Apple Insists On Rigid Control Of Apps
In the midst of the dispute over its app store system, Apple has released new figures on the importance of its control over the platform.
In the past year, nearly a million problematic apps and around a million updates were rejected or removed from the platform. The majority of them were iPhone apps that were already noticed during the investigation by app testers, Apple announced today.
According to Apple, the control mechanisms prevented fraudulent purchases – for example with stolen credit cards – with a volume of 1.5 billion dollars (around 1.23 billion euros). Of the problematic apps, 215,000 were rejected because of data protection violations and 150,000 because of spam or copying other applications.
205,000 registrations of new developer accounts were rejected on suspicion of fraud, and almost half a million existing developer profiles were deleted. 244 million customer accounts have been disabled for fraud and abuse. At the same time, the establishment of 424 million new user profiles was prevented. According to Apple, there are around 1.8 million applications in the App Store.
App Store received double criticism
Apple only allows apps from its own store to be installed on the iPhone. You can only pay for the applications and in-app buyers via the Group’s payment platform – Apple withholds 15 or 30 percent of the purchase price. The company repeatedly argues that its strict control is important for user safety.
The app store system is currently being criticized twice: The EU Commission accuses Apple of unfair competition in music streaming apps. And at the same time a process is running in California in which the game developer Epic Games (“Fortnite“) wants to achieve that it can operate its own app store on the iPhone and sell digital items without surrendering to Apple. Epic argues Apple is exaggerating the role of app controls in user security.
Apple Insists On Rigid Control Of Apps
