Apple just kicked Fortnite off the App Store

Imagine if Microsoft did this on PCs. a) prohibiting the installation of non-windows store software (sideloading) and b) insisting that all purchases done via apps give them a 30% cut. I think this is a ridiculous practice on the behalf of Apple.

Even worse. Imagine if the World Wide Web was not open and you had to go through a closed WWW like AOL and websites were "under review" by the providers and would take a 30% cut of your revenues or clicks on your web app or subscription service and websites require going only through that provider.

Thank goodness that wasn't the case.

That's a little silly as an example because AOL was exactly like this back in the day and had curated channels. You could still access external sites if AOL was your ISP as well but anything inside of the AOL application was reviewed by AOL.

Also, the web is not even a great analogy period since it wasn't created by a private company. Apple created their phones, their App Store, they maintain it, and they provide the infrastructure for it. That's nothing like the internet.

Yeah but this is as if you bought an AOL computer that did nothing but AOL. And AOL had absolute authority on what you could do on your computer.

I know, I know, people who bought iPhones knew what they were buying into.

Actually, I don't think most people who buy iPhones have any idea what they're buying into. They're buying a phone. In some cases, they're buying an iPhone to access things like FaceTime. if they want to communicate with their friends then they must buy an iPhone.

Actually, I bought iPhones for my parents precisely because of the walled garden and consistent experience. Back when I made this change (3 years ago), the Android App Store was just a cess pool of privacy violating trash apps. Between that and the inconsistent ways to do everything across manufacturers, I just determined android flexibility is not worth hours of support for non-techies.

So yes, lots of people buy iPhones exactly because if Apples iron grip.

You're conflating different things under the header of "Apple's iron grip" here. It is beneficial to your parents that Apple prevents spyware better than Google does. It is not beneficial to your parents that they obsessively seek and destroy any way developers might get a single dollar from an iPhone user without giving Apple 30¢.

I’m sure my 75 year old parents don’t really care about in app purchases in Fortnite....