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Apple just kicked Fortnite off the App Store

(www.theverge.com)
1704 points ardit33 | 3 comments | 13 Aug 20 19:03 UTC | HN request time: 0s | 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. kllrnohj ◴[13 Aug 20 21:33 UTC] No.24149628[source]▶
> There isn't an iPhone industry

Of course there is. You can argue that it shouldn't be the deciding factor here, but you can't argue it doesn't exist at all.

iOS is basically a geographical region. It's like saying there isn't a California market because it's instead the US market. Or that you can't be considered a monopoly because people can move. Yes, they can, but there's significant burdens to that movement. And it turns out that burden was enough to consider things like utilities to be monopolies. Is the burden on switching between Android & iOS high enough to be considered a barrier to free competition? I'd say yes, it is. As such, iOS is its own market in which Apple is abusing monopoly position.

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2. cruano ◴[14 Aug 20 15:52 UTC] No.24159516[source]▶
If you want a Ford then the Ford Motor Company is unquestionably a monopoly /s
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3. kllrnohj ◴[14 Aug 20 16:15 UTC] No.24159811[source]▶
I can get 3rd party parts for my Ford without issue, and it can be worked on & upgraded by 3rd party shops. There's competition even within the subset of cars from Ford.