Apple accused of favoring own apps in App Store search, denies accusation

Apple has come under fire for its App Store policies. A story from the Wall Street Journal appeared to indicate that the firm was favouring its own apps over apps by developers. This means that when a user searched for ‘Music’, or ‘Podcasts’, they would see Apple’s own options first ahead of other apps like Spotify or Overcast. This presents an unfair advantage for the company. As the same firm which hosts the App store search is the same one whose products are being pushed. To quantify this more solidly, the WSJ found that Apple’s apps were first in 60 per cent of categories including books where one would expect Amazon to lead.

This should spook developers: Apple once considered removing all apps rated less than 2 stars in the App Store, but ditched the idea because its own Podcasts app was rated so low https://t.co/1wXRlSblan pic.twitter.com/XhzFzzaeMg

— Karissa Bell (@karissabe) July 23, 2019

Apple denied that there was any malicious intent going on, saying to the Journal: “Apple customers have a very strong connection to our products and many of them use search as a way to find and open their apps. This customer usage is the reason Apple has strong rankings in search, and it’s the same reason Uber, Microsoft and so many others often have high rankings as well.”

Source: Wall Street Journal