Under Scrutiny, Big Tech Bruised – Hardly
Bipartisan rancour. It’s almost pleasant to watch. Whether it’s a Democrat complaining about mis-information or a Republican throwing hypocritical barbs about censorship, Washington is the circus to see. Big Tech has been dancing and the politicians have been playing ring master. My favourite bits though, are inside the tent of mirrors.
Epic’s battle, Spotify suing in Europe, and Match’s $500 Million per year pay to play Apple tax, Tile getting boxed out while a new AirTag was released just this week. (Economist’s are going to write books about Apple’s controlled ecosystem, hopefully as a warning.) Each dancing pony is better than the last! And the ringmaster’s are smiling while nodding their heads. One of these days this App Store madness is going to come crashing down.
Is there any technical reason you can’t sell apps on a platform other than Apple’s? Of course not…
No later than this morning, we had an app rejected because a link on our app, which opens a browser to our site, displays a Windows and Android download link. Seriously? No! They call it “meta data” and this “meta data” was against their store policy. A link to our web site… Dance pony, dance!
For the App Store uninitiated it’s hard to fathom just how much control Apple has over our products, how much revenue they generate from our hard work, and how their platform can determine the success or failure of ‘our’ products.
If you like a good circus and want to, just for a second, eliminate that sick feeling that comes when you have no other option, keep an eye on this spectacle.