A few weeks ago, Apple announced without notice a reduction in the commission that remains on all purchases of applications available in the App Store for all developers who do not receive more than $ 1 million in revenue, after Apple’s commission reduction. This represents 98% of the Apple app developer community.
When it looked like the waters were momentarily calming (pending the judgment he predicted against Epic Games) Jail Freeman (known as Saurik, creator of the Cydia app store available only during jailbreak), joined a group of developers for accuse Apple of anti-competitive behavior.
Cydia has taken legal action against Apple so that once and for all End the monopoly of software distribution on iOS devices. According to Cydia, if Apple did not have an “illegal monopoly” on the distribution of applications, users would be able to choose how and where to download applications for their devices and also, developers would have other distribution methods.
One of Apple’s spokespersons, after being interviewed by the Washington Post, claims that the app store not a monopoly because it faces competition from Android. In addition, it says Apple needs to keep control over installed software to prevent customers from accidentally downloading viruses and malware that could compromise the security of their devices.
In response, Jail Freeman claims to the same media that before the App Store, there was Cydia, a store that was created to make it easier for developers to install new software on the first iPhone to hit the market to add new features that were not available on the original iPhone.
Freeman goes on to say that the risks of jailbreaking are overkill and are similar to downloading software on any computer. Further, he states that “Morally speaking, it’s your phone and you should be able to do whatever you want with it.”
Cydia’s lawyer says the “legal climate” has changed because now is the perfect time to take legal action against Apple, being Cydia the best example of an antitrust case, since it is an alternative application store to the one that Apple offers natively. If the lawsuit is finally successful, Cydia could come to iOS without having to jailbreak the device. Time will tell.
