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IOS Japan Software The Internet Yahoo! Apple Games

Did Apple Secretly Crush An App Store Competitor In Japan? (theverge.com) 89

Posted by BeauHD from the ulterior-motives dept.
According to Nikkei, Japan's Fair Trade Commission is looking into whether Apple improperly pressured Yahoo Japan to shut down a game streaming platform that competed with the iOS App Store. "Yahoo Japan's Game Plus service allowed people to stream full games made for other platforms and to play HTML5 games on mobile phones, which would have allowed iPhone owners to get games without going through the App Store," reports The Verge. From the report: Nikkei reports that Yahoo Japan slashed the program's budget last fall, just months after it launched, and told partners that it was due to pressure from Apple. It's said to have begun filing complaints with Japan's FTC around the same time. Developers essentially have no good alternative to the App Store on iOS. Their only other option is the web, which is a wonderful place for websites, but the web is rarely as fast or flashy as a native app. There are a great number of features that only native apps can take advantage of, which requires going through the App Store and giving Apple a 30 percent cut of most sales. Yahoo Japan's service was meant, in part, to be an alternative to that, offering better terms to developers, according to Nikkei, and fewer restrictions around how games were updated and sold. Final Fantasy creator Square Enix had even signed on and produced an exclusive game for the platform, which has since been pulled.
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Did Apple Secretly Crush An App Store Competitor In Japan? More

Did Apple Secretly Crush An App Store Competitor In Japan?

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  • Would like to hear more about this (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    If Apple starts to actively prevent choice and innovation rather than the opposite then we will know the mbas have killed Apple. You need a key founder/s to make companies survive long term

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      You need a key founder/s to make companies survive long term.

      Paging Herman Hollerith and Thomas Watson. Please come to the white courtesy phone.

      No? Paging Thomas A. Edison or Cecil Rhodes.

      No? Paging Will C Durant, Henry Ford, or Kiichiro Toyoda.

      Damn, not having much luck with any of these guys.

      How about W.K. Kellogg? Henri Nestle? Akio Morita? Any of you guys around?

      Amadeo Giannini? John Thompson?

      Yeah, no company ever survives without its founder(s).

      • You need a key founder/s to make companies survive long term.

        Paging Herman Hollerith and Thomas Watson. Please come to the white courtesy phone.

        No? Paging Thomas A. Edison or Cecil Rhodes.

        No? Paging Will C Durant, Henry Ford, or Kiichiro Toyoda.

        Damn, not having much luck with any of these guys.

        How about W.K. Kellogg? Henri Nestle? Akio Morita? Any of you guys around?

        Amadeo Giannini? John Thompson?

        Yeah, no company ever survives without its founder(s).

        Perfect!

    • Comment removed (Score:4, Insightful)

      by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Thursday August 16, 2018 @10:30AM (#57137064)
      Comment removed based on user account deletion

      • Apple has a long history of trying to prevent choice and innovation. They forced DR to lobotomize GEM, threatened Microsoft for the best part of a decade to prevent them from producing a decent UI for Windows (you really don't want to know what Windows was like pre-95), and until the late nineties was notorious for avoiding open technologies, even when there was no serious advantage to its own. While things warmed again under Jobs, the latter went ballistic over Google's Android despite the iPhone itself being a blatant copy of an LG design [wikipedia.org].

        They're not the good guys, they're just a company that very often comes up with some good ideas.

        Every single bit of that is a lie.

        CREDIBLE Citations on ALL of it, or STFU.

        • Apple has a long history of trying to prevent choice and innovation. They forced DR to lobotomize GEM, threatened Microsoft for the best part of a decade to prevent them from producing a decent UI for Windows (you really don't want to know what Windows was like pre-95), and until the late nineties was notorious for avoiding open technologies, even when there was no serious advantage to its own. While things warmed again under Jobs, the latter went ballistic over Google's Android despite the iPhone itself being a blatant copy of an LG design [wikipedia.org].

          They're not the good guys, they're just a company that very often comes up with some good ideas.

          Every single bit of that is a lie.

          Sorry, every bit of that is bang on, I saw it all with my own eyes. And that's just the tip of it. Being charitable to Apple if anything, maybe that is a mistake.

