Apple declares victory in the Epic vs. Apple unfair competition lawsuit and then appeals the ruling.

Apple won some parts of Epic v. Apple, but they lost the meat of the lawsuit.

The ruling, which was actually a major disaster for Apple, will cost them billions, if their appeal is denied.

Apple steals money from software developers and drives prices higher, like monopolies always do, by putting a software lock that makes sure you can only pay for the programs you use through their “app store”, and the terms for this app store make it the only app store that can be on an iPhone, and make Free and Open Source Software impossible.

In fact, one of Richard Stallman’s complaints about the iPhone is that it does pretty much every nasty thing to attack the user that Android does, but it also goes much further and prevents the user from installing Free and Open Source Software. Not even Windows or Android does this, because you can get Windows software from anywhere, and Android lets you “sideload” apps or entire app stores, such as F-Droid.

In fact, many developers publish apps in F-Droid, and then solicit donations for those apps through various platforms that are no more dangerous to pay with than the Apple store, but which don’t deprive them of much revenue.

If the decision stands, then instead of having to hide the true cost of ownership of an iPhone in the software, and basically put upwards pressure on Android app prices too in order to prevent accusations of “unfairness” from the idiots who chose to be handcuffed by Apple, Apple will need to increase the price of the iPhone.

I keep saying they’ll hit a ceiling to what people will accept, and indeed their marketshare is plummeting, with almost 9 out of 10 users choosing Android, but the higher and higher prices allow them to sell fewer phones and still be incredibly profitable.

Apple doesn’t even want you as a customer if you ask how much the phone _really_ is.

Sure, carriers hide the real cost behind long term contracts wedded to expensive data plans, and AT&T sells more iPhones than anyone. Sure, the iPhones didn’t have 5G support until very recently, but then again if you have a 5G phone, AT&T’s network is also the worst to try to use it on. But hey, at least they’re expensive!

Comcast is a horrible company, but they once had a commercial that made me laugh, which was obviously directed at AT&T, where the AT&T business executives were dancing around the office calling themselves the “big old expensive phone company” and thanking you for helping them get bigger.

The problem with Comcast accusing AT&T is pot meet kettle, of course, and they both resort to packing your bill with things you didn’t ask for, or even better, mystery fees that weren’t disclosed well or are not explained at all.

Without veering too far off the topic of this article, Apple has always partnered with AT&T as the “iPhone Carrier”, and of course you can use them on other networks today, but AT&T had them before anyone else, and not in a good way.

People who bought the original iPhone and had AT&T found themselves getting several boxes of “detailed billing” where AT&T would literally print a line on the bill each time their iPhone pinged a web server.

Two despicable companies, let’s call them frick and frack. And they have people blathering on about how “Oh, my iPhone was really affordable, and can you believe my bill is only $100 a line after tax?

Oh great, a $400 down payment so you can be locked into a two year deal where you obligate yourself to pay a further $2,400 per line, plus whatever apps and streaming nonsense you get.

The very affordable iPhone. Only $20,000 per decade, per customer!

In fact, I know people who never have money in the bank, but always have a recent and higher tier iPhone.

If they’ve managed to get people to accept this, then a further hike to compensate for the loss of the app store “revenue piracy” that Apple engaged in is likely to succeed, and that’s depressing.

Not only that it will, but that there’s people out there who are so addicted to a phone that they’ll pay it and not even do the math!

Not being locked into a single source of apps is one of the best features of Android.

You want to watch Youtube on an iPhone? Get ready for 10 minutes of Google’s commercials per 6 minutes of video. It’s called wasting your life.

On Android with Newpipe, or even the real Firefox (which iPhones don’t have because of another rule) and an ad blocker, Google can’t force that on you.

That’s just one example of you don’t like something, change it. But you can’t do that on an iPhone.

Have fun with your 6 cameras.