App developer Kosta Eleftheriou has once again highlighted a number of shady apps in Apple’s App Store, this time wth many of them on the Mac platform, that are attempting to scam users.
Epic Games has filed an opening brief to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals aiming to overturn a previous ruling that Apple’s ownership of the iOS App Store does not constitute a monopoly. According to the Fortnite developer, “Apple’s conduct is precisely what the antitrust laws prohibit.”
A regulatory body in the Netherlands has ordered Apple to allow third parties to offer alternative payment options through their apps, a ruling that strikes at one of the company’s core revenue streams — although the ruling will not apply outside the country.
Tech giant Apple has reportedly decided to leave Fortnite banned from its App Store until its legal battle with the game’s developer Epic Games is resolved — a process that could take up to five years to complete.
Apple has stated that it won’t let Epic Games bring the megapopular Fortnite video game back to the App Store until the company agrees to “play by the same rules as everyone else.”
In a major policy shift, tech giant Apple has announced that it will allow music, video, and other media apps to direct users towards sign-up pages on their websites. This will allow companies like Spotify and Netflix to bypass Apple’s 15 to 30 percent payment processing fee.
South Korea has officially passed a bill designed to prevent tech giants like Google and Apple from forcing app developers to exclusively use the internet giant’s own payment systems.
A recent report has revealed that Apple’s App Store has seen significant success in recent months with consumers spending $41.5 billion in the first half of 2021 alone, almost double that of the Google Play Store. Apple’s App Store sales are up more than 22 percent even as the iPhone giant faces lawsuits and government regulations over the stranglehold it maintains on iOS app developers.
According to recent reports, countries such as South Korea are considering altering their laws to force tech giants Apple and Google to allow third-party payment systems in their app stores. The change would give app developers the freedom to offer payment options outside of Google and Apple’s app stores, bypassing the company’s massive 30 percent cut of revenues.
Apple has reportedly agreed to allow app developers to contact users to inform them about alternative payment options outside of the Apple app store ecosystem, marking a serious departure from the company’s previous policies. Apple takes up to 30 percent of revenues from developers for all purchases made within the app store, and is embroiled in a major lawsuit with Fortnite developer Epic Games over developers’ right to deal with customers directly.
A key point of contention for Apple in recent months has been pressure on the company to allow users to “sideload” apps onto their iOS devices, a process that completely avoids the Apple App Store, which the company continues to argue is both unsafe and unfair to users. Incredibly, the company claims that the freedom to choose different methods of loading apps “eliminates choice” for the consumer.
During a recent conference, Apple CEO Tim Cook criticized a proposed European law that would allow users to install software from outside of the Apple App Store, stating that he believes it would not be “in the best interest of users.”
In a move that will likely anger Apple, the CEO of the Facebook-owned photo-sharing app Instagram has stated that the company wants to promote offline transactions between creators and brands in order to bypass Apple’s 30 percent cut of in-app purchases. This is the latest salvo in an ongoing war between the Masters of the Universe.
Apple’s top software engineer recently criticized the security of the company’s own Mac operating system while explaining why the company should not be forced to loosen its hold over iOS app distribution.
According to a recent report, Apple executive Phil Schiller suggested that the company reduce its app store fees a decade ago when the store reached $1 billion in profits. The iPhone giant didn’t take Schiller’s advice, keeping its 30 percent app store fee in place to the present day.
The European Commission stated this week that Apple has abused its power in the distribution of music streaming apps through its App Store following a complaint from Spotify.
At a recent hearing before the Senate Judiciary subcommittee on antitrust, app developers stated that they fear tech giants Apple and Google due to their reliance on the Masters of the Universe to reach smartphone users through their respective app stores.
Apple has approved social media platform Parler to return to its App Store, which will effectively allow iPhone users to download the Parler app once again.
Apple and Epic Games are currently engaged in an intense legal battle related to App Store fees and Apple’s ban on third-party payment processors. The arguments each company plan to present in court are becoming clearer as their showdown in court approaches.
According to recently released legal documents, a senior Apple engineer compared the company’s App Store defenses against malicious actors to be like “bringing a plastic butter knight to a gunfight.” The senior employee also described the company’s review process for new apps as “more like the pretty lady who greets you… at the Hawaiian airport than the drug-sniffing dog.”
