The massive image: The App Retailer has turn out to be house to at least 1.9 million apps, producing $64 billion in income for Apple and app builders. And whereas Apple will let you know it is a spot you possibly can belief, one developer lawsuit alleges that could not be farther from the reality.
Final month, Kosta Eleftheriou, the cellular app developer behind the favored Apple Watch keyboard app FlickType for the visually impaired wrote a scathing Twitter thread on the present state of the App Retailer. In it, Eleftheriou criticized Apple for not correctly imposing App Retailer guidelines, which has allowed a number of rip-off and clone apps to coexist with completely reputable apps in an atmosphere that is supposed to stop that from taking place.
Moreover, a few of these apps attain excessive sufficient annual revenues to make it to the highest of the App Retailer, which at first look makes it appear as if Apple is tolerating them. Nevertheless, regardless of their fraudulent nature, most of those apps have glowing opinions and five-star rankings. Some do not even work as marketed regardless of promising the identical performance as reputable apps like FlickType, whereas successfully chipping away income from reputable builders.
Apple did take away the apps that have been talked about in Eleftheriou’s story, together with 77 rip-off apps made by a developer that has been working since 2019. The corporate additionally launched a public assertion reiterating its dedication to holding the App Retailer clear, in addition to claiming it had terminated over half 1,000,000 developer accounts and eliminated over 60 million spam person opinions.
Eleftheriou is not completely pleased with the response although, and understandably so. Whereas Apple did take away some fraudulent apps from its market, it left many extra untouched. Because of this, Eleftheriou determined to file a grievance in opposition to the Cupertino big in a California state court docket. He alleges Apple is utilizing its monopoly energy over iOS apps to “make billions of {dollars} in income on the expense of small utility builders and shoppers.”
The developer presents an in depth view of what he believes to be wrongful habits from the iPhone maker, which incorporates fraud, false promoting, and breach of developer settlement. Notably, he claims Apple had tried to amass FlickType in 2019, however shortly turned quiet after Eleftheriou up to date the app to cater to a extra normal viewers.
Apple refused to permit FlickType on the Watch App Retailer explaining that keyboard apps weren’t allowed, regardless of permitting others like Shift Keyboard. As a cease hole answer, Eleftheriou allowed third occasion apps like Nano for Reddit, WatchChat for WhatsApp, Lens for Instagram, and Chirp for Twitter to make use of FlickType’s tech as a characteristic.
One yr later, FlickType was lastly allowed again into the App Retailer and generated over $130,000 in income in only one month, climbing to the highest of the Paid Apps part within the US. The success was short-lived, as fraudsters instantly flooded {the marketplace} with apps that appeared to have the identical performance, however in actuality didn’t. In line with the grievance, this diminished FlickType’s income to $20,000 monthly, whereas copycat apps have continued to thrive.
The lawsuit provides to a rising listing of complications for Apple, which can be embroiled in a authorized struggle with Epic Video games for alleged monopolistic habits, to not point out an analogous one with US lawmakers that intend to make important modifications to how Large Tech operates. To Apple’s credit score, the corporate did trim its App Retailer fee charge to fifteen % for small app builders, however that will not quantity to a lot if fraudulent apps can simply swoop in and rip-off potential clients out of their hard-earned cash.