Freedom in phones — The international push for app freedom in iPhones.
Since the inception of the now-ubiquitous iPhone in 2007, there has always been one problem that has been on the minds of many tech enthusiasts alike. And that problem is that it’s locked down! You can only ever install apps curated and deemed appropriate by Apple… which is really problematic because that means that Apple controls what apps land on 56% of all phones worldwide! Luckily, nations worldwide are already wise to this and are working on legislation to fix this problem!
When did this movement start?
Well, I have believed that this was a long-standing issue in Apple devices, but it was really put on the international spotlight when the ever-so-famous Apple vs. Epic lawsuit came into fruition — Epic ended up losing the lawsuit, but it appears that they have given the movement enough traction to at least be considered outside of the U.S.
I personally believe the Apple’s position as the sole distributor of apps, with no other alternative available on a standard iPhone, is very unhealthy for the app market, and indeed Apple has demonstrably used this position of power in unethical ways; though even if they had not, I would still be against this because there remains potential for misuse of power in the future… as the saying goes;
“Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupt absolutely.” — Lord Acton
Why is this so problematic?
Well, suffice to say, the smartphone is how the vast majority of us interface with the digital world… that is, an extremely lucrative world, even before Facebook announced that it was now going to become Meta!
According to Apple, the revenue that comes from their services outpaces the revenue generated from their Mac and iPad sales! So it is obvious that Apple would want to uphold this valuable revenue stream and hinder competition as much as possible… and this is where their control of the App Store comes in.
Apple has had a track record of banning and/or otherwise hindering apps that compete with their services; for example, Apple banned Xbox Game Cloud and Stadia from their App Store, which are both subscription services that compete with Apple’s own subscription-based service, Apple Arcade. Note that Apple has never explicitly stated that they have banned them because they compete, but their actions towards competing services are rather suspect.
Now, they don’t always outright block apps that compete with their services; a good example, and one that I think all of us have used in the past, is Spotify. Apple has hindered Spotify by taking a sharp cut out of all its revenues from subscriptions on iPhones and iPads, and this is an issue that Spotify themselves have spoken about, as a large portion of their userbase has opted to subscribe using an iPhone — this was because, before EU legislation that is now in effect, you had to use the payment system provided by Apple so that they could reliably take a 30% cut of all revenue; however, this has since been changed so that third-parties may include other payment options that Apple cannot take a bite out of.
Google also took cuts from app revenues, though Google wasn’t expecting a 99$ annual payment; they instead opted for a single 10$ fee for uploading any amount of apps onto the Play Store, and there is no evidence to suggest (Only to suggest; no truly concrete proof exists, and that stands for both sides!) that they are banning competing apps off the Play Store.
In short, Apple is exploiting its position as the sole owner of the App Market, and Google is too, to an extent.
So, where do we go from here?
Well, even though third-party payment options can now be included in Appstore, the EU is not satisfied and plans to go even further by allowing side-loading on iPhones (the practice of downloading apps from places other than the official App Store). Apple is attempting to brand this movement towards freedom as a ‘violation of user privacy and security, however… this is proven to be false — and even if it were true, Apple has demonstrably shown that they cannot be trusted to control the entire app market.
