My response to Apple's response to Spotify: manton.org
@manton Also, Apple fails to point out that the major beneficiary of all those free apps is… Apple. They sell a phone with an app for anything you can imagine. Such a strong proposition they used it as a campaign slogan! Those free apps are of value. Mostly to Apple.
@sabo Yep, "there's an app for that" was great marketing. It helped Apple sell iPhones and also spread the word about apps, which helped developers. The rules around in-app purchase seem much more about protecting Apple's revenue.
@manton totally true, and many dads (well, my dad) out there are still making that “joke” about there being an app for that as if it was topical. 😂
@manton the idea that Uber pays nothing to Apple is what makes Apple's arguments completely trash. After all, if Amazon and Uber don't pay anything to Apple, but Kindle and Spotify must, then that's just arbitrary rules to make money.
@manton The thing that continues to baffle me about Apple's handling of these types of issues is that they could so easily win; simply improve their products, the thing they like to talk about so much. Make the App Store more flexible, make Apple Music the very beast streaming service, actually modernise iTunes! They could just get on with the work, under-promise and over-deliver, and then when they want to let their retort out (like with Jobs and Flash) so many more people will be likely to both agree with them and even let the hubris slide to some extent.
Now it seems like they're more concerned with damage control well after the fact and I've yet to see proof they're even competent enough to get away with that.