It's a good thing to have giant tech companies provide the best they can, pampering end users through their various products and services. After all, end users are always given the best of treats.
How about those who are developers? Not so much.
This is because developers are sometimes the ones who are having the hardest of times.
Not only that they need to obey the tech giants' policies, as they too, must market their products to appeal users of the tech giants. In terms of business, developers who go against them by not following their rules is like suicide, because doing so, can guarantee a ban, and get kicked out of their ecosystem.
Monopolies among tech giants are already common. After all, it's only through the monopolies, that the tech giants have the power that immunizes them from competitive or consumer pressure.
Pavel Durov is the founder and CEO of Telegram, the popular privacy-centric messaging app. And for more than many times, he has expressed his bad experiences with Apple.
And when Apple delayed Telegram app updates without explanation, Durov blasts Apple with complaints.
He said that:
"The only thing that we find discouraging is that we're often unable to distribute the new versions of Telegram due to the obscure 'review process' imposed on all mobile apps by the tech monopolies."
Durov blasted Apple because Telegram failed to swiftly provide its users with an update because its update was stuck on Apple's App Store due to Apple's reviewing process that took more than two weeks.
"This harm goes on top of the 30% tax Apple and Google take from app developers – which, according to them, is supposed to pay for the resources needed to review apps. The regulators in the EU and elsewhere are slowly starting to look into these abusive practices. But the economic damage that has already been inflicted by Apple on the tech industry won't be undone."
Apple has been threatened with costly antitrust suits for more than many times. And so does Meta, Google and Amazon.
The U.S. government, as well as many others around the world are dependent on their products. The Big Four tech giants know this fact, and have been using their exclusive status and power to create ecosystems that only they can control, respectively.
As a result of this, many have considered them to be unfair.
Many have accused the tech giants for using their privilege to conduct extreme monopoly in the market.
Read: Apple Has A 'Totalitarian' Approach, And It Is Throwing People Back Into 'The Middle Ages'
Since then, many have started to file antitrust cases after antitrust cases, in order to combat, or at least restrain those powerful companies.
Fortunately, those companies do listen, and if not, they will pay up.
Unfortunately, officials, politicians and some opportunistic lawyers may piggyback those cases.
Because these cases involve huge amount of money, some parties are benefiting from these lawsuits. As a result, some are seemingly keeping these lucrative games going for so long.
Apple had something to say about this. The tech titan once said that its App Store is not a monopoly.
In a letter, Apple explained that it is not monopolistic, simply because iOS and iPadOS users have other alternatives when browsing for an app, such as using a website.
What Apple was trying to say is that, within its iOS and iPadOS ecosystems, users can obtain access to third-party apps via developer websites and other sources that will allow these apps to be installed and used on the iOS platform.
Apple said that this is important "because of the competitive importance of providing developers with flexibility in competition with other operating platforms."
Read: Apple Is Still Living Off The Reputation Steve Jobs Built, 'Without Any Meaningful Innovation'