Nice. Someone is doing something. Apple's app store monopoly together with a 30% commission is a modern form of way-laying.
Meanwhile Google is trying to go the opposite way with mandatory developer registration/verification. In the US we will likely let them. Who needs freedom if there is money to make (and Google is just making a fake security argument.)
It shouldn't be that hard to do with my phone what I want, including accepting the consequences of my actions.
> Apple's app store monopoly together with a 30% commission is a modern form of way-laying
Most of the revenue from the App Store is from games (often in-app purchases from "free to play" games), so it's not surprising that they charge the same 30% platform fee that Nintendo charges.
Epic would of course like to pay lower platform fees to Apple for Fortnite than they pay to Nintendo (or Google) for Fortnite.
My admittedly amateur reading of this is that while it does promote competition, it also explicitly allows what Apple is pulling in the EU with its signing/review requirements for non-App Store applications. So no need to circumvent, they still retain control over what code is allowed to run on iPhones, albeit subject to restrictions on what reasoning they're allowed to use to refuse to sign an app.
I'm waiting for the WebKit part - I remember this Japanese law also mandated Apple to allow other browser engines. The EU law effectively failed to enforce this.. I hope this will work better in Japan.
I really hope that Japanese developers take advantage of this situation to show off at least some of the creativity that's possible when we're not quite as limited by Apple's restrictions. I don't doubt that from a 'security' point of view, Apple is going to continue to enforce all sorts of things that make it wildly more difficult to use the supercomputer in our pockets than I would like. But nonetheless, perhaps this gives a bit of room to be a little more illustrative.
I know that from time to time people have argued that jailbreaking should have resulted in more creativity if it were going to, but with that tiny, tiny market, it's hard to believe that many developers, relatively speaking, would have been able to go hard at building something custom and impressive. With this larger market, hopefully folks will get the chance to do that now.
It doesn't. The law explicitly allows platform owners to require a verification/vetting process for applications, though it does limit the grounds on which Google is allowed to refuse to sign apps.
Readit News
Meanwhile Google is trying to go the opposite way with mandatory developer registration/verification. In the US we will likely let them. Who needs freedom if there is money to make (and Google is just making a fake security argument.)
It shouldn't be that hard to do with my phone what I want, including accepting the consequences of my actions.
Most of the revenue from the App Store is from games (often in-app purchases from "free to play" games), so it's not surprising that they charge the same 30% platform fee that Nintendo charges.
Epic would of course like to pay lower platform fees to Apple for Fortnite than they pay to Nintendo (or Google) for Fortnite.
The best phrase I've heard used to describe this is "techno feudalism".
I'm constantly amazed by how many people have fallen for this trick.
Japan to open up Apple and Google app stores to competition (2023)
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36368735
Japan enacts law to promote competition in smartphone app stores (2024)
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40662176
iOS 26.2 to allow third-party app stores in Japan ahead of regulatory deadline (Nov 2025)
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45822302
Curious to see how Apple and Google are going to circumvent this.
EDIT: more info here: https://open-web-advocacy.org/blog/japan-apple-must-lift-eng...
I know that from time to time people have argued that jailbreaking should have resulted in more creativity if it were going to, but with that tiny, tiny market, it's hard to believe that many developers, relatively speaking, would have been able to go hard at building something custom and impressive. With this larger market, hopefully folks will get the chance to do that now.