The curious case of Epic Games: how the developer beat Google but not Apple
www.theguardian.com
external-link
The Fortnite maker filed antitrust suits against both tech companies – while one emerged victorious, the other was found at fault on 11 claims

“Google has taken great pains to appear more open than Apple, licensing the Android operating system to third parties like Samsung and allowing users to install apps via other methods than the Play store. Apple does neither. When it comes to exclusivity, Apple has become synonymous with “walled garden” in the public imagination. So why did a jury find that Google held a monopoly but Apple didn’t?”

@[email protected]
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521Y

The jury, he argued, was essentially allowed to conjure up damning evidence in their minds that may not have existed

Well yes, that’s exactly what the court will do if they find that you’ve been deleting evidence - they assume that whatever you deleted must have been damning to the case otherwise why would you have told employees to use “delete after 24h” communication channels?

@[email protected]
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41Y

Yeah right? That’s the long-standing procedure for deliberately destroyed evidence — the fact finder gets to make all reasonable negative inferences.

@[email protected]
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They didn’t.

They determined that Google colluded with others to protect their monopoly and keep competitors out.

Monopolies by themselves aren’t illegal.

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391Y

“The big difference between Apple and Google is Apple didn’t write anything down,” Sweeney said

@[email protected]
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141Y

Tim Sweeney can go fuck himself

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-11Y

Hahaha, nice. Well stated. Succinct.

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@[email protected]
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51Y

Yes, but when a court order to retain documents comes down, the legal department of those companies knows how to do so.

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deleted by creator

@[email protected]
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21Y

Yes, this situation just doesn’t fit that bill. They kept the purge in place after the court order, otherwise they’d be fine.

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billwashere
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51Y

So basically Google treated certain folks differently than others and Apple said “Fuck off” to everyone? Is that the gist?

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31Y

Basically.

Zagorath
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631Y

They didn’t. Only one of the cases was by jury, so it’s wrong to claim that “a jury found Google held a monopoly but Apple didn’t”.

And even if they were both jury trials, they’d be different juries, so it’s not like one group of people looked at all the facts and decided Google did the wrong thing and not Apple.

That’s in addition to the different facts in the case which this article is primarily about.

@[email protected]
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111Y

I wouldn’t expect anything more form the guardian. They’ve become pretty clickbait and reactionary lately. Quality has dipped.

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31Y

deleted by creator

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I disagree, The Guardian is objectively one of the best free News outlets out there. Also Op is literally just citing a side sentence out of the article. Which makes me to believe you didnt even read the article. The article make is very clear what the differences are and that the Apple case just didn’t have a jury at all.

@[email protected]
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11Y

You’ve misunderstood what I was commenting on. I am bemoaning the quality in general of the guardian as of late. Not the specific article.

The guardian is a good newspaper, don’t get me wrong, but it was way better back in the day under the previous editor. The quality has absolutely dropped over the past six years or so and any balance to an article is often rendered right at the end under a clickbait headline. These things have changed.

Buy look, that’s my opinion and you surely have yours. That’s fine too 👍.

MxM111
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11Y

I also would point out that Google and Apple sells very different things. Apple does not sell iOS. It sells hardware to customers and the right to access users through this hardware to third parties (game makers). Google’s product to begin with is software (Operating System) on multiple phone platforms. Different laws and rules may apply there.

@[email protected]
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151Y

Apple definitely sells the OS. That’s one of the main selling points and part of why their hardware is stupid expensive.

OpenStars
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71Y

Although ironically, the OS software itself is free to end users, as are future upgrades.

Google also sells hardware, e.g. in its Pixel line, and there too the OS software is “free”, as are future upgrades, up to a point.

Both sell listings in their respective stores.

These concepts are getting murkier over time.

@[email protected]
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21Y

I recall paying for an iPhoneOS update, Looks like it was iPhoneOS 2 or 3 from the first paragraph. I can’t speak for anything else in the article, however.

@[email protected]
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Yeah, I’d have paid $10 just for copy/paste functionality on early ios, but I don’t remember paying for anything when it came out on iOS 3

OpenStars
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11Y

If you’re an OG iPhone or Mac user, then you might remember paid software updates. Over a decade ago, long before iOS 16 and macOS Ventura, major Apple OS updates used to cost users around $10 for iOS and $20 for macOS. By iOS 4, though, Apple switched to free software updates, allowing users to update their devices for as long as they’re supported without having to pay a fee.

Yeah, but nowadays it’s all “free” - as in you only pay for the hardware to enter their walled garden (but then no matter how much you pay, you can never really leave! at least not via normal, legal means, if you want to ever come back - Welcome to the Hotel California 🎶…!:-P).

@[email protected]
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11Y

Welcome to the Hotel California

Coincidentally, Apple is headquartered in California…

MxM111
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11Y

Selling point is not the same as sales.

@[email protected]
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61Y

Android is free tho?

MxM111
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01Y

You do not pay, but Google does collect money one way or another. Regardless, it is their product, which is different from iPhone being a product.

@[email protected]
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Google claimed to be open but ran backroom deals to ensure low competition. In doing so it proved its weight in the industry could squash competition, proving its monopoly, which is illegal.

Apple never made claims it was open.

As simple as. Toss in one case was decided by a jury, and the other a judge, and you’ll quickly see neither are related.

Basically your question was nonsense from the jump, and pushed by blogs and the like to get idiots to click. Had you read the news, you’d get it. By why read when others will explain it for ya.

@[email protected]
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This is a discussion forum. Sometimes an obvious question sparks conversation well beyond the original topic. But someone needs to ask the question first. You don’t have to be rude. Just scroll right past.

merde alors
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hello fellow lemming,

i’m sharing an article that i thought is interesting, on a related community.

i quoted a paragraph from the article, i am not asking a question.

sharing an article won’t even necessarily mean that i agree with it.

only those who care about “clicks” blame others for doing things for clicks. I don’t give a damn about clicks.

what the fuck is wrong with you?!

@[email protected]
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61Y

By why read when others will explain it for ya.

Isn’t that also what reading the news is???

Margot Robbie
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141Y

I would like to ask you to please not be so condescending, as it is against Rule 5 here. Thank you.

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171Y

Apple never made claims it was open.

As simple as.

Sundar Pichai: “All right, fellas, let’s comply with the court riling and raise the walls. No more eco system for anyone any longer.”

@[email protected]
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21Y

I mean, Google can sure try lol. Pixels make up like 1% of market share. If they cut off Android from everyone else, they would fall completely out in no time.

@[email protected]
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21Y

Sundar Pichai: “Reach out to Samsung. Tell them either we and them enter an exclusive deal for a locked down Android or we all go down together. Kill the Pixel line. Killing our own products is what we do best anyway."

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321Y

Solivine
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621Y

Your explanation is right, but the last sentence makes you insufferable

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It’s also worth noting that Apple was never proven to not be a monopoly, only that Epic couldn’t provide enough evidence to prove that they were. US courts never prove innocence, only guilt.

Google simply could have been worse that Apple at hiding what they were doing, making it easier to find evidence. Or perhaps Epic’s prior failure to provide evidence in the Apple case may have helped prepare them with what to look for this time for the Google one.

Edit: Not to mention that the Google case was decided by a jury, whereas the Apple case was decided through a ruling by a judge, which adds another layer of difference between them.

Skull giver
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deleted by creator

atro_city
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31Y

Fuck both of em?

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