The president of Microsoft, Brad Smith, says that the app store should work under supervisions and regulations.
Few days before Apple’s big event – WWDC where Apple will announce new products and developments such as IOS 14, IPad OS 14, WatchOS 7, new Mac and new iMac, Apple find itself under criticism – The European Union opened an investigation about new information that came from an ex-employee who claimed that Apple keeps recording users without their knowledge and the founder of Basecamp called them “gangsters” because they rejected his app’s version update due to the fact the billing system of the app is not related to Apple.
Now, one of Apple’s biggest competitors – Microsoft, is on the offence.
Microsoft’s president Brad Smith interviewed to the site “politico” and said that he is against Apple’s policy about apps. Smith is in favor of the investigations against Apple and said that their behavior eliminates competition.
Smith said:
“They impose requirements that increasingly say there is only one way to get on to our platform and that is to go through the gate that we ourselves have created. In some cases they create a very high price per toll — in some cases 30% of your revenue has to go to the toll keeper.” Smith continued – “The time has come — whether we are talking about D.C. or Brussels — for a much more focused conversation about the nature of app stores, the rules that are being put in place, the prices and the tolls that are being extracted and whether there is really a justification in antitrust law for everything that has been created”.
According to Smith, for a long time, tech giants such as Apple and Google, try to create one way to do things, and it is their way only. For example, Fortnite tried to publish their mobile version outside Google Play in order to avoid paying such high fee, which can get as high as 30%, but lost the case in court and now they must publish the game on Google’s store.
Microsoft know what they are talking about – in the 90’s Microsoft tried to fight Netscape, which developed internet browsers and was the biggest competitors to Microsoft’s internet explorer, by bundle internet explorer with every copy on Windows. Microsoft got many fines and had to pay compensation.
Apple responded to the investigation and said on Tuesday – “it’s disappointing the European Commission is advancing baseless complaints from a handful of companies who simply want a free ride, and don’t want to play by the same rules as everyone else.”
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