They all tell a similar story: They ran apps that helped people limit the time they and their children spent on iPhones. Then Apple created its own screen-time tracker. And then Apple made staying in business very, very difficult.The problem, as I understand it, is that iOS won't run an app that isn't distributed through the App Store. So if you have an iPhone, Apple has, in effect, a monopoly over what programs you can run on it. It'd be like buying a TV that can only be used on Comcast.
Over the past year, Apple has removed or restricted at least 11 of the 17 most downloaded screen-time and parental-control apps, according to an analysis by The New York Times and Sensor Tower, an app-data firm. Apple has also clamped down on a number of lesser-known apps.
In some cases, Apple forced companies to remove features that allowed parents to control their children’s devices or that blocked children’s access to certain apps and adult content. In other cases, it simply pulled the apps from its App Store.
The essence of capitalism is competition. Within the iOS world, Apple is acting like an overlord.
This is a situation that cries out for regulation, if not breaking up Apple. The tech companies are more like Gilded Age trusts. We need another trustbuster in the White House.
Apple vs Pepper is pending a Supreme Court ruling and likely constitutes your first step, if Apple loses.
ReplyDeleteWarren is sounding better and better, to me, anyway.
ReplyDelete-Doug in Oakland
QCOM just gave them an enema https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/QCOM?p=QCOM
ReplyDeleteJobs is dead they're just whoring out the carcass. Carry on.
iPhone apps have been a walled garden, no? The appeal is safety and standards. The drawback is limiting yourself.
ReplyDeleteDoes Apple make the case that parental control could enable hacking?
Apple and PC users were always different. Apple and Android users are similar.