How many consoles support different payment systems?

<p>Consoles aren't general purpose operating systems, thats the difference. I don't lug around a console to do my primary personal computing needs. The smart phone has replaced most of the need for using a personal computer, and as iPad OS gets more traction and replaces Windows and Mac laptops as part of the 'post-pc' era, we have to have a serious discussion on a variety of topics. </p><p><br></p><ol><li>Does the operating system developer also get to dictate what applications can run on device</li><li>Should the operating system vendor take a huge 30% cut for being a payment processor for native applications.</li></ol><p class="ql-indent-2">a. On iOS there is no alternative way to install native applications, so any content purchased via an app/service has to go via Apple's payment processor and require a 30% revenue share to go to Apple.</p><p><br></p><p class="ql-indent-2">b. on Android, yes you can side load applications however the play store is the monopoly store on that platform. For <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Google Play I am little on the fence, due to the separation of operating system and Google Play. There however can be an argument made that even despite the separation, the general purpose personal computing software acquisition methodology on Android has converged into the Play Store and the Play Store itself is a monopoly in terms of software acquisition on Android. </span>Google has abused its market share in a number of ways. </p><p class="ql-indent-2"><br></p><p class="ql-indent-3">i. Google Play in 2020 is now the main store for apps on android, it uses this market position to lock out key Google apps like Maps and also force market adoption of other apps that aren't key to the android operating system like Allo, Duo, Hangouts, Google Plus (RIP) and other Google services</p><p class="ql-indent-3"><br></p><p class="ql-indent-3">ii. Google also prevents any licensee of the Google Play store to create android devices without Google Play Services. So any high end or high quality Android phone, will come with Google Play preinstalled and within the ecosystem it is the defined way of acquiring software.</p><p class="ql-indent-3"><br></p><p class="ql-indent-3">iii. Google Play contracts with certain OEMs restricts pre-installation of software not from the Google Play store</p><p class="ql-indent-3"><br></p><p class="ql-indent-3">iv. Because of current consumer and behaviour habits, the Google Play store is the way software is acquired, even though you can acquire it outside, it's still a minority way of doing so. Its why the Windows and Mac stores aren't that threatening since they are the minority way of users acquiring software.</p><p><br></p><p class="ql-indent-3">v. Here Google also takes a 30% cut when all it is doing is being a payment processor and for a payment processor that 30% cut is super high, for literally doing nothing more. The software was acquired and runs on the device, further revenue at a 30% cut being paid to a monopolistic software store after software installation is still steep.</p><p class="ql-indent-3"><br></p><p class="ql-indent-2">c. Windows is a general purpose operating system, however their attempts at replicating this has failed. There was outrage from both Epic and Valve when Windows 8 and RT were being released. One could make the argument of the store being a safe software distribution mechanism, however in 2020 those components from the Windows Store have been split out and the MSIX packaging technology can be used without the need of going through the Windows Store. If the store succeeded, this argument will continue and be a much bigger deal.</p><p><br></p><p class="ql-indent-2">d. The Mac App store is a funny one, it also suffers from the same issue as the Windows Store, ie lack of users. Many indie mac developers hate the Mac Stores revenue cut policy and still distribute their software in the traditional dmg file downloads. </p><p><br></p><p class="ql-indent-3">i. However things could change when iOS apps come to the Mac natively. Here we have a traditional general purpose operating system (MacOS) running apps from a modern general purpose operating system (iOS and iPadOS). Since those applications are now running on a traditional computer natively, is that application platform still subject to App Store rules even on what we would consider a general purpose operating system.</p><p><br></p><p class="ql-indent-3">ii. When the lines between Mac OS app and iPad OS app are blurred, is apple still allowed to dictate what applications can run on a genral purpose operating system that they have created.</p><p><br></p><p>The debate here is really about the future of personal computing and software. iOS and Android aren't just phone operating systems anymore, they are personal computing for nearly 3 billion people combined (Apple 1 billion, Google 2 billion). Think about the freedom of software acquisition and running of said software we've had on Windows Mac and Linux, and now how the future of personal computing is being dictated by arbitrary store requirements.</p><p><br></p><p>Feel free to pick any holes, happy to have an open discussion, I'm a software engineer, and it's interesting to see how it's gone from a medium of creators taking all the revenue to now the creators being required to give a cut to the operating system vendor because they said so and in iOS's case it's the only way to get your software on that platform. For android, it's possible to do so with out, and for someone like Epic, it make sense to create a store.</p><p><br></p>