zlacker

Ultimately it’s them that has market power.

To meaningfully challenge it, developers need to agree to withheld supply like a cartel (illegal?) or union.

I think it’s probably close to the union scenario in an industry with a single employer, as there is that one too many relationship (all developers vs Google). Whereas a cartel is a few suppliers conspiring against all consumers.

I’m not sure developers would go to those lengths, and I’m not sure it would work either as the benefit is too high from defecting from such a coalition.

>>akst+(OP)
It's not illegal to not release your software on a platform. But the mobile market is so top-heavy on both the apps and the games side, that without a few key developers - Meta, ByteDance, Tencent, etc your union is dead in the water - and the top 1% of developers would very much like to more friction for new developers, not less.

>>alexvi+nx
If Apple or Google convinced a court you formed a cartel then that's the end of the story. Whether it's a cartel in the eyes in the public would be irrelevant.