Apple really, really wants you to believe the App Store isn’t a monopoly

Image: justin sullivan / Getty Images

You know what’s home to millions of apps and should definitely not be subject to any kind of antitrust action? Apple’s App Store.

That’s at least what the company argued on Wednesday, when it published a new page on its website about the App Store and its “principals and practices.”

Though the page looks like an informational source for developers at first glance — with app review guidelines and stats about how long it takes for apps to be approved — it also explicitly lays out most of Apple’s arguments on why the App Store is not a monopoly.

This isn’t necessarily new territory for Apple, but the topic recently became relevant again when the Supreme Court ruled that a group can proceed with a seven-year-old class action lawsuit against the company for what it claims are anticompetitive practices. And though we won’t know the ultimate result of the suit for some time, it could have massive implications for Apple.

That may help explain why the company went out of its way to point out that its App Store is actually a “fair marketplace.”

“Like any fair marketplace, developers decide what they want to charge from a set of price tiers,” the company writes. “We only collect a commission from developers when a digital good or service is delivered through an app.”

In case that’s too subtle a message, Apple goes even further, with a section titled “A store that welcomes competition” in an extra large font.

 “We believe competition makes everything better and results in the best apps for our customers,” it says. Then, in an apparent reference to Google’s Play Store: “That’s why, even though other stores have more users and more app downloads, the App Store earns more money for developers.”

Apple then pulls out some visuals to really drive its point home, listing some popular third-party apps that compete with its own offerings. The message is clear: Its App Store offers many apps that compete with its own, so how can that possibly be anticompetitive?

Of course, there’s one important fact Apple conveniently leaves out of this section: even though Apple offers competing apps from third-parties, it doesn’t allow you to use these as the default services on your devices. So that while, yes, you can choose to use Google Calendar or Spotify in place of Apple’s Calendar or Music apps, actually doing so is more cumbersome because iPhones and iPads will always push you to use Apple’s apps first. 

In fact, on the same day Apple revealed its new website, Bloomberg published an interview with Apple’s former head of App Store approvals, Phillip Shoemaker, who said there was in fact “concern inside Apple that companies like Google or Facebook could create a slew of apps that would replace core iPhone functions,” in the early days of the App Store.

The new site comes less than a week before Apple’s annual Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC), where it shows off its latest operating systems and developer tools. The App Store always takes center stage at the event, so don’t be surprised if Apple’s arguments against potential antitrust action come up again during the event.