Apple Rejects Steam Link App For iOS Devices

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rantoc

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So i made the right choice to ditch apple products, this just confirms what a walled garden they try to be. Even Mac users on steam will love this...
 

hellwig

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Exactly. Steam would essentially give the app away, and you would purchase games separately through Steam's own service. I'm sure Apple rejected, citing some clause in their app store regulations saying that all purchases have to go through Apple. So unless you could buy Steam games through the Apple app store, you can't play those same steam games on an Apple iPhone.

If Apple made TVs, you'd only be able to watch iTunes videos with it.
 

bit_user

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I'm not going to defend the slander on apple fanboys, but I do hold Apple principally responsible for turning computers from glorious machines you build, upgrade, control, own, and manage, to disposable, locked-down content delivery appliances.

I think we could all see this pitched battle coming, a million miles away. Valve might be our last, best chance to break the hegemony Apple, Amazon, Google, and Microsoft are trying to impose on users and developers, alike.
 


Apple hurt me! I foolishly used iTunes for many of my child's movies and I can not play them on my T.V. without either hooking up a Laptop or Desktop to it OR buying a different Apple device in order to play them on the T.V.. So Apple hurts those that do not "Buy" into there ecosystem. I was highly disturbed to find I could not stream any of my iTunes movies on my smart T.V. without paying more money, this is not to mention iTunes is the only Apple product that is in my home because well, they don't play well with others and on top of that they charge outrageous prices for there products. Apple is not for me and this hurts the consumers and not apple because they get there money then don't care.
 

bit_user

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Depends. Are you looking at it from Apple's perspective, or from the perspective that it's a platform for hundreds of millions of users and just how much control one corporation should have over that?

Should users of their devices really have no choice but to accept the services and their terms which Apple offers or do without? You can say that people who aren't okay with that shouldn't buy Apple products, but not everyone who buys an iDevice knows they're selling their soul.
 

Lostinlodos

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From the general technological standpoint. Amazon and Google don't allow Apple to sell products through a gateway store either.
Is it the way it should be? No. Is it any different than the rest of the app store interface companies? Again no.
My response here is calling out the Apple Is Evil crowd for not looking in the mirror. All these companies have walled off systems. Android is just easier to bypass.
 

bit_user

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So, why doesn't your post just end here? Why go on to turn it into some kind of tribal warfare?


As far as the article indicates, Apple is the only one that rejected Valve's app. So, that's why we're talking about Apple.

They're also the ones who started all this iTunes and exclusive app store nonsense and the ones whose platform is the most locked down. So, if there's progress to be made, it would ideally start with Apple.

BTW, it used to be that you could install apps on Android that aren't from Google's Play store. Is that still true? Even without rooting your phone? Because that's exactly how I'm saying Apple should be, so there is (or was) no hypocrisy, there.
 

Lostinlodos

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No, not at all. I agree 100%
I think apple should allow side loading. And I think apple, Google, Amazon, and everyone else should pull the plug on software support and compatibility as soon as a user side loads anything.
It would be nice if apple allowed users to access iOS the way they can on MacOS! Use the app store. Get Support. Download and install on your own? No support. Sounds good to me all the way around.
 

NamelessBryan

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Something is going on here. Sure, I agree that Apple is most likely killing Steam Link because they want a cut. But why then has the Steam iOS app been approved for years? Steam for iOS has in-app purchases and I'm pretty sure Apple doesn't see a dime from those transactions.

Granted Steam iOS sucks, and I'm probably one of only 2 users to ever make a purchase on it, but still.
 


When purchasing a movie I would expect to be able to view it on other devices without having to purchase a proprietary device to view them especially since you can purchase the same exact movie on a different app and be able to watch them on many other devices. Apple's iTunes unlike Vudu, Xumo and Google play store, as an example, will not let you play them on smart T.V.'s without an extra purchase of another device. This is my point. Apple is to proprietary and it hurts their customers.

I would like to know exactly what Valves app for iOS had done that cause this issue. I want details of exactly what was wrong with the app and an explanation how it did not conform with their policies. IMO this would shed light on the situation and let the public know why Apple chose this route.
 

Wimpers

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Apple are bunch of bastards, they sit on a pile of cash yet still want to make anything worth releasing on an iThing badly supported or very cumbersome in the hope people give up and just use and buy their stuff… A damn shame!
 
I'm sure Valve didn't appreciate this, and it might be a nuisance for some, but Apple only makes up for somewhere around 15% of smartphone and tablet sales worldwide, even if it may be somewhat higher than that in certain regions. I kind of get the impression that most of those gaming on PCs are even more likely to go with Android though, due to it being a somewhat more open and customizable platform. So, Apple devices only make up for a relatively small portion of Steam's potential audience for this.