          • Apple has a long history of trying to prevent choice and innovation. They forced DR to lobotomize GEM, threatened Microsoft for the best part of a decade to prevent them from producing a decent UI for Windows (you really don't want to know what Windows was like pre-95), and until the late nineties was notorious for avoiding open technologies, even when there was no serious advantage to its own. While things warmed again under Jobs, the latter went ballistic over Google's Android despite the iPhone itself being a blatant copy of an LG design [wikipedia.org].

            They're not the good guys, they're just a company that very often comes up with some good ideas.

            Every single bit of that is a lie.

            Sorry, every bit of that is bang on, I saw it all with my own eyes. And that's just the tip of it. Being charitable to Apple if anything, maybe that is a mistake.

            You do realize, of course, that your "citations" add up to a big "Because I said so.", right?

            • Apple has a long history of trying to prevent choice and innovation. They forced DR to lobotomize GEM, threatened Microsoft for the best part of a decade to prevent them from producing a decent UI for Windows (you really don't want to know what Windows was like pre-95), and until the late nineties was notorious for avoiding open technologies, even when there was no serious advantage to its own. While things warmed again under Jobs, the latter went ballistic over Google's Android despite the iPhone itself being a blatant copy of an LG design [wikipedia.org].

              They're not the good guys, they're just a company that very often comes up with some good ideas.

              Every single bit of that is a lie.

              Sorry, every bit of that is bang on, I saw it all with my own eyes. And that's just the tip of it. Being charitable to Apple if anything, maybe that is a mistake.

              You do realize, of course, that your "citations" add up to a big "Because I said so.", right?

              Don't be disingenuous.

              • Apple has a long history of trying to prevent choice and innovation. They forced DR to lobotomize GEM, threatened Microsoft for the best part of a decade to prevent them from producing a decent UI for Windows (you really don't want to know what Windows was like pre-95), and until the late nineties was notorious for avoiding open technologies, even when there was no serious advantage to its own. While things warmed again under Jobs, the latter went ballistic over Google's Android despite the iPhone itself being a blatant copy of an LG design [wikipedia.org].

                They're not the good guys, they're just a company that very often comes up with some good ideas.

                Every single bit of that is a lie.

                Sorry, every bit of that is bang on, I saw it all with my own eyes. And that's just the tip of it. Being charitable to Apple if anything, maybe that is a mistake.

                You do realize, of course, that your "citations" add up to a big "Because I said so.", right?

                Don't be disingenuous.

                I'm not. Don't be deliberately obtuse.

                • Apple has a long history of trying to prevent choice and innovation. They forced DR to lobotomize GEM, threatened Microsoft for the best part of a decade to prevent them from producing a decent UI for Windows (you really don't want to know what Windows was like pre-95), and until the late nineties was notorious for avoiding open technologies, even when there was no serious advantage to its own. While things warmed again under Jobs, the latter went ballistic over Google's Android despite the iPhone itself being a blatant copy of an LG design [wikipedia.org].

                  They're not the good guys, they're just a company that very often comes up with some good ideas.

                  Every single bit of that is a lie.

                  Sorry, every bit of that is bang on, I saw it all with my own eyes. And that's just the tip of it. Being charitable to Apple if anything, maybe that is a mistake.

                  You do realize, of course, that your "citations" add up to a big "Because I said so.", right?

                  Don't be disingenuous.

                  I'm not. Don't be deliberately obtuse.

                  I will say this for you: you have that arrogance thing down pat. You have that newspeak thing down pat. You are the reason people hate Apple, you are a fine ambassador. Carry on.

                  • Apple has a long history of trying to prevent choice and innovation. They forced DR to lobotomize GEM, threatened Microsoft for the best part of a decade to prevent them from producing a decent UI for Windows (you really don't want to know what Windows was like pre-95), and until the late nineties was notorious for avoiding open technologies, even when there was no serious advantage to its own. While things warmed again under Jobs, the latter went ballistic over Google's Android despite the iPhone itself being a blatant copy of an LG design [wikipedia.org].

                    They're not the good guys, they're just a company that very often comes up with some good ideas.

                    Every single bit of that is a lie.

                    Sorry, every bit of that is bang on, I saw it all with my own eyes. And that's just the tip of it. Being charitable to Apple if anything, maybe that is a mistake.

