
Apple Dominates App Store Search Results, Thwarting Competitors - metaphysics
https://www.wsj.com/articles/apple-dominates-app-store-search-results-thwarting-competitors-11563897221?mod=rsswn
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unpythonic
The New York Times ran an article yesterday covering the same topic. I don't
have a WSJ subscription, so I don't know if they reference the New York Times
article.

"How Apple’s Apps Topped Rivals in the App Store It Controls", Sept 9, 2019

[https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/09/09/technology/ap...](https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/09/09/technology/apple-
app-store-competition.html)

~~~
thijsw
HN discussion
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20916809](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20916809)

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rogerkirkness
The world of atoms is the same as the world of bits: you really want to
control the means of distribution. Uncreative product managers at platform
companies target the most successful apps first. You can pick the winners of
the evolutionary process, take a skim while you're learning and then copy them
with something using private APIs. I don't think that's wrong necessarily but
people seem shocked every time it happens to them.

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mooreds
My question is, why aren't the folks at the platform companies who do this
worried about biting the hand that feeds them? Haven't they seen platforms get
pilloried before? Aren't they worried about alienating developers and
decreasing the value of the platform?

Or is it the death of a thousand cuts, where each product manager thinks "ah,
just this one time won't hurt"?

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simion314
There are business that must have an mobile app and a website, you can't screw
half of your customers and tell them to buy other phone. Developers did not
like to develop for IE but the businesses had no choice to support IE because
the customers were demanding it.

So as a individual you can decide to buy an Android but as a business
sometimes(maybe most of the time ?) you can't decide not to support iOS or
Android, you have to support both.

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muffe2k
They changed that: [https://www.macrumors.com/2019/09/09/apple-adjusts-app-
store...](https://www.macrumors.com/2019/09/09/apple-adjusts-app-store-search-
algorithm/)

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wyxuan
Yeah the article is dated I don't know why people are pretending why this is
new

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supernova87a
And could someone please explain where there's an expectation of equal access
and right to appear with a certain preference in a closed app store's search
results? Or not to have your app's functionality copied by anyone else?

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asr
Your question is worded to suggest you are not actually open to the answer,
but I will try anyway: in antitrust law. You cannot create an open App Store
ecosystem, invite in outside developers, and then pivot and kill them all off
by steering customers to your own app. Closing off your previously-open
ecosystem can be illegal. Read Eastman Kodak Co. v. Image Technical Servs.

~~~
supernova87a
I am open to explanations. I'm especially interested in how a phone
manufacturer that is 3rd place among others can be said to have a monopoly
over the market. Or do you mean just for iPhone apps? Because at that point,
how fine do you get to dice it to find a monopoly? I'm sure that once you
slice it thin enough, almost any company can be said to have a monopoly. Where
does it end? Joe's Pizza has a monopoly on the sale of pizza on the 300 block
of Main Street, and has been trying to keep out competitors by buying the
store next door.

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heisenbit
The app store is not only keeping the competition down but is hampering
innovation. At the size of this business this is an existential threat to
Apple‘s ecosystem as old ideas get tired and new can not get a toehold. They
really need to get out of being an abysmal marketing platform and focus on
distribution mechanics.

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physicsyogi
This isn't cool, but it doesn't bother me too much because iOS app store
search has been useless from day one. It should almost never be used unless
you already know what you're looking for. There are better places to find
music or notetaking apps to download.

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skizm
Serious question: how is this different than a grocery story making their own
cheaper versions of products and placing them in better locations throughout
their store? Large grocery chains do this on a large scale today, right?

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lxcid
Hmmm, one could choose other grocery stores to distribute their products but
developers can only distribute their app in one store.

If you spent months or years developing an app and apple reject it, you have
no way to go. You can’t make it android or web without significant rework.
Even if it is accepted, it might get sherlocked by Apple in WWDC. Not to
mention your app could break every year at this time round when new iOS is
released.

This is the risk of an indie iOS developers and the risk have not lessen over
the years.

Here one heartbreaking post from an indie developer:

[https://qnoid.com/2019/09/06/Apple-
Developer.html](https://qnoid.com/2019/09/06/Apple-Developer.html)

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pkilgore
This article is from July, would appreciate a title tag.

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zaroth
This is effectively a re-post from yesterday, a way to take two bites out of
the same Apple.

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awinter-py
watching a video of bill gates on the indoor toilets project now vs in the 90s
giving DOJ depos is like watching xergiok get his eyes back

The DOJ isn't a subtle instrument and there are a lot of up-and-comers gunning
for this (yelp, for example, was part of the group that lobbied margrethe
vestager to take down G in europe)

The investigations that are coming into the tech cos will going to be like
gladiatorial combat. It will be like the microsoft hearings combined with the
kavanaugh confirmation combined with the mel brooks passion movie

