds like.

  • cybersandwich@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    11 months ago

    This is so wild. Google allows side loading and 3rd party app stores…and that is the reason they were found guilty.

    Unlike Apple, Google allows people to download apps onto phones running its Android operating system without going through its official app store, but the company strikes deals with phone manufacturers to favor Google’s official app store.

    So because they strike deals to favor their store, even though they allow 3rd party stores to begin with, they’ve violated the SAA.

    Meanwhile, Apple who refuses to allow competition or 3rd party app stores is sitting pretty because…well, they haven’t “favored” their own store over rival stores. BECAUSE RIVAL STORES CANT EXIST. I don’t know how you could favor your store any harder than that??

    The legal shenanigans around all of this are frustrating to watch as a lay person.

      • phx@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        11 months ago

        But if they force Google to open their app store, I hope that do it for fucking everyone.

        At least on Google devices you still can sideload apps, and fairly easy TBH. My biggest annoyance is the “you can’t buy stuff in apps without giving us a cut” which fucked up stuff like ebook apps etc

  • sirdorius@programming.devEnglish
    0·
    11 months ago

    Didn’t Epic lose the fight against Apple? How is Google more of a monopoly than Apple? It is incredibly easy to sideload apps on Android compared to iPhones, and there are multiple dedicated unofficial stores. These verdicts are not coherent at all between them. I understand they are two separate judges, but the law should be the same for all, not at the interpretation of whichever judge you get.

    Edit: for future reference, Verge answers this very question here https://www.theverge.com/24003500/epic-v-google-loss-apple-win-fortnite-trial-monopoly

    • bleuthoot@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      11 months ago

      EDIT: Added source from where I read it.

      From some other comment I read, it apparently was due to google paying companies to set Google’s stuff as their default. Something Apple does not (have to) do.

      This comment by AnalogyBreaker on the article seems to explain it pretty well:

      The “this doesn’t make sense” crowd are missing the point. Android is open source, anyone can use it. Google licensed it that way to spur adoption and (in theory) not solely be responsible for its development. They could make their own closed OS, kept it exclusive to Pixel phones and have a closed app store… but we can can all guess how well that would have went… not well. So the open source route makes sense.

      Because Android is freely licensed to anyone, there is a market for apps that Google theoretically doesn’t control and resides on non-google produced devices. They do control Play Services, however. That’s not open source and includes proprietary apps basically essential for an operating smart phone such as Google sign in, Maps, and of course the Play Store. Google used their market dominance in those fields to prevent third parties from launching or installing competitors to the Play Store by denying Play Services to those who didn’t comply; paying them off directly or brokering sweetheart deals. That’s appears like an obvious abuse of their market position.

      If Google wanted to be treated the same as Apple, they’d have to develop phones the same way as Apple. They didn’t do that, instead they rely on third parties and those third parties have protections from Google abusing their monopoly position against them. To suggest they should be treated the same as Apple is akin to wanting to have your cake and eat it too. For the record, I’m not a fan of the Apple ruling, but there are clear differences between the two cases and seeing different outcomes shouldn’t be a surprise.

      Source

      There was another comparison I read using an example if Microsoft paid stores to not sell PlayStations, but I can’t find it anymore.

      • Aasikki@sopuli.xyzEnglish
        0·
        11 months ago

        I guess it makes sense that google lost here, but what doesn’t seem to make sense at all, at least for me, is how on earth apple won when on their platform you literally have no other option than to use apples stuff.

        • inverted_deflector@startrek.websiteEnglish
          0·
          11 months ago

          Yeah it still doesnt feel consistent to me. Apple is a large enough marketshare holder for a handheld computer and doesnt even give you an option to sideload another market place. The explanation doesnt make any more sense just because google is more open.

          • Cosmic Cleric@lemmy.worldEnglish
            0·
            11 months ago

            Someone else commented that the Google trial was jury decided, where the Apple trial was (assumingly) not.

  • SCB@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    11 months ago

    Epic never sued for monetary damages; it wants the court to tell Google that every app developer has total freedom to introduce its own app stores and its own billing systems on Android

    This seems like a poor choice instead of monetary damages. I have the Epic Games Launcher free game downloader for games I forget I own. I’m very unlikely to start using Epic’s services over Google’s.

    I’d have taken the money and run

    • Cosmic Cleric@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      11 months ago

      I’d have taken the money and run

      That would have been penny wise, and pound foolish.

      Sometimes it’s okay to swing for the fences, even if you end up missing, it’s usually worth the try.

  • inverted_deflector@startrek.websiteEnglish
    0·
    11 months ago

    While I understand the concern over the single appstore monopoly that we have on any device, I think it’s worth remembering what ecosystem android and IOS came into.

    The old multimedia phones that were sold in the mid 00s were effectively “smart”. Many of them ran java and you could install programs, and freely install ringtones, and browsers that actually worked like opera mini/mobile. The thing is you couldnt by default. At least not in the US. The devices were locked down and everything you did went through the carrier’s store. And US telecom services are some of the greediest and scummiest companies out there so you couldnt even use your own mp3 files as a ringtone.

    Apple combated this with their closed off ecosystem, but android did face issues with fragmentation in the early days and needed a way to prevent the telecoms branded phones from stinking up the ecosystem. They did this by leveraging the play services and play store. From the playstore they can also since mainline release various peacemeal updates which helps resolve their other issue with fragmentation and thats android device being abandoned.

    Sure enough you can still release your own version of android without it, amazon’s tablets and tv sticks do pretty well.

    That said I do think it’s a good to help people move past the default and open up the platforms more, I just wish it would apply to all smart devices,