                    You do realize, of course, that your "citations" add up to a big "Because I said so.", right?

                    Don't be disingenuous.

                    I'm not. Don't be deliberately obtuse.

                    I will say this for you: you have that arrogance thing down pat. You have that newspeak thing down pat. You are the reason people hate Apple, you are a fine ambassador. Carry on.

                    So much blathering, and yet STILL not a SINGLE CITATION!

                    Remarkable.

                    • So much blathering, and yet STILL not a SINGLE CITATION!

                      Google them yourself you pompous ass. Every one of OPs original points is a matter of public record.

                    • they're just a company that very often comes up with some good ideas

                      OK, I will grant you that that point is a lie. Apple did have a record of coming up with good ideas until pencil-pusher Tim Cook arrived, now they only have pencil pusher ideas and squeeze more milk out of aging camp follower ideas.

                    • So much blathering, and yet STILL not a SINGLE CITATION!

                      Google them yourself you pompous ass. Every one of OPs original points is a matter of public record.

                      Google what, exactly?

                    • they're just a company that very often comes up with some good ideas

                      OK, I will grant you that that point is a lie. Apple did have a record of coming up with good ideas until pencil-pusher Tim Cook arrived, now they only have pencil pusher ideas and squeeze more milk out of aging camp follower ideas.

                      "I will grant you that that point is a lie?!?"

                      WTF?!? That sentence is a completely self-negating non-sequitur!

                    • I understand that your mind is only able to think one level deep. One button mouse, same idea, right? No doubt you are in awe of your own intellectual superiority. How Apple of you.

                    • I understand that your mind is only able to think one level deep. One button mouse, same idea, right? No doubt you are in awe of your own intellectual superiority. How Apple of you.

                      Mmmm. You counter with a one-button-mouse meme.

                      And yet you have the unmitigated gall to impugn MY "intellectual superiority"?

                    • You make it clear to anybody with the misfortune to stumble over your dreary tracks on the internet that your imagined intellectual superiority is most precious to you. Apple is hollowed out and you are part of the rot.

  • And let's see what happen :)

  • Usually any headline ending with a question mark the answer is no, nut in this case I'd say, probably.

    • Betteridge only applies when it lines up with a person’s preconceived biases.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by theM_xl ( 760570 )

      Think we might still call that a no. It honestly sounds like they weren't being secretive about it at all.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

        Think we might still call that a no. It honestly sounds like they weren't being secretive about it at all.Think we might still call that a no. It honestly sounds like they weren't being secretive about it at all.

        The question is not why, but how. I mean, it's a website, after all. Somehow Apple forced Yahoo to shut down their website? For what benefit? Did Apple go after all the developers and remove their apps or something?

        What did Apple do that got Yahoo Japan so legitimately scared they shut down their we

  • âoeDevelopers essentially have no good alternative to the App Store on iOS. â What about the poor developers who have no alternative to Nintendoâ(TM)s eShop? Whereâ(TM)s their alternative?

  • We are Apple, the object of your desire. You shall have no other App Stores before me.

  • Semi-off topic:
    "Google is expected to lose $50 million in just the next five months because Epic Games was able to skirt the Play Store when launching Fortnite on Android."

    Yes, they "skirted" the play store in much the same way come companies skirt Steam and simply allow their game to be downloaded and installed directly with no Steam activation or client dependency.

    The linked article discussing it isn't much better. So much concern trolling and predictions (hopes?) of problems for Epic games that it makes

    • To lose something, one must have had it.

      I lose millions of dollars every week because I'm not a billionaire.

    • Semi-off topic:
      "Google is expected to lose $50 million in just the next five months because Epic Games was able to skirt the Play Store when launching Fortnite on Android."

      I'm having trouble understanding how Google can "lose" something that isn't theirs.

      • I could see them saying they are expected to "Miss out" on $50 million - that absolutely makes sense.
        I know better than to just assume it's dumb word choice when every media outlet seems to have an agenda these days.
        We're expected to hear Google is losing $50 million (how much was that last EU fine again, Google?) because a company has the gall to release their APK without using Googles app store. I can tell you from firsthand experience - you can most definitely install any Android app WITHOUT an app sto

  • Being a greedy bully is a dangerous thing when your image is your way to make more money.

  • According to Betteridge‘s law of headlines.

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