Facebook Research: Apple competes unfairly, causing many third-party apps to lose out

Facebook, Apple’s longtime nemesis, conducted a study to show the unfair advantage of first-party apps developed by Apple over third-party apps.

The Verge cited a review from a Facebook-sponsored study that found that Apple’s first-party apps are so popular that people don’t feel the need to install another app from the App Store.

In response to the study, Apple called the study “seriously flawed”.

With the recent launch of iOS 15 and iPadOS 15, Apple has updated some of its core apps to make it more convenient and similar to competitors, such as the updated FaceTime with many of the same functions as Zoom.

According to research, nearly 75% of the 20 most used apps on the iPhone are created by Apple. The study was also done on Android and the results were almost similar when many of the apps created by Google were also widely used.

Comscore used data regularly collected from apps and websites and conducted a survey of about 4,000 people, asking about default apps used in November. The results showed 75% of the time. The top 20 iOS apps in the US are from Apple, while Google accounts for 60% of the top apps on Android. The top four apps on both platforms are created by the parent company. This, according to Comscore, is clearly unfair.

Some of the third-party apps that made the list include YouTube (9th), Facebook (12th), Amazon (16th), Instagram (19th) and Gmail (20th). Google on iOS is the only third-party developer with two apps on the list, Gmail and YouTube. Facebook’s popular messaging app, Messenger, unfortunately did not make the list.

Apple called the study a “serious violation of the law.”

Facebook said it only conducted the study to see “the impact of pre-installed apps on competing apps”. Facebook has long been working on Apple’s iMessage app, and even Mark Zuckerberg has publicly said that Apple is taking advantage of “its dominance to interfere with (Facebook’s) and other third-party apps by Apple.” Facebook”.

Not long after the study was shared, Apple dismissed the findings. An Apple spokesperson told The Verge: “The survey was sponsored by Facebook since December 2020 and has been adjusted to a limited extent to give misleading results and create the illusion that there is a lot of confusion. little competition on the App Store. In fact, third-party apps compete with Apple apps in every category and are succeeding at scale.”

The resistance of many third-party developers is well-founded, especially because the way Apple and Google integrate self-developed apps and services with their mobile operating systems makes competitors feel uncomfortable. unfair.

Criticisms have grown even harsher against Apple, which tightly controls the pre-installed apps on the iPhone and doesn’t allow developers to choose a payment system other than the App Store.

Not to mention it’s difficult to know how popular these pre-installed apps are compared to those created by third-party developers because Apple and Google don’t disclose the number of users of the default apps. .

Refer to iPhonehacks