App developer Kosta Eleftheriou, who previously called attention to the problem of scam apps on Apple’s iOS app store, has filed a lawsuit against Apple in California accusing the company of exploiting its monopoly power over apps made available for iPhone users.
Apple has blocked Parler from returning to its App Store, which would have allowed new users to download the social media app on iPhones.
Apple is facing an antitrust investigation from UK regulators over its App Store rules, according to a report by CNBC.
Lobbyists for Apple and Google have reportedly descended on Arizona as the state considers legislation that would allow app developers to use third-party payment systems to circumvent the 15 to 30 percent cut that Apple and Google demand from app sales.
The North Dakota state senate recently voted 36-11 against a bill that would have required tech giants Apple and Google to enable software developers to use their own payment processing software and avoid fees charged by their app stores.
In a recent tweet thread, iOS App Developer Kosta Eleftheriou claims that Apple is doing little to combat a growing number of scam apps in its App Store, with some of these apps generating as much as $5 million a year from unsuspecting users. According to Eleftheriou, “they’ve had many chances now and for years to right this wrong — but they’re now willfully neglecting to do so, in an alarming pattern of behavior.”
A judge has ordered Apple to produce extensive documentation from CEO Tim Cook and Senior VP Craig Federighi in the lawsuit filed by Epic Games over its megapopular game Fortnite.
In the latest update on the legal battle between Fortnite developer Epic Games and Apple, a judge has ruled that Apple cannot be forced to put the popular video game back in its App Store and criticized Epic Games for what she called deceitful practices and intentional breach of contract.
Tech giant Apple reportedly forced the privacy-focused email app ProtonMail to add in-app purchases to its iPhone app despite the service being free for years. Apple’s treatment of the popular privacy-centric email service is another example of Tim Cook’s company flexing its monopoly power. ProtonMail CEO Andy Yen likened Apple’s app store policies to “mafia extortion.”
In a recent House antitrust report, former Apple App Store Director Phil Shoemaker states that Apple uses its App Store rules as a “weapon” against competitors. His testimony is just more evidence that the Big Tech Masters of the Universe use monopoly power to crush the competition.
A new report states that tech giant Apple enjoyed a massive 31 percent spike in App Store revenue year-over-year in Q3, jumping from $14.5 billion last year to $19 billion this year. TikTok has emerged as the highest-earning non-game app on both the Apple and Google app stores.
In a recent court filing, tech giant Apple has accused Epic Games of “starting a fire and pouring gasoline on it” by breaking Apple’s App Store rules.
Tech giant Apple is now seeking damages against Epic Games, the developers behind the wildly popular game Fortnite, which sued Apple alleging that the company took part in monopolistic practices in relation to its App Store.
Epic Games’ lawsuit against Apple is now well underway with the game developer scoring a partial win in the first ruling on the case. The court granted the developer a temporary restraining order against Apple following the tech giant’s threat to remove Epic’s Unreal Engine from multiple Apple platforms — an act of retaliation against the Fortnite company that would have impacted thousands of developers working on their own games and entertainment projects.
Epic Games, the studio behind the megapopular game Fortnite, alleges in a new court filing that tech giant Apple is holding its Unreal gaming engine “hostage” by threatening to cut off Epic’s developer tool access. Thousands of other developers in video games and entertainment rely on the Unreal engine to produce games and computer animation.
Apple CEO Tim Cook recently told Congress that all app developers are treated equally in Apple’s App Store, but a report from Bloomberg alleges that Apple halved its App Store fee to get Amazon Prime Video on its mobile devices and TV set-top box.
Just days after Basecamp co-founder and CTO David Heinemeier Hansson stated that a handful of companies like Google and Facebook have “colonized the web, and they’re choking it,” Hansson found his new email app banned from Apple’s app store.
Microsoft President Brad Smith has called for antitrust regulators to focus on rival tech giant Apple in a recent interview.
The smartphone market has become a duopoly. Two companies, Apple and Google, have captured almost 99 percent of the global market for smartphone operating systems. Almost every new smartphone made today will either feature Google’s Android operating system, or Apple’s iOS.
Apple CEO Tim Cook has defended the company’s decision to blacklist an app tracking Hong Kong protest and police activity. One Hong Kong legislative counselor commented, “We Hongkongers will definitely look closely at whether Apple chooses to uphold its commitment to free expression and other basic human rights, or become an accomplice for Chinese censorship and oppression.”
