1188
Hey, at least it's only a duopoly!
(lemmy.nz)
after 15 years, iOS has finally caught up with all the main android features, such as
- very mid ui design
- kinda floaty feeling
- unpolished vibe android itself has progressed little, although it is rapidly achieving feature parity with iOS on "locked down user hostility". overall both ecosystems look very appealing, energetic, and healthy, for shareholders
Their biggest selling point is regulated app stores...
Completely ignoring the obvious downsides of letting private for profit corporations regulate marketplaces while facing no regulations themselves.
It's shit the government should be doing
They're really astroturfing youtube ads right now (I know, ick, youtube, and I should use plugins; I normally don't use it at all but lately I've had a couple songs I've been listening too on repeat. I should just download them).
Like, almost every fucking ad is "some apps are traps, can you spot the trap" with these stupid cartoony characters representing apps and suddenly one (at random, with no rhyme or reason) blows up and the narrator says "google play can."
Like fuck off, google play says whatever they want to say is a trap is a trap. Meanwhile they allow all these predatory BS apps on their store. They'll let you fall for the traps they approve of. And they won't even show you what country an app developer is based in until after you download it.
But they're trying to give people this false sense of security like "oh, I can trust anything on the play store" while also making them suspicious/hesitant to use any alternative app repos. It's clearly an attempt to manufacture consent for their ecosystem lockdown, and unfortunately it will probably work. They're targeting easily-influenced young people with these supposedly "cute" (yet honestly kinda gross) characters.
sound of jail bars crashing shut as Android cuts all the indie developers out of the market
The joke of it all is that government does do stuff. But it's mostly to cement the existing duopoly.
Government contractors dump hundreds of billions of dollars into licensing for the dominant OS. Government regulators are fully captured by industry lobbyists, building their rules around policies the businesses have decided on internally. Policing agencies focus almost entirely on small fish, foreign developers, and whistleblowers. Courts use a one-size-fits-all financial punishment guidance, which can easily bankrupt a small business but is barely more than a speedbump for mega-corporations.
Nobody seriously talks about Breaking Up The Tech Companies via Antitrust Laws. Nobody talks about making Open-Source Code more regulatory friendly or investing more public dollars in Open-Source development / deployments. We can't even seriously talk about insourcing chip production or building out competitors to Intel and TSMC.
The Big Lie of modern left/right political discourse is that American political institutions are doing Too Much or Not Enough. The bitter truth is that if you're any kind of threat to the domestic business cartels... well... just ask TikTok what happens next.
Software repositories are already perfect!
All the regulation they do such as age verification is mandated by governments.
Meaning it's not Wild West, apps need to be approved to be listed and consumers are generally able to trust what they install.
That is becoming less true due people being entrenched in one ecosystem or the other.
That is regulating a market....
Fixing it via regulation would require accountability and transpency. To sell on a goveerenment marketplace app developers would need an actual real life human to put their name on a line saying they're responsible if the app turns out to be malware.
Like, there's regulations for products already, you can't sell fire extinguishers to people that are filled with gasoline. You shouldn't be able to offer an app that will steal your identity or creditionals to other apps/sites.
Like, youre acting like words only mean one thing bro, you need to open your eyes and don't just always assume everything is what you first assume.
You can already write a desktop app to do all that malware stuff. Why give the phones and tablets special treatment?
Personally I like the iPhone and the App Store for the reason that it does go through some basic checks.
But as a dev, sometimes I just want to run my own shit on my own phone without hassle. (Yes I know there is dev mode. I don’t want to constantly run my main phone in dev mode just so I can run my own apps.)
And if you sold it thru a regulated marketplace, you could be held responsible...
They shouldn't...
If I said habitual drunk drivers shouldn't be able to have a driver's license, what you just did is like asking why someone who does 2 grams of Fentanyl everyday should be able to keep theirs...
I understand what you're saying, and I agree...
I just don't know why you assumed I wouldn't agree bud
Yes...
It was an exaggeration for effect, highlighting how while malware apps were a problem, desktop programs containing malware were even worse....
So obviously we wouldn't just look at one slice of the pie.
We'd start regulating all digital products and holding people accountable.
I mean shit man, I started out with:
Obviously no one is doing that either, but selling fire extinguishers you know don't work still isn't allowed. Consumers need a regulated market or else they won't spend because they think they'll always be ripped off. We're already seeing it to some extent.
Haha, yeah, sorry. I’ll delete this. I don’t know why I’m like this.