<story><title>Japan enacts law to promote competition in smartphone app stores</title><url>https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2024/06/bc2d7f45d456-japan-enacts-law-to-curb-apple-googles-app-dominance.html#google_vignette</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>alwayslikethis</author><text>Realistically, no hardware manufacturer of a significant size (let&amp;#x27;s say 100k total devices) should be allowed to dictate what software can be distributed to users. It opens up all kinds of unfair business practices.</text></item><item><author>arrosenberg</author><text>The answer is obvious, because you can’t fairly resolve a conflict of interest like that  - alignment between publishers and distributors in the same vertical should be banned.</text></item><item><author>BadHumans</author><text>I read this as Apple can&amp;#x27;t ban Spotify because they have Apple Music. The question is what happens when an app is competing with Apple but also is breaking Apple&amp;#x27;s TOS?</text></item><item><author>Johnny555</author><text>&lt;i&gt;The law will prohibit the providers of Apple&amp;#x27;s iOS and Google&amp;#x27;s Android smartphone operating systems, app stores and payment platforms from preventing the sale of apps and services that directly compete with the native platforms&amp;#x27; own.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m not sure what this means -- does this just mean that Apple can&amp;#x27;t prevent a third party from selling an app that does something an Apple app does, or does it mean they have to allow third party app stores? Or is it more about opening the payment platform so an app can take direct payments instead of having to go through Apple?</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>gwbas1c</author><text>Careful: Before web apps were common, 3rd party applications on Windows would break all kinds of things.&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;The hardware manufacturer needs to ensure that software doesn&amp;#x27;t break the device.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;Apple and Google are going well beyond any reasonable grey area, though. Demanding a cut if I buy a book through the Kindle app is absurd and has nothing to do with ensuring that Kindle doesn&amp;#x27;t break my smartphone.</text></comment>
<story><title>Japan enacts law to promote competition in smartphone app stores</title><url>https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2024/06/bc2d7f45d456-japan-enacts-law-to-curb-apple-googles-app-dominance.html#google_vignette</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>alwayslikethis</author><text>Realistically, no hardware manufacturer of a significant size (let&amp;#x27;s say 100k total devices) should be allowed to dictate what software can be distributed to users. It opens up all kinds of unfair business practices.</text></item><item><author>arrosenberg</author><text>The answer is obvious, because you can’t fairly resolve a conflict of interest like that  - alignment between publishers and distributors in the same vertical should be banned.</text></item><item><author>BadHumans</author><text>I read this as Apple can&amp;#x27;t ban Spotify because they have Apple Music. The question is what happens when an app is competing with Apple but also is breaking Apple&amp;#x27;s TOS?</text></item><item><author>Johnny555</author><text>&lt;i&gt;The law will prohibit the providers of Apple&amp;#x27;s iOS and Google&amp;#x27;s Android smartphone operating systems, app stores and payment platforms from preventing the sale of apps and services that directly compete with the native platforms&amp;#x27; own.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m not sure what this means -- does this just mean that Apple can&amp;#x27;t prevent a third party from selling an app that does something an Apple app does, or does it mean they have to allow third party app stores? Or is it more about opening the payment platform so an app can take direct payments instead of having to go through Apple?</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>InitialLastName</author><text>Realistically, including avionics and medical devices where the software is restricted by regulation (in theory) and where the manufacturer is legally liable for failure of their device?&lt;p&gt;More specifically, the radio in an iPhone can almost certainly be made to operate outside of licensed&amp;#x2F;compliant limits by tweaking the software.  Should they be forced to allow that but still held accountable when their device is noncompliant?</text></comment>