Why? What Facebook does is legal (but ethically disgusting). Apple has a monopoly status as gatekeeper for their platform as there are no other competing iPhone App Stores (contrary to Google's Android).
Now, as Apple is forbidding what Facebook does in their store ToS, Apple may be prohibiting Facebook from reaching the (not small!) target audience "iPhone users" for their data collection and thus unfairly hindering Facebook's business.
I for one would be really happy if the Store ToS were to be torn down in the courts so that the only reason to block an app rollout is covert spying, malware or other user deception, but not open data analytics, porn (case in point, every porn site but especially Tumblr), firearms or using a different html/js engine.
Facebook abused their enterprise certificate to bypass the App Store and distribute their app outside of their company, which is something that is explicitly disallowed by the agreement that governs such certificates.
> If they don’t like it, there are plenty of Android variants for them to choose, which differentiate themselves precisely by having this difference.
There is no alternative for iMessage or you may have invested a serious load of money into the Apple ecosystem (e.g. Apple Music, but also games and other apps) that moving would amount to losing said money. Especially for those who got in in the early days with jailbreaking being a routine thing...
Breaking up the stores and especially forcing the various platform providers to provide synchronization abilities (why can't I sync my Fallout Shelter vaults for example or why should I need to buy my Plague Inc expansions again) is desperately needed.
On desktops this works just fine (best showcase being the Adobe apps, and I believe that at least the MS Office subscriptions are valid across Win and Mac), so why are the mobile walled gardens still a thing?
It seems like you don’t care that Facebook was happy to breach their contract with Apple here. It may not be ‘illegal’, but it’s certainly a civil tort.
Here’s a question: if Facebook is willing to breach this important contract with a company as powerful as Apple and think they’d get away with it, how much do you think they respect contracts they make with their customers?
> Here’s a question: if Facebook is willing to breach this important contract with Apple and think they’d get away with it, how much do you think they respect contracts they make with their customers?
Not at all? I don't trust any government or company pretty much these days. It's all a game of "who is most likely to screw you up in the least bad way", (corporate) ethics have gone totally downhill.
Basically, Apple wants to extract the maximum profit - and thus bans competing app stores, forcing their cut on every transaction, and banning everything which may be legal but not in their "ethical desires" (like porn) and thus hindering the informed choice of their customers.
That being sad, what Facebook is trying to do here is deeply disgusting, but if it helps break Apple's walled garden, I'm willing to cut them some slack.
Ok - at least we know where you stand - you are willing to forgive Facebook for breach of contract, deception and spying on kids, because you want to damage Apple.
Worth noting that Apple has massive and vigorous completion in the phone market in the form of the many Android variants which have exactly the open market you want, and only a minority of customers choose Apple, and they do so in the knowledge that Apple controls the App Store.
On the other hand Facebook actually does have a near monopoly on social networking with no viable competitor at all.
It makes no sense why you’d want to excuse clearly dishonest behavior by an actual monopolist, in order to harm the business of company who has clear and viable market competitors keeping it in check.
Why do you care about Apple at all, when you can just buy an Android phone?
> On the other hand Facebook actually does have a near monopoly on social networking with no viable competitor at all.
Which should be broken up and Facebook forced to re-introduce federation (their Messenger long ago offered XMPP), but that is a different question.
> Why do you care about Apple at all, when you can just buy an Android phone?
Actually I am an Android owner, who is a bit unhappy with Apple locking down their ecosystem so hard that a migration (in both directions) is next to impossible.
Now, as Apple is forbidding what Facebook does in their store ToS, Apple may be prohibiting Facebook from reaching the (not small!) target audience "iPhone users" for their data collection and thus unfairly hindering Facebook's business.
I for one would be really happy if the Store ToS were to be torn down in the courts so that the only reason to block an app rollout is covert spying, malware or other user deception, but not open data analytics, porn (case in point, every porn site but especially Tumblr), firearms or using a different html/js engine.