Antitrust, the App Store, and Apple

Google, Facebook, and Amazon benefit from an outdated definition of “monopoly”

A few weeks ago, Italy fined Apple and Samsung €15 million for the “planned obsolescence” of their smartphones. The antitrust regulators allege that both companies pushed users to download software that slowed phone performance, forcing customers to buy replacement phones sooner.

Evolving App Store Business Models - David Smith, Independent iOS Developer

I’ve been thinking this past week (as I often do) about the ever-changing landscape of the App Store. This year has seen some of the biggest changes in policy and structure that I can remember. We have new subscription pricing models, search ads, a substantial purge of older apps, new requirements for app names and a variety of little changes to the App Store app itself in iOS 10.

Tim Sweeney on Twitter / X

Finally, American developers will be free to compete with Apple’s App Store and payment systems here at home!A solid move to free the United States from the crony capitalist intentions of Big Tech and Big Law. https://t.co/7NXHiQxhEf— Tim Sweeney (@TimSweeneyEpic) April 1, 2025

Protected by its moat, Apple has time to get AI right

Best of all, the hardware it sells today will run whatever Apple comes up with.

Apple's plan to allow browser competition dubbed unworkable - Open Web Advocacy

The #AppleBrowserBan Ends in the EU!

Morgan Stanley: No, Apps Aren't Winning. The Mobile Browser Is. | MarTech

Last week, comScore released its Mobile App Report, which we covered. The report contained many interesting findings, but its big takeaway was this:

Why freemium apps suck for everyone (and how Apple is killing paid apps)

I work on an iPhone app called Reps & Sets as a hobby project in my spare time. This week, my partner and I came to the conclusion that there is no

Tim Sweeney on Twitter / X

Google is opening up Android all the way with robust support for competing stores, competing payments, and a better deal for all developers. So, we've settled all of our disputes worldwide. THANKS GOOGLE! https://t.co/Dq6eXNnZd0— Tim Sweeney (@TimSweeneyEpic) March 4, 2026

Apple's Assault on Standards - Infrequently Noted

By subverting the voluntary nature of open standards, Apple has defanged them as tools that users can employ against the totalising power of native apps in their digital lives. This high-modernist approach is antithetical to the foundational commitments of internet standards bodies and, over time, erode them.

Pluralistic: The worst possible antitrust outcome (03 Sep 2025) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow

Last year, Google lost an antitrust case to Biden's DoJ. The DoJ lawyers beat Google like a drum, proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that Google had deliberately sought to create and maintain a monopoly over search, and that they'd used that monopoly to make search materially worse, while locking competitors out of the market.

SLAP and FLOP: Apple's Lack of Full Site Isolation and iOS Browser Ban Puts Users at Risk - Open Web Advocacy

TL:DR; Yet again Apple’s ban on third-party browser engines weakens security rather than strengthens it.

Carl Pei Thinks the Phone of the Future Will Only Have One App

Nothing’s CEO speaks to WIRED about how he sees the smartphone market playing out in an era of AI, and where he thinks the competition is going wrong.