Apple defends App Store against developer backlash, says it ‘welcomes competition’

Apple’s App Store

“Apple has launched a public relations campaign to counter claims that it uses the App Store to gain an edge over competitors,” Liam Tung reports for ZDNet.
“In March, music-streaming service Spotify filed a complaint with the European Commission accusing Apple of tweaking App Store rules to ‘purposely limit choice and stifle innovation,’ while, in late 2018, Netflix canned iTunes as an option for new users to pay for the video streaming service,” Tung reports. “Apple and Google take 15 percent of in-app subscription purchases.”
“Apple boasts that ‘developers have earned more than $120 billion worldwide’ from selling on the App Store since Apple co-founder Steve Jobs unveiled it in 2008 alongside the iPhone 3G,” Tung reports. “‘Since the launch of the App Store, an entire industry has been built around app design and development, generating over 1,500,000 U.S. jobs and over 1,570,000 jobs across Europe,’ Apple says.”
“Apple highlights a number of iOS apps available in the App Store that compete with apps that ship with the iPhone, such as alternatives to Apple Calendar, like Google Calendar and Microsoft Outlook,” Tung reports. “Snapchat, Moment and Instagram are rivals to the Apple Camera app, while iCloud competitors include Box, Dropbox, Google Drive, and Microsoft OneDrive, according to Apple.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: It’s Apple’s App Store and Apple clearly has no monopoly on smartphones or smartphone apps.
If consumers do not like Apple’s prices, ecosystem, or anything else, they are free to choose a smartphone from a nearly immeasurable list of competitors.
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