Editorial Staff
Apple is a company that has dominated the smart device game since its release of the crucial iPhone, though it was making new content and devices long before. The iPhone catapulted the company into the public awareness. It became an essential part of the average humans’ everyday life. Afterward, they would release a wide array of similar products such as the Apple Watch, iPad, and Mac computer. These were accepted by consumers with open arms and became market hits.
Since their release, the mogul of a company has expanded rapidly across the population. It has become a necessary part of technological and app development internationally. If an app is to succeed, most innovators and experts insist that the Apple App Store is a crucial part of the process in order to break into general demographics. The App Store boasts over two million apps to date with revenue of over twenty-two billion.
With such a massive amount of daily downloads and gross income, it is no surprise that Apple has taken to monitoring certain aspects of the market. The App Store is managed to avoid dangerous or malicious apps – even popular favorites like Tumblr have been taken off due to longstanding issues. Keeping all this in mind, Apple has often positioned itself to be a gatekeeper against possible competitors of their own products.
Lately, Apple has taken to banning third-party apps that monitor screen usage for things like parental controls. The company released a new feature that is meant to do the same thing in terms of limiting the amount of time spent on a device. After this rollout, Apple began to restrict outside apps that are meant to do the same thing – even in some cases deleting them entirely from their selection of apps. Apple has come under criticism for its sometimes overzealous response to competitors in the field and their removal.
Apple will most likely continue their sometimes overly strict or purposefully obstructing behavior given their control of the market place. However, this does raise ethical questions about how companies can stifle other businesses when given too much control and a strong monopoly over the markets with which they maintain. There is no doubt that Apple has become a company with enough power to influence the way technology such as apps are developed and put out for the masses. But it also comes with a certain level of responsibility for how they operate their business and what it means to have that power.