“Anger is growing in China over Apple’s treatment of developers, with a second group of app designers filing a legal complaint against the iPhone maker,” Yuan Yang reports for the Financial Times. “Apple started a worldwide crackdown on what it saw as illegitimate apps earlier this year, removing more than 1m Chinese apps from the company’s App Store in the year to date, according to the tech research firm ASO 100.”
“Apple routinely launches mass clean-ups of its App Store, and it is not unusual for the group to delete tens of thousands of programs at one time,” Yang reports. “However, it has cut almost 200,000 more Chinese apps than those from the US so far this year.”
“Last month, a Beijing-based law firm, Dare & Sure, filed the first Chinese antitrust case against Apple on behalf of 28 developers. Their case has now expanded to cover more than 50 developers. Now a second law firm in Chengdu, western China is alleging similar mistreatment on behalf of 23 more developers,” Yang reports. “Both Beijing-based Dare & Sure and Chengdu-based Sichuan Fa Ye Law Firm alleged Apple was abusing its control of the iOS App Store, the only official source of app downloads for iPhones, by removing apps without good reason… Many developers said apps that may seem like copies of others would often be for different audiences or regions, and that they did not understand how Apple decided which apps were the originals.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Apple probably decides which apps are the originals by submission date which seems entirely logical.
SEE ALSO:
Apple’s App Store in China accused of violating local pricing and antitrust laws – August 10, 2017
Apple’s App Store business model may be in danger in China – August 9, 2017
Misunderstanding Apple Services – August 7, 2017
Dispelling the Apple Services myth – May 3, 2017
Apple’s Services business: $7 billion in revenue last quarter alone – May 3, 2017
Apple’s Services (App Store, Apple Music, Apple Pay) business is an unstoppable juggernaut that’s still just gathering strength – May 3, 2017
MacDailyNews presents live notes from Apple’s Q217 conference call – May 2, 2017
Apple Q217 earnings beats on EPS, misses on revenue – May 2, 2017
Apple doesn’t decide which apps stay, Pipeline Timmy has left that task to the Communist Red Chinese authorities.
“Make Apple Great Again…Dump Pipeline Timmy.”
Russian cocksucking troll.
No, I don’t think Pipeline Timmy is Russian.
What the fuck have you EVER done that really matters? It takes NO effort to go negative. You are such a source of negativity, it’s truly pathetic; a coward of the highest order. It’s both laughable and profoundly sad at the same time. For you to be as negative as you are, you must be a VERY unhappy person. No happy, well-adjusted individual acts as you do. The only other possibility is that you are severely mentally-disabled, which would be unfortunate. You seem to lucid for that to be the case. Which leaves that your just an asshole. How’s that working out for ya? Go ahead, say your fine. We already know you lie about other things too.
Yes, grammr typos. Whatevs.
If you’re talking about buttvinnik, I fully agree.
Scary thing is, he works at MacDailyNews, so we don’t know how much of his vitriolic garbage we read in the MDN Take for every article.
Keep aiming for that Darwin award botty…..
“…he works at MacDailyNews..”
wrong again, I’m deep state intel for MI6..
Bot, James Bot…licence to ridicule libtards.
Actually, I suspect that you’re an early lobotomy failure.
None of your posts exhibit any higher conscious brain function whatsoever.
well, I’ve told you who I am….now I will have to kill you. It’s in the double-naught spy Official Rule Book.
“…you must be a VERY unhappy person.”
actually, I have been just marvy-poo ecstatic every dang day…
SINCE NOVEMBER 8, 2016. Thanks for caring!
bwahahahahahahahaha
suck it, libtard.
Every time I see botty fawn over his hero, I remind myself that the Orange President has supporters far more reprehensible than botty. Think about that…
Think about this, you libtard jackass:
• The Presidency
• The Senate
• The House
• The Supreme Court
• The State Houses
• The Governorships
you’ve lost everything, and the fun is just beginning! …here comes 2018!
What’s sad is that horrible people have duped others like you into thinking they are on your side. Their victory is your loss, but you gloat about it as if you don’t realize they will hurt you. It’s pretty sad to see people so invested in hating others they are willing to hurt themselves just to gloat that others are hurt a bit worse.
as anyone who can read can plainly see, it is you who is “invested in hate.”
got issues? get tissues, püssy.
Weird attempt to flip this. I wasn’t being sarcastic when I said it was “sad.” I actually feel bad for the people who vote for austerity politicians – they are going to hurt themselves, too. That’s not me hating, it’s being sad that some hate others so much they vote for politicians who tell them “I’ll screw these people you hate. I’ll screw you, too, but you’ll be OK with that because your hate is stronger than your sense of self-preservation.”
Come on, that is legitimately sad.
(fanfare by Randy’s uncle, the great Alfred Newman.)
“libtard” is the best you can do? Fascinating how your kind—in the absence of actual debating skills—consistently attempts to take something not even remotely political down that path with 1st-grader-caliber name-calling. You’re an ankle-biter of a dog, backed into a corner, harmless and wholly ineffective at scaring anything but your own shadow. You know the truth of your pathetic life, and this is why you lash out with such snowflake-esque attacks. The only thing more painful than reading your bullshit, would be having to live your excuse for a life.
okay, how ’bout “jackass libtard” instead? that better, jackass libtard?
is that “fascinating” enough for ya’ jackass libtard?
