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Apple just kicked Fortnite off the App Store

(www.theverge.com)
1704 points ardit33 | 2 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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jeffrallen ◴[13 Aug 20 20:35 UTC] No.24148597[source]▶
Wonder if that false message could get them in trouble with consumer rights laws?
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java-man ◴[13 Aug 20 20:40 UTC] No.24148686[source]▶
I hope it does.

Monopolies lead to stagnation, rising prices, and inferior product quality. Even though Apple is not a monopoly in the strict sense, I think we consumers will benefit from alternative app store - or Apple opening up the platform.

I believe one can still have (moderately) secure ecosystem without it being a walled garden.

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Zenbit_UX ◴[13 Aug 20 21:35 UTC] No.24149650[source]▶
If you have an iPhone the Appstore is unquestionably a monopoly. At least Google can make the case you can install other app stores so the monopoly claim is weaker.
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qeternity ◴[13 Aug 20 22:01 UTC] No.24150006[source]▶
The mere mention of Google, a perfectly suitable competitor, leads me to believe you don’t understand what a monopoly is...
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1. realusername ◴[14 Aug 20 03:06 UTC] No.24152799[source]▶
> The mere mention of Google, a perfectly suitable competitor,

A perfectly suitable competitor ... which has exactly the same fees, similar policies and do not seem to have any pressure due to the competition to change them, yeah something does not sound right here.

Alternatively I could compare the number of companies I could use to host my web app (100k+) to the number of companies I could use to host my mobile app (just 2). The lack of competition when you compare that to an healthy market is obvious.

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2. qeternity ◴[14 Aug 20 08:36 UTC] No.24155388[source]▶
Many industries converge on similar pricing, and that doesn’t make it anti competitive. It may be anti competitive here, but that also may just be the natural price the market is willing to bear.