Apple defends App Store amid mounting criticism

“Apple Inc on Wednesday publicly defended its App Store from mounting criticism over its treatment of rivals in a new blog post detailing its functions and guidelines,” Reuters reports. “Companies like music streaming leader Spotify Technology SA have criticized the iPhone maker’s practices, describing it as anti-competitive behavior in a complaint to the European Union’s antitrust regulators. Central to Spotify’s complaint is a 30% fee Apple charges content-based service providers to use Apple’s in-app purchase system (IAP).”
MacDailyNews Take: Spotify does not pay Apple 30%. That’s only for the first year of an annual subscription, Apple’s fee drops to 15 percent after year one.
Apple’s App Store

“In a section called ‘Principles and Practices,’ Apple defended its practices, saying developers decide what they want to charge from a set of price tiers,” Reuters reports. “‘We only collect a commission from developers when a digital good or service is delivered through an app.'”
Reuters reports, “Earlier this month, the U.S. Supreme Court also gave a go-ahead to an antitrust lawsuit accusing Apple of forcing consumers to overpay for iPhone software applications, again related to its 30% commission on purchases.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Spotify wants all the benefits of a free app without being free.
Spotify is a money-losing enterprise that cannot compete and has already been eclipsed by Apple Music in the world’s No.1 market for recorded music, the United States of America. Seeing the writing on the wall, Spotify runs whining to the EU like little babies crying for mommy; not a shred of dignity left. Beleaguered Spotify predicts an operating loss of up to $406.77 million for 2019. — MacDailyNews, March 15, 2019
“This boils down to the fact that Spotify wants to use the platform that Apple built and maintains at great expense for free.” – MacDailyNews, March 13, 2019
BTW: You’d have to be stupid to subscribe to Spotify when it has 40% fewer tracks than Apple Music for the same price. Apple Music boasts a catalog of 50 million songs; Spotify has just 30 million. Don’t be stupid. If you’re still subscribing to Spotify, it’s past time for you to cancel it and upgrade to Apple Music. (See also: How to move your Spotify playlists to Apple Music.)
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