South Korea Parliament Committee Votes To Curb Google, Apple Commission Dominance (reuters.com) 20
A South Korean parliamentary committee voted on Wednesday to recommend amending a law, a key step toward banning Google and Apple from forcibly charging software developers commissions on in-app purchases, the first such curb by a major economy. From a report: Apple and Alphabet's Google have faced global criticism because they require software developers using their app stores to use proprietary payment systems that charge commissions of up to 30%.
In a statement on Tuesday, Apple said the bill "will put users who purchase digital goods from other sources at risk of fraud, undermine their privacy protections," hurt user trust in App Store purchases and lead to fewer opportunities for South Korean developers. Wilson White, senior director of public policy at Google, said "the rushed process hasn't allowed for enough analysis of the negative impact of this legislation on Korean consumers and app developers". Experts said app store operators could assure security in payment systems other than their own by working with developers and other companies. Further reading: Apple and Google's Fight in Seoul Tests Biden in Washington.
In a statement on Tuesday, Apple said the bill "will put users who purchase digital goods from other sources at risk of fraud, undermine their privacy protections," hurt user trust in App Store purchases and lead to fewer opportunities for South Korean developers. Wilson White, senior director of public policy at Google, said "the rushed process hasn't allowed for enough analysis of the negative impact of this legislation on Korean consumers and app developers". Experts said app store operators could assure security in payment systems other than their own by working with developers and other companies. Further reading: Apple and Google's Fight in Seoul Tests Biden in Washington.
Both are right. (Score:5, Insightful)
30% is a big margin for that they offer. But because of a lack of competition for those can can offer Apps at a better deal gives these companies a monopoly and can charge a heck of lot.
However, there is a lot of people willing to make harmful crap for your phone. Having such stores which validate a product is a major value for the consumer.
I think a happy middle ground may be Google and Apple allowing certified stores to be used on their phones, where they follow a baseline of services to allow for proper quality and security checks.
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However, there is a lot of people willing to make harmful crap for your phone. Having such stores which validate a product is a major value for the consumer
1. It has been that way since the beginning of software. I am pretty sure someone wrote something that would kill an Altair 8800.
2. This only works as an argument if they manually review the source of each and every app to make sure nothing bad gets on it. Since they don't and since malware still gets onto their stores, this isn't a good argument for them to have.
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Yes it has been a problem since the beginning of software, however to mitigate that we have been doing the following.
1. Buying software from a Store. Back in them olden days we use to go into a store, like CompUSA, Babbages, Fry... And actually buy a boxed piece of software. This often meant the retail company needed to take some responsibility of the products they sold quality and safety.
2. Online sites/BBS often had to take responsibility what its users would download. A BBS success is based on the qual
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Third party certification? Who would drive that? How would they make money off the process? At the end of the day a certification process becomes a revenue generator for the company running the certification process and they will want an ongoing revenue str
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30% is ok for cheap software under $10 it requires hosting space, maintenance they should be verifying the quality and safety of the software.
Where it fails is anything more expensive. the fee should be less. or better yet they a maximum flat fee and a verification fee per version
Dont get me started on the difficulties of specialised or custom software
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Apple needs to backdown on there rules! (Score:3)
Apple needs to back down on there rules!
Why can't you run an dosbox app on a phone?
Why can't you say apple takes an 30% cut (facebook that that issue)
Why can't you price things differently on the apple app vs out of app?
etc..
Re: Apple needs to backdown on there rules! (Score:2)
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Hail the nerds! Blessed is the reading comprehension!
Their fault (Score:4, Interesting)
Both these companies have put themselves in the position they are now, with dumb rules, their wish to censor and control what their users should or should not access and their greed. Especially Apple who doesn't even allow you to sideload apps like Google does.
So they only have themselves to blame.
If they didn't behave like assholes, as they kept doing, no one would have even cared about their duopoly.
So let's hope they are forced to actually compete with other markets and services even outside South Korea.
LOL (Score:2)
LOL.
We need a SANE approach amongst nations to dealing with distributed companies.
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There is no contradiction. Apple and Google are using their positions to keep competition out, and trying to take as much money as possible from essentially a captive audience. Realistically, iOS or Android is 99.98% of the smartphone industry and two companies have a chokehold on it. Though it's doubtful as many people would complain if the duopoly tax w
Excellent News (Score:2)
Though I doubt this will have too much of an impact for anyone. Most developers will still use the default payment methods, as it is just easier and simpler. Also nobody will want to enter their credit card number for every small payment and will just use the default option
The may want to look at Samsung too (Score:2)