The App Store War

South Korea Hits Apple and Google Where it Hurts

By Keith Teare • Issue #272 • View online

Apple agrees to modify App Store rules in Japan in a week where South Korea passes a law forcing Apple and Google to create a billing back-door for developers who want to avoid paying for carriage.

Contents

• The App Store War
• The Theranos Trial
• Creator Economy
• Mainstream Blockchain
• Venture Trends
• Startup of the Week
• Tweet of the Week

Editorial

It is incredible how silly we humans can be and how short our memories are. The first iPhone emerged in 2007 and the first Android phone in 2008–9. Apple’s App Store debuted in July 2008, Google’s Play Store in August 2008, branded as Android Market.

The software business before that was mainly an internet, browser-based business, or a desktop software business. I remember clearly how expensive and difficult it was to distribute software before the app stores and smartphones. Even distributing in a single country was hard, forget about global distribution and forget about free distribution.