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Apple just kicked Fortnite off the App Store

(www.theverge.com)
1704 points ardit33 | 4 comments | 13 Aug 20 19:03 UTC | HN request time: 0.001s | source
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mrspeaker ◴[13 Aug 20 20:31 UTC] No.24148531[source]▶
If I go to the App Store on my phone, and go to my "Purchased" list, Fortnite is still listed there. I wasn't up to date, and clicking on "update" gives the message:

    "Fortnite" No Longer Available. The developer has removed this app from the App Store.
Interesting wording. I wonder if they only have one message for pulled-by-Apple vs pulled-by-dev?
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mullingitover ◴[13 Aug 20 21:02 UTC] No.24149088[source]▶
Epic effectively pulled it themselves when they unilaterally broke their agreement.

I think Apple's cut is egregious but at the same time, they're not a monopoly. My main gripe is that they're behaving as if they're bringing value that the developers are riding on, when in reality nobody would buy iPhones if it weren't for the value that many developers are bringing to the platform, often at no cost to Apple.

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Jellyd ◴[13 Aug 20 21:09 UTC] No.24149235[source]▶
Who else is apple competing with to put apps on iphones? Compared to android where you have indy devs, samsung store, play store, or any other store; it's a clear monopoly.
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mullingitover ◴[13 Aug 20 21:13 UTC] No.24149292[source]▶
There isn't an iPhone industry, there's a smartphone industry, and Apple (despite all their profits) only controls a small portion of that business.

Their strategy also adds a lot of consumer value. I use an iPhone specifically because I understand the tradeoffs between freedom and reliability/security, and I go for the reliability/security. Not everyone wants a second job playing sysadmin on their smartphone.

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1. lostmyoldone ◴[13 Aug 20 21:27 UTC] No.24149527[source]▶
Apple's smartphone market share in US is almost 50% according to the numbers I see, how is that small?
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2. heavyset_go ◴[13 Aug 20 21:30 UTC] No.24149577[source]▶
Not only that, they have the majority of app store purchases.

And there is also the fact that the government doesn't classify a trust[1] by the dictionary definition of monopoly:

> Courts do not require a literal monopoly before applying rules for single firm conduct; that term is used as shorthand for a firm with significant and durable market power — that is, the long term ability to raise price or exclude competitors. That is how that term is used here: a "monopolist" is a firm with significant and durable market power.

[1] https://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/competition-guidance/guide-a...

3. parineum ◴[13 Aug 20 23:13 UTC] No.24150874[source]▶
I'd think a more "fair" comparison would be "percent of dollars spent". Since Apple is purposely targeting a higher cost, lower volume segment of the market.

It's a fairly difficult comparison to make though because you have to compare a single companies vertical integration to the non-integrated supply chains of several other companies.

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4. krrrh ◴[14 Aug 20 10:17 UTC] No.24156058[source]▶
Also, the consumer experience of a single well-maintained, and mostly safe App Store plays a large role in why iPhone users are comfortable spending more money on third party apps.

Anytime the discussion around Apple’s take on subscription revenue comes up there are always comments from people that they wouldn’t even mind paying a premium price just to have the convenience of having all their subscriptions managed in one place, and free of company-specific dark patterns for unsubscribing.