The Verge has examined 4.5 gigabytes of Apple’s internal emails (over 800) unearthed as part of the ongoing Epic v Apple trial. They reveal some fascinating things about Apple and other companies as executives cut deals and build their ecosystems. Here are some excerpts.
Internal Apple Emails
- Early on, Apple wondered aloud whether it should ever allow sideloading — and whether Apple should publish App Store Guidelines publicly.
- October 2010: Steve Jobs declares lock-in will officially be a company strategy now.
- April 2013: Apple considers bringing iMessage to Android but decides lock-in is more important. Craig Federighi, adding, “I think we need to get Android customers using and dependent on Apple products.”
- Tim Cook suggested the Mac App Store needed games back in 2015; Schiller said Apple already tried.
One of the juiciest tidbits:
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The Coalition for App Fairness (CAF), an advocacy group nominally founded by Epic, Spotify, Tinder’s Match Group, and 10 other developers, appears to have actually been created and funded by Epic explicitly to help win its case.
I recommend diving into the entire article.
B”H
I don’t like that the search – magnifying glass is at the bottom of the page.
As nice as Apple’s walled garden may be, I don’t really want to be “locked in.”