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0 pointssmoldesu2y ago0 comments

> One of the main reasons I buy things from Apple (on my device) and Amazon (if it's a physical good)

You don't have a choice, from Apple. With Amazon you can buy your Purina and flip-flops off a third-party, but where else do you buy a calculator app for iPhone?

The problem with this steelman is that giving third-parties more options should change nothing for you. If you're ideologically opposed to anyone that doesn't use Apple's or Amazon's fulfillment system, it doesn't matter where the competitors are anyways. In a post-sideloading world you'd keep using Apple's App Store the same way millions of Android users never enable Developer Mode. Both sides get what they want.

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QuadmasterXLII2y ago

There was a benefit to the consumer of the old no-sideloading world, specifically if it's possible to sideload an app then then companies can force you to do it.

"Hi, this is the company that owns your mortgage. You can now only pay through our app which you have to sideload because it's also a rootkit."

Why do consumers have the attitude "I will buy apple specifically to make you suffer through the apple app store approval process, and I don't give a shit if they take 30%?" The answer is 20 years of abominable behaviour by corporate app teams.

smoldesuOP2y ago

It's an interesting hypothetical, but not realistic in countries with loan regulation. Not to mention, NSO Group has shown us that you can install a rootkit using built-in iMessage and zero-click exploits. I don't think manually-installed malware would lower the current bar, especially considering how "dangerously" capable the phone and web browser already is. Arguing against anything that can be used against the user would see the phone, iPod and internet communicator removed from your iPhone.

> The answer is 20 years of abominable behaviour by corporate app teams.

I feel like you're not going to like my answer to "Why Apple is facing multinational antitrust scrutiny" then.

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