'Arbitrary' App Store guidelines 'weapon against competitors', says former App Store head
What you need to know
- Apple's App Store guidelines are "arbitrary", "arguable", and "a weapon against competitors".
- That's according to the former head of... erm... Apple's App Store.
- Phil Shoemaker blasted the marketplace and further claimed Apple Arcade violated Apple's own guidelines.
Apple's former App Store head, Phil Shoemaker, has lambasted the company over its "arbitrary" and "arguable" App Store guidelines, describing them as "a weapon against competitors."
The revelation was made in a massive report submitted by the House antitrust subcommittee regarding anticompetitive behavior from Apple, Amazon, Google, and Facebook. From Business Insider:
Shoemaker told the committee that Apple Arcade, Apple's own gaming subscription service, was the type of app "consistently disallowed from the store", but that Apple had allowed its own app on the App Store despite the fact it violated Apple's own existing guidelines.
In a statement to the outlet, Apple snapped back stating:
Apple Arcade has been a talking point in antitrust news given Apple's treatment of other gaming platforms such as Microsoft's xCloud service for Xbox and Facebook Gaming.
The subcommittee is expected to make recommendations for lawmakers as to how they can curb the influence and power of companies like Apple in the future.
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Stephen Warwick has written about Apple for five years at iMore and previously elsewhere. He covers all of iMore's latest breaking news regarding all of Apple's products and services, both hardware and software. Stephen has interviewed industry experts in a range of fields including finance, litigation, security, and more. He also specializes in curating and reviewing audio hardware and has experience beyond journalism in sound engineering, production, and design. Before becoming a writer Stephen studied Ancient History at University and also worked at Apple for more than two years. Stephen is also a host on the iMore show, a weekly podcast recorded live that discusses the latest in breaking Apple news, as well as featuring fun trivia about all things Apple. Follow him on Twitter @stephenwarwick9