On Monopolies, Apple, and Epic
This piece is terrible.<p>Full of straw men, dishonesty, ad hominems, and deeply one sided.<p>One way to make this piece better, the author needs to stop pretending that the only people who are supporting Apple against Epic have no experience shipping apps.<p>I have shipped many, and I vehemently disagree with the author.<p>It seems to me that there are just as many people on both sides of this debate with experience and just as many who don’t have it.  The author’s claim is disingenuous.<p>Another claim that must be queried is the idea that Android users are by definition people who don’t want to spend money.<p>This seems like it’s a true observation, but unless we ask <i>why</i> it’s true, we can’t reason about this topic.<p>Apple will of course say it’s because of the effort they have put into building a safe platform, and the fact that they maintain a place where people are willing to spend money on software is exactly why they should continue to receive commission.<p>If we stop Apple from doing what they are doing, it’s completely plausible that we’ll end up with everyone having the willingness to pay that is demonstrated by Google Play, and software sales decimated by piracy.<p>It’s worth noting that I would love an environment without a gatekeeper.  I actually agree that it’s bad for Apple to have this power.<p>I simply don’t see any reason to believe that forcing Apple to allow other stores (which is technically problematic since it requires that the state force Apple to maintain software) would produce the desired outcome.<p>I also think it’s completely disingenuous to dismiss benefits like security.  That just makes it seem like the author doesn&#x27;t have experience in the area.  Malware is an obvious problem which clearly does exist.<p>Disclaimer: I love IA’s products.  I think they are some of the best on the App Store.