How Apple lost control of the App Store
- Apple has been ordered to change its App Store policies after a judge ruled that it had misled developers about external payments, buttons, and links.
- The ruling, made by Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, requires Apple to give developers more control over how they handle these features in their apps.
- Apple plans to appeal the decision, but has already begun to make changes to its policies in response to the ruling.
- The change could have significant implications for the app economy, potentially leading to new business models and opportunities for developers.
- The ruling is also part of a larger trend of antitrust lawsuits against tech giants like Apple, Meta, and Google, which are all currently involved in court battles over their market dominance.
“Cook chose poorly” is one of those phrases you’ll someday read in a history book about the tech industry. That’s just one of the memorable lines from Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers’ stinging rebuke of Apple this week, in which she ruled that Apple needed to change the way it handled external payments, buttons, and links in apps. And it needed to do so now. Apple says it will appeal, but it has already changed the rules. The app economy might never be the same.
On this episode of The Vergecast, we talk about what just happened and why it matters. After some very important party speaker updates, Nilay, David, and The Verge‘s Jake Kastrenakes walk through Apple’s years of closed-door meetings about app commissions, and the ways in which Gonzalez Rogers found she’d been misled throughout the process. (Nilay also takes a victory lap on the whole “buttons and links” thing.) We talk about how developers are responding to the news, as well as what new things you might be able to buy in the App Store, which new apps might suddenly be possible, and whether Apple has any moves left in this case.
After that, it’s time for… more monopoly talk! Meta and Google are both still in court fight …
Read the full story at The Verge.