And really, Valve had to know coming into this that there was a good chance they would have trouble getting their app approved on the platform. It effectively lets people play games on Apple devices without buying them from Apple, and it should be pretty obvious that the company wouldn't be down for that.
 

Lostinlodos

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Bgunner: you just pointed out an exact mirror of an issue I have. I purchased a few movies on steam and the don’t work anywhere except in steam.
As I said; hating on Apple, or Microsoft, etc is just cliche.
Ios has always been a walled garden.
Say what you will for Android, but buy any non-google approved android device and getting access to play requires major modifications that the standard user won’t be able to do; and walking a very fine grey line on legality, installation of someone’s software where the specifically said no.

Some wonderful, free, software is ignored on Linux because they don’t like the licensing.

Handbrake has dumped the best high grade audio encoder from it’s software do to a LICENCE incompatibility.

None of these situations in any way benefit the end user!
 

bit_user

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So, either iOS or MacOS model, with nothing in between? This false dichotomy ignores the fact that MacOS is built around an architectural model that's 4 or 5 decades old, with processes running on bare metal, and a complete view of the filesystem. Moreover, the user has admin rights on their machine, without resorting to hacks, etc. So, it's a lot easier for a user to break things in MacOS.

Contrast that to the modern mobile OS, where apps are sandboxed, APIs are designed to tightly manage permissions, and where a user doesn't normally have root access. In this latter case, there should be no good reason to drop support, merely because someone didn't install an app from the official store. Sure, don't support the side-loaded apps, but as long as the device hasn't been rooted, Apple can & should still stand behind their software.

Again, I don't blame Apple for trying to leverage their control over the platform to milk the lucrative apps, content, and now payments markets. I just don't think society needs to grant them this monopoly, just because they built the underlying platform. I'll even go so far as to say that if they weren't a American company, things would probably be different.
 

bit_user

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Perhaps by units, but not revenue or especially profit. Moreover, because Apple caters to the high-end of the market, their users spend more on apps. This market cannot be ignored by any serious player in mobile apps.


Yeah, they probably knew they were picking a fight. This hegemony needs to be broken. So, either Apple plays ball or (hopefully) Valve will see them in court.
 

bit_user

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So, your belief is that:

    ■ As long as others are engaging in similar misbehavior, you can't do anything about any of them.
    ■ As long as the misbehavior was from day one, we have to just let them do it forever.

This is really good for shareholders of mega-corporations, but not consumers or other players in the industry.

On either point, if police, judges, or prosecutors routinely followed this way of thinking, I'd hate to see the result.

The fallacy with #1 is that capitalism tends to produce a race to the bottom. Each market participant seeks an unfair advantage. Once an advantage is found, others will try to replicate. So, any misbehavior is probably not going to be limited to one actor. The only way to stop this is by having rules and regulations that limit how anti-competitive and anti-consumer companies can be, and then to enforce the rules.

I'm not anti-capitalism. In fact, I'm pro-capitalism, which is why I care. Because, if companies get away with too much, for too long, then people start talking about socialism.
 

Lostinlodos

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RE:bit user
No; actually I prefer the AOLv8.5 model.
A safe, controlled walled garden. A gigantic door that says beware dragons and we’re not responsible if you get eaten.
Mozilla and Google so this with their browser/API wares.
Android is somewhat permissive with it and Linux... well you jump through hoops to do it, install whatever you like.
You mention the Age of Apple software but Windows 10 is older.
Though the argument that ALL unix expansions are ancient is conceivable.

We’ll sidestep the licence discussion; but personally I’m not fond of any current setup. I think MacOS and Windows 10 (currently) have the ideal approach. Install at your own risk.

Though back to the news at hand. Apple has the right to accept or refuse any software in it’s own store. They don’t sell android tablets at physical Apple stores either. And iOS apps aren’t on google Play.
I think this article and some of these knee jerk posts are missing a larger issue.
With the loss of warranty; a user should be able, ideally, to load anything they want on any device they have. But if it’s direct competition there’s no logical reason for that software to be on the App Store.
And I’m probably the other person of the 2 who have the iOS steam app installed. Personally I think the app (the current one, not the rejected one) is junk and end up defaulting to the web site anyway after some minor searching in app anyway.
 

richardstaller

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Somebody else said it best but Apple is basically a content delivery appliance manufacturer. Considering what they did with the Mac Pro I can only conclude they just want consumers and not producers of content.
 
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