On the eve of Apple CEO Tim Cook’s testimony to the House Judiciary Committee as part of an antitrust probe, Apple VP Phil Schiller has defended the App Store in a new interview with Reuters. The Apple exec touted that the App Store has successfully flipped how the entire software industry works.
Schiller, who serves as Apple’s senior vice president of worldwide marketing, explained that the goal of the App Store is to “treat all apps in the App Store the same.” Unlike PC software, the idea is that the App Store treats all developers the same with no special deals or terms for the larger creators. Schiller said:
On the flip side, Schiller acknowledged that the App Store has had to adjust its policy for instances where the user had purchased a subscription or account somewhere else. In these situations, developers can allow users to sign in with an account created elsewhere, so long as the games also offer in-app payments through Apple’s system:
These comments from Schiller are interesting and raise questions about some of what Apple has said in the past. Whereas Schiller emphasized that all apps are treated the same, Apple said earlier this year that it has an “established program for premium subscription video entertainment providers” that allows customers to buy or rent movies and TV shows using the payment method tied to their existing video subscription.
A separate report earlier today shed new light on disagreements between Apple and companies such as ClassPass and Airbnb.
