Original (pay-walled): https://www.wsj.com/tech/google-loses-antitrust-case-brought-by-epic-games-651f5987
While epic aren’t the white knight we want, anti competitive practices should be stamped out. It’s come out that Spotify get special terms. How can anyone new compete with them? The cut taken by app stores for what is effectively payment process in most cases is crazy.
They command the power as they have users. However most users don’t choose to be there. They have no choice but to use the app stores. It is technically possible to download from elsewhere, at least on Android, but it gets harder and harder to do so.
Personally, a few years ago I never would have co sidered an android phone without gapps. Now it’s becoming more and more clear that it’s a necessity. More and more tracking. More and more rorting. More fees. More micro transactions. More and more locked down.
Absolutely, this is still much better than Google winning. Here’s to hoping it gives third-party app stores the power to be more than glorified APK downloaders.
