19th
Apple’s deal with the Appstore
With the original Appstore for the iPhone, Apple offered us a deal: We are only allowed to install applications through Apple’s vetted Appstore but if we would not charge our users, Apple would not charge us for hosting the apps. At least as long as we respected a set of overall reasonable rules. One of the least reasonable rule in many eyes was that apps should not compete with the core functionality of the iPhone. But even here, public pressure and inquiries by competition authorities finally led to the acceptance of apps like Google Voice.
With its, as yet announced and unreleased, new subscription service for periodical publications, Apple is now expanding what it sees as core functionality and thus starting to put that original deal into question.
