Apple is accused of having an App Store monopoly, and today the U.S. Supreme Court will oversee the antitrust case (via Reuters).
[U.S. Supreme Court Agrees to Hear Apple Appeal on App Store Monopoly Case]
App Store Monopoly
Would consumers even be able to sue Apple in a case like this? Although Apple has tight control over its hardware and software, so far it has been able to escape accusations of monopoly because of low market share.
The iPhone users accused Apple of violating federal antitrust law by monopolizing the sale of paid apps, leading to inflated prices compared to if apps were available from other sources.
Though developers set the prices of their apps, Apple collects the payments from iPhone users, keeping a 30 percent commission on each purchase. One area of dispute in the case is whether app developers recoup the cost of that commission by passing it on to consumers.
Apple claims it only acts as the agent for app developers who sell apps through the App Store.
[Chinese App Store Developer Complaint Highlights Apples China Problem]
What a load of 🐄💩
No one is forced to buy an Apple iDevice.
Sure, many folks would like the idea of being able to “sideload” apps from outside the App Store, but as soon as that’s allowed, if there an issue (battery life, crashes, privacy breaches) these same folks would be first in line to sue Apple for allowing it to happen…
I would rather pay for apps from the App Store because of Apple’security versus other sites. Very few malicious apps get through Apple’s store vs other systems like android. Enough said.
It isn’t like the app costs as much as something from Adobe or MicroSoft, the prices are very affordable.