Lately, Apple and Google have been experiencing a lot of pressure regarding the general business practices and the storefront’s rules and regulations. Although Apple did try to relieve a little bit of the pressure, they have to attend an antitrust hearing and defend themselves.
This hearing actually started today and has been titled Antitrust Applied: Examining Competition in App Stores. While this hearing focuses on both Google and Apple, the latter is getting the majority of the attention. This is particularly true for Spotify and Tiles who have been criticizing Apple and their App Store for a while now.
A lot of concerns regarding the Apple’s tendency to copy products from its competitors has been raised and it has been deemed as an unfair gatekeeper by the heads of these companies. On the other hand, the Chief Compliance Officer of Apple defends the case by pointing out that the App Store provides the best in-class experience and has actually created a lot of opportunities for the developers since it has been introduced. You can find a detailed testimony of Spotify and Tile on this on the web.
If you know, Apple released a Tile-like tracking device which Tile is not at all happy with. They don’t like the rules on ho accessories work with iPhone and definitely are unhappy with the latest copycat product that was released by Apple and doesn’t suffer from any limitations such as Tile on the iPhone.
Tile is Unhappy
The General Counsel of Tile, Kirsten Daru said that the company believes that Apple doesn’t play fair and one of the prime reasons for their hesitation is AirTag by Apple. This app by Apple offers a seamless experience to the users on iPhone but Apple doesn’t lend the same courtesy to third-party apps that are installed on the handset.
This holds true after Apple’s Find My Network feature opening up to third-party apps because according to Tile, the support offered is sort of a hostage and the terms and conditions set by Apple are a little too strict. It is also unfair that Apple doesn’t allow complete access to the U1 ultra-wideband chip that is found in newer iPhone models and which AirTag uses to track accurately.
Spotify has a similar Sentiment
Focusing on Spotify, they haven’t been happy with Apple’s 30% Tax for a while now. But things became worse when Apple released their Apple Music app for the users which competes with Spotify and for which Spotify has to pay taxes while Apple doesn’t.
According to the head of Spotify, it is also not fair that they cannot tell their users to subscribe for free on the web and not in the app.
Verdict
After the opening of this hearing, a lot of other things were also brought into focus such as the scams on App Store including the security of the third-party apps. In most of these cases, the same argument has been made that a lot of time and money has been invested in the App Store since its inception and there are likely to be issues with it that the company focuses on fixing as and when they come.
