Elon Musk hasn’t finalized his purchase of Twitter yet, but he already seems to be gearing up for another battle.
In a pair of late-night Tweets posted just four minutes apart, Musk expressed concern about Apple’s business practices, particularly those surrounding Spotify and the app store’s guidelines.
The first was in response to Spotify founder Daniel Ek’s tweet highlighting a New York Times story about Apple’s triple rejection of Spotify’s new app as the streaming service adds audiobooks to its offerings. Apple says the new app violates rules that describe how developers communicate with customers about online purchases.
Ek used the story as a launch pad to dismiss the policy, saying, “I can’t be the only one to see the absurdity.” Musk seemed to agree and replied “About”.
Moments later, he expressed support for venture capitalist Bill Lee’s criticism of Apple’s 30% fee for in-app purchases, agreeing that “30% is a lot.”
Criticism of Apple and its app store policies is, of course, nothing new. Spotify has been in touch with Apple before, when it started offering podcasts. And Epic Games sued Apple last year over the policy, resulting in a split decision with the judge upholding the app store’s structure as legal.
Musk likes a good fight, though, and this isn’t the first time he’s poked Apple. In May, he tweeted that “Apple’s store is the same as 30% tax on the Internet. Absolutely not okay,” followed by “Literally 10 times higher than it should be.”
And in July 2021, during a Tesla earnings call, he discussed plans to allow competitors to use the company’s electric vehicle charging network, saying: “We want to emphasize that our goal is to make the coming of renewable energy. It’s not about a walled garden and using it to knock out our competitors that is being used by some companies.”
He pretended to cough and added “Apple.”
Does Musk’s new criticism of Apple mean he’s reviving the (somewhat one-sided) feud? It is possible. Tesla and Apple have lured employees away from each other in the past — and Musk tried to talk to Apple about potentially buying Tesla in the automaker’s early days, but Tim Cook declined the meeting.
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Apple, as it has done in the past, has not publicly responded to Musk’s comments.
This story was originally on Fortune.com
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