Human beings might be the smartest species to ever grace the earth, but that hasn’t kept them from making a mistake every now and then. This dynamic has already been reinforced quite a few times throughout our history, with each testimony essentially forcing us to look for a defensive cover. Now, we will, on our part, find the most fitting answer to our conundrum by bringing dedicated regulatory bodies into the fold. It was so fitting because having a well-defined authority across every single area instantly concealed a lot our shortcomings, therefore giving us a shot at some great possibilities. However, before we could realize those possibilities, the utopia just dropped dead, and if we are being honest, it was all technology’s fault. You see, the moment technology got its layered nature to take over the scene; it gave people a totally unprecedented chance to exploit others for their benefit. As if the laid out dynamic wasn’t devastating enough in itself, it ended up materializing on such a scale that the newfound regulatory bodies were left overwhelmed, and consequentially, neutralized. Fortunately, though, the horizons will change again, and upon doing so, they will bring our governing forces back into the mix. The traces of the same have, in fact, only grown more and more evident over the recent past, and one settlement involving Apple should only solidify them further.
Apple has formally reached a settlement with developer and app Store critic, Kosta Eleftheriou in regards to a lawsuit that accused the company of uncompetitive practices. According to Eleftheriou’s claims, Apple purposefully made it difficult for him to sell his app, Flicktype, on the app store. Eleftheriou goes on to talk about how, after rejecting his FlickType Apple Watch keyboard app without any reason, the tech giant approved competitor keyboard apps and the ones that used an integrated version of Flicktype keyboard to publish on the App Store. Up until here, Flicktype’s problem was more about getting into the store, but even once it eventually got there, Apple’s environment didn’t make the life easier for the app. We are, of course, referring to all those scammers and Apple’s lack of response to them. So, as soon as, Flicktype tasted some App Store success, the stated scammers launched a host of similar, albeit less usable, apps that were then boosted by fake reviews and ratings. The ploy would take Flicktype’s revenue from $130,000 to just $20,000.
Eleftheriou has been on Apple’s case for a while now, and to his credit, he has coaxed the company into making some corrective measures. An example of the same would be Apple re-introducing the Report button. However, despite the stated measure and the settlement, there is still a lot of work left to be done.