HiTechEdge

Tag: Tim Cook

  • EU Wants to Crack Open Apple’s Walled Garden Even More

    EU Wants to Crack Open Apple’s Walled Garden Even More

    The EU has its sights set on Apple once again, with the bloc looking to force Apple to open its walled garden.

    Apple is famous for its tightly controlled ecosystem. The company has already weather legal challenges within the US to its closed ecosystem, but the EU appears poised to issue further challenges, especially after forcing the company to adopt USB-C instead of its own Lightning port.

    According to Reuters, EU industry chief Thierry Breton met with Apple CEO Tim Cook to discuss the Digital Markets Act (DMA). The DMA is the EU’s sweeping legislation aimed at reigning in Big Tech, especially so-called “gatekeeper” companies that control entire platforms.

    “The next job for Apple and other Big Tech, under the DMA (Digital Markets Act) is to open up its gates to competitors,” Breton told Reuters.

    “Be it the electronic wallet, browsers or app stores, consumers using an Apple iPhone should be able to benefit from competitive services by a range of providers,” he said.

    Only time will tell if anything more comes from Breton’s comments, but the EU is certainly not a jurisdiction to be trifled with when it comes to its efforts to regulate Big Tech.

  • App Store Ecosystem Hit $643 Billion in 2020

    App Store Ecosystem Hit $643 Billion in 2020

    A new study has shown just how much the App Store ecosystem has grown, coming in at $643 billion in 2020, a 24% increase.

    While Apple’s iOS platform may lag behind Google’s Android, in terms of market share, it receives the lion’s share of money spent on mobile apps. According to an independent study by the Analysis Group, App Store sales grew 24% year over year in 2020, reaching a whopping $643 billion.

    Even more impressive, the number of small developers — defined as less than 1 million downloads and less than $1 million in earnings per year — has increased 40% since 2015. In fact, small developers now make up more than 90 percent of the App Store’s ecosystem.

    “Developers on the App Store prove every day that there is no more innovative, resilient, or dynamic marketplace on earth than the app economy,” says Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “The apps we’ve relied on through the pandemic have been life-changing in so many ways — from groceries delivered to our homes, to teaching tools for parents and educators, to an imaginative and ever-expanding universe of games and entertainment. The result isn’t just incredible apps for users: it’s jobs, it’s opportunity, and it’s untold innovation that will power global economies for many years to come.”

    The study is an important validation of the App Store at a time when Apple is locked in a high-stakes legal fight with Epic over the very future of that ecosystem.