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> If it’s that bad for developers, drop the iPhone and develop solely for Android.

That's what I've done personally but that's not something you can ask most companies.



Of course it is something you can ask most companies! Whether they'll do it or not is up to them.


Then what personal freedom is that in practice? The personal freedom to be ignored by thousands of companies?


If I ask you to turn on your head lights at day time, am I ignoring your personal freedom? You can ask anybody anything and it won't interfere with their freedom I think. You are free to not even listen to the question...

I might judge you based on your decision and chose to ignore you in future. This again would not violate your personal freedom I think


Yes, it seems like you’re getting it.


Why not? Android has nearly twice as much marketshare as Apple in Europe.


The cost of switching device ecosystems can be comparable to the cost of renting an apartment in richer countries, and exceeding the monthly income in poorer countries. Yet we clearly recognize that renters need protections and can't reasonably be told to just move apartments over anything. So why shouldn't we hold phone ecosystems to the same standards?

Especially when both do their best to make migration to the other difficult.


I... Don't really see what your numbers could look like, here.

Buying a cheap Android phone is $200-300 and selling an iPhone will more than pay for that. Switching from iCloud to something else for backups will actually save a little bit per month.

Average London rent is equivalent to 40K USD per year, as a random "richer country" example. It's not in the same ballpark, is it?


> Average London rent is equivalent to 40K USD per year, as a random "richer country" example. It's not in the same ballpark, is it?

Average London rent is $3333 per month per person? I’m struggling to believe that.


Q4 2023:

greater london: ~£2600/mo (~US$3200)

inner london: ~£3100/mo (~US$3900)

outer london: ~£2200/mo (~US$2800)

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/news/rental-price-tracker


From the result of a quick web search which found this as the first result, yes: https://www.standard.co.uk/homesandproperty/renting/london-r...

Not per person, I haven't ever been charged per person except in student accommodation and Japanese hotel rooms, not sure how we'd know what that would be.


> The cost of switching device ecosystems can be comparable to the cost of renting an apartment in richer countries

I'm not sure what you are doing with your phone but you should lower your dependencies on tech gadget if switching from iPhone to Android would cost you so much. The law can't regulate primarily for people making unreasonable decisions.


Because it's not a market, that's the whole problem, you have to target both platforms no matter what you do otherwise you are losing some marketshare. (Unless you are doing it as a hobby like me of course)

It's not like you can install android apps on iphone or iphone apps on android.

Sure in a market you might tell the consumer "shop somewhere else" but that's not an option here since they can't.


There's endless examples of apps that are exclusively iOS or exclusively Android. Many high quality paid apps are only on one platform.


That still doesn't make it a market, they lost users with this decision.

It's nowhere like shops where you can price compare and pick the shop you want every week.

In an actual market, both marketplace would compete.


I fail to understand your point. It's up to developers what platforms they want to serve.


That's not a decision, you are losing 100% of the users on the other platform...

What's why I'm saying it's not a market, phone users can't price compare stores.


Do you suffer from some kind of God complex? People other than you will make their own decisions on how to conduct their own life and business. Even if you don't agree with those decisions.


Why you don't seem to understand how it works in any other industry?

I'm building a house, I'm going to buy the floor at shop B and the walls at shop A because it's a better value.

I want to buy some groceries, I can buy bread at shop A and eggs at shop B.

When you're on mobile you buy everything either at the play store or the appstore depending on your phone, that's it, zero choice, it's either everything in one or the other.

So first a grand total of two stores for the entire world isn't going cut it regardless and then those stores don't even compete with each other anyways because you are locked in to just one with your phone.

Is that any clearer now why it's not a market or still not?


You realize how poor Android users are? There's no money to be made on Android, period. Many companies tried, all of them failed.




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