Apple and Google Agree To Change App Stores After 'Effective Duopoly' Claim (bbc.com)
- Reference: 0180766168
- News link: https://apple.slashdot.org/story/26/02/10/1556232/apple-and-google-agree-to-change-app-stores-after-effective-duopoly-claim
- Source link: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c626rng1v63o
The CMA announced the measures on Tuesday, seven months after it declared that the two companies held an "effective duopoly" over the UK's mobile app ecosystem. Both companies also committed to not using data gathered from third-party developers in ways the regulator deems unfair. The CMA granted both app stores "strategic market status" in October 2025, a designation that gave it the authority to demand changes.
CMA head Sarah Cardell called the commitments "important first steps" and said the regulator would "closely monitor" implementation. Technology analyst Paolo Pescatore described the announcement as a "pragmatic first step" but noted some may see it as "addressing the low-hanging fruit." The UK's app economy is the largest in Europe by revenue and number of developers, generating an estimated 1.5% of the country's GDP.
[1] https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c626rng1v63o
Want a cellphone that's more mine than theirs (Score:2)
It's interesting using a 2-meter Ham radio. They are tough, reliable, some submersible, and unlike cellphones--not theirs.Either you have something that collects all your data for it's AI and advertising needs--or you have something that you cannot control. I hate the world of our cellphones. I hate my cellphone.
Re: (Score:2)
On this front, I'd like both these companies to introduce something in the Settings of their OSs. Namely, in the Accounts section, if one chooses not to have a Google or an iCloud account, to have a section where one can enter the URL of an alternate storage site. It may be either something like DropBox or Carbonite or anything else, or if one happens to have a home NAS, one can even enter that URL - let's call it storage.foo.bar. If one enters that, then all the settings of the device that would normall
I like the preferential treatment (Score:2)
Hear me out, I'm not entirely crazy. I'd rather see the "better" apps than be swamped with tons of AI generated crap apps when searching for an app.
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One thing I like about Apple's store - them requiring vendors to make their services IPv6 accessible, if they want to be available on their store. I for one certainly laud that. iOS, Android and in future, even Windows promises to be IPv6-mostly, allowing for IPv4 hosts and services to be accessible via xLAT-464, reducing the dependence on IPv4 backbones
End the App Store tax (Score:1)
Apple and Google charge 30% on app purchases and in app purchases. It is discourage on developers, especially small Indie developers. It also violates our sovereignty over our devices by forcing us to use their rent seeking stores.
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It also provides a great deal of infrastructure that used to be required of individual publishers. App stores provide a service to both developers and customers, they are not merely "rent seeking".
Also, no one "sovereignty" is "violated", no one takes you seriously with dumb comments like that. Cell phones are not required to offer apps at all. Don't like smart phone terms? Don't use a smart phone.
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(for now?) you can sideload on Android at least. Honestly, though, my trust level for installing random phone apps is fairly low, so I'd prefer a (usually free) first party app over most others in most circumstances. For paid software I'd trust it enough but the adware stuff these days can be rather dire and has been used to push malware, with that even being what makes it through the current app stores. Still, anything to encourage keeping them as open as possible is good in the end.