If removing apps were due to copycat or pirate or illegal apps then those developers who did the ORIGINAL apps (from which the others copied) , developers who are hassled by pirates who steal their apps etc should file a brief in SUPPORT of Apple, they should be LOUD and VOCIFEROUS . Do they want Chinese authorities to force Apple to allow third party app stores in which case there would be tons and tons more copycat, pirated apps?
I find it weird that that many are willing to attack Apple but those people that Apple help seldom support it. For example Apple helps tons of social groups, often attracting ire to itself for it (perhaps even incurring financial losses) , yet years of watching I’ve NEVER seen any social group say “Buy Apple products because they’ve helped us, they stand for xyz which is a good thing… ” Have you ever seen a LGBT, Diversity, Jesse Jackson (who got millions in donations for education from Apple) , immigration, labour , green energy etc group ever say “Buy more Apple, Macs and iPhones, they are the good guys ” ?
Apple is probably the most ‘green’ giant company in the world (spending gigantic amounts of money and effort to be 100 green energy) but I’ve never seen Green Peace etc ever encourage their tens of millions of supporters to ‘buy Macs’.
Instead I find ultra conservative radio hosts etc (whom I won’t mention here and whom I might not like personally) asking listeners to buy Apple because they are great products and an American company….
(look friends I’m not against these social groups, I’m a social liberal but also an apple investor , I’m just pointing out FACTS .. If you want to flame me please point out where social groups Apple has helped say “buy Apple” . My personal belief is that ‘people should help those who help them’ and I’m seeing a giant lack here… )
According to the EPA, Apple is the 4th largest tech consumer of Green energy and the 3rd largest consumer tech consumer at 100%.
https://www.epa.gov/greenpower/green-power-partnership-national-top-100
An interesting note, the same report places Netflix as the green energy consumer with the largest ‘buffer’ of green energy by purchasing almost 3 times what they use.
Good points. Not surprised tho that these groups don’t do anything but offer up hate. I support lots of friends who fit into those and other categories, but I also see a lot of them post “White guy this, White guy that” stuff online and I wonder just why is it that they accept my support, yet call every White guy on the carpet for the sins of the few. In reverse, it’s racism, etc. and I think it’s a reasonable request you’ve made there…
@Davewrite: your info is a bit out-of-date. Greenpeace, for example has listed Apple as the “greenest” tech firm on the planet. I remember when Greenpeace criticized them harshly, but they’ve vocally acknowledged who much work Apple has done. I’m sure there are others like this.
http://www.businessinsider.com/apple-greenest-tech-company-greenpeace-2017-1
Another important thing to remember is that, if you’re trying to push for some positive change, it usually helps to push those most sympathetic first. It may look less exciting than pushing those who are most wrong, but it is more effective. If the goal is to do “X” (whatever that is), it’s usually best to get some wins under your belt before going after the worst offenders. That is, if your plan is to actually _accomplish_ the goal, instead of just preaching about it.
I’ve noticed McDonald’s has Apps for different regions. Wonder how those are faring in the App Store.
Identifying the original version of an app is easy enough – as MDN says, the date it was first submitted to the App Store identifies who was the originator.
It gets a little more complicated when variants of apps are developed for other regions. A particular developer might not rush to make a Chinese version of their app, so a Chinese developer might make an app that does something very similar for the Chinese market, possibly with a similar name too, but if the original developer later enters the Chinese market with an official Chinese variant of their app, then I would argue that although it was submitted to the app store at a later date, the fact that it came from the original developer of the app which was earlier in another app store would show that it was the true original version and the earlier, unauthorised local version should be withdrawn.
Users do not benefit from multiple fake versions of a given app, each pretending to be the original. With music, I expect the version by my chosen artist, not somebody else singing the same song in a similar manner. Fakes are fakes and they have no place in the App Store.
If these apps are copy cats then Apple have the right to remove them, same way Apple would love to remove copy cat hard ware like Xiomi. I have no doubt this being China, a lot of plagiarism took place and this is why Apple removed the apps, and no doubt many people are inconvenienced.
√ Exactly.
And ‘hello’, 你好, to our *Ding* Bat visitors today who are *Ding*ing down comments critical of China:Criminal Nation. Please look at yourselves in a mirror. Are you free humans? Or are you puppetted victims of your crap government?
Forget taking Apple to court. All these Chinese developers have to do is call themselves and their apps, “Dreamers”, and Tim and company will capitulate!
heh.
Apple started a worldwide crackdown on what it saw as illegitimate apps earlier this year, removing more than 1m Chinese apps from the company’s App Store in the year to date
About bloody time too. Anyone remember the scam app developers named “XHumans”? They made total crap apps for iOS in the early days. Thankfully, Apple booted all of their crapware out of the App Store.
Many developers said apps that may seem like copies of others would often be for different audiences or regions
IOW: As one would immediately suspect, the booted Chinese developer crap-apps include copy-crap apps. How incredibly China: Criminal Nation. Taking Apple to court over their right to rip off other developer’s IP.
Apple: Get the HELL out of China. I’ve been suggesting this for over a decade. Here, of course, is yet another reason why:
China’s cybersecurity law grants government ‘unprecedented’ control over foreign tech
Relinquish your IP or lose one of the world’s largest markets
The law grants the China Information Technology Evaluation Center (CNITSEC), an office in the Ministry of State Security (MSS), the power to request source code and other intellectual property of tech suppliers operating in the country. Information gleaned might easily be exploited by CNITSEC in furtherance of its intelligence operations, Recorded Future claims.
Have fun with that, Apple. You’ll soon be handing China: Criminal Nation your IP. 😛