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This is rich coming from epic, who bribes developers to not use a competitor.
IANAL but I think the best outcome they'll get from this is Google needing to tone down the sideloading / 3rd party store warnings. Maybe some way to be a verified publisher that removes the direness of them.
Side loading is potentially dangerous though, so warnings are good. Especially for average person who will attempt side loading not knowing the permissions they are giving to the app. I don't see a problem with the current set up, since even with it people install sketchy apks.
There's gotta be a way to reduce those warnings though through some sort of trusted developer program.
Maybe Google can charge for it, but not 30% of all digital in app purchases level.
I don't see a problem with warnings though as someone who does side load and use F-droid to install Foss apps.
You even got on the Apple side people thinking side loading on iOS is not something they want, since they think it's easy to end up with a malware app when there's plenty of warnings and a function that needs to be enabled on Android.
I don't see it any differently really than warnings for when installing a program on Windows if it wants admin access at the start. I think Android with the terrible security updates and eol period shorter than iOS devices is hitting a nice balance of warning users of risks of installing unknown apps, but providing the flexibility for people to install whatever they want.
Most users are idiots.
I think it is dangerous, since even alternative app stores have to be installed via side loading and Google doesn't allow nearly everything onto the play store (nsfw for example)
So if you want to do nearly anything nsfw with your phone and outside your browser you'll need sideloading.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
For years now, Google has stressed the "open" nature of the Android's sideloading-enabled mobile platform over Apple's completely locked-down iOS App Store.
Epic's opening arguments specifically called out League of Legends maker Riot Games as one of the companies that Google paid to eliminate the possible launch of a competing Android app store.
Pomerantz also pointed to the competition Google Play faces from the pre-installed Galaxy Store that Samsung places on its Android phones.
Even though Fortnite was "the biggest game in the world" at the time, Android users who wanted to sideload it were faced with dire warnings about it being an "unknown app," which made it seem dangerous, Bornstein said.
Despite its dominant position in Android app distribution, Google argued in court that "it cannot be and is not a monopolist" because it "faces strong competition from Apple and others."
If that argument sounds familiar, it's because Apple argued essentially the converse in its own trial with Epic Games over similar issues.
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