Fearing for its monopoly, Apple has declared war on super applications, as American regulators denounce in their complaint document targeting the apple brand. These platforms, little developed in the West, are particularly popular in Asia, and in China in particular.
Last week, the US Department of Justice filed a broad lawsuit against Apple, accusing it of abuse of dominance and unfair practices to maintain the iPhone monopoly. One of the key elements of the complaint concerns super applications, which the Californian giant would have intentionally restricted on iOS.
During a presentation to the board of directors, super apps were described as a “ major obstacle » to the rise in iPhone sales in countries where they are popular.
What is a great app?
Super apps offer all-in-one services. They are made up of several mini-programs that can meet most user needs. For example messaging, shopping, financial services, ordering food, transportation, etc. The best known of them is Chinese and belongs to the giant Tencent, it is WeChat.
This super application is essential in the Middle Kingdom, where almost half of the population uses it regularly. In the West, and particularly in Europe, examples of super apps are much fewer. Truth be told, there is none that really compares to WeChat and its scale. A situation that a certain Elon Musk wants to remedy, since he aims to integrate X.com, formerly Twitter, into a super application based on the Chinese model.
According to the Department of Justice, Apple has implemented significant restrictions to prevent these types of services from emerging. The company would have estimated that a user operating a super application would be much less likely to be tied to a single ecosystem, in this case, iOS.
Restrictions to restrict super apps on iOS
The Apple brand prevents developers from putting their great apps on the App Store by requiring that the mini-programs that compose them be displayed in the form of a “ flat and textual list » rather than in the form of icons, a much more attractive design. Likewise, these mini-programs cannot be categorized on iOS, preventing developers from arranging the interface as they see fit.
The complaint also mentions that mini-programs do not have the ability to leverage the API for integrating in-app purchases. A restriction, however, lifted by the Cupertino company in January, perhaps because it was aware of the investigation carried out by the Department of Justice…
This case, which also concerns the Apple CarPlay on-board OS, should constitute one of the most important antitrust trials in the history of the United States.
Source : The Verge
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