A new study is out, yet again funded by Facebook, that concludes Apple and Google have harmful practices (via The Verge).
Preinstalled Apps
The study from Comscore says that preinstalled apps on iOS and Android restrict competition from third-party developers. Categories like weather, photos, and clocks were mentioned in the report exclusively shared with The Verge. Other apps like Apple Maps and Apple Music don’t appear in the list.
Apple and Google are under investigation in multiple countries in antitrust cases, while Facebook’s antitrust case was recently dismissed [PDF]. Comscore is an analytics company and for this study it used data collected from apps and websites along with a survey of about 4,000 people.
As the report says:
The results show that 75 percent of the top 20 apps on iOS in the US were made by Apple, while Google made 60 percent of the top apps on Android. The top four apps on both platforms were made by their respective parent company.
Facebook paid for the Comscore study to show the “impact of preinstalled apps on the competitive app ecosystem,” according to company spokesman Joe Osborne.
Apple responded, saying the study was “seriously flawed”: “In truth, third-party apps compete with Apple’s apps across every category and enjoy large scale success.”
Next week a study funded by Phillip Morris will show smoking is good for you.
Andrew:
If ever there was any doubt that human perversity was alive and well, or that our propensity for self-inflicted injury was at risk of being routed, then the judgement that FB has not engaged in anti-competitive behaviours or committed anti-trust violations AND that FB can continue to fund blatantly self-serving ‘studies’ that Apple and Google are the real threats to competition by providing, at least in Apple’s case, an ‘opt-in’ option for add tracking, otherwise known as ‘consent’, whilst FB continues to both plunder user data with impunity and assimilate competing platforms without resistance, should reassure all of us that the situation remains normal.
AKA SNAFU.