(San Francisco) After “declaring war” on Apple and accusing the Apple brand of all evils, Elon Musk assured Wednesday that the “misunderstanding” was resolved.
The new owner of Twitter thanked Apple boss Tim Cook for showing him around the group’s “very beautiful headquarters” in Silicon Valley.
“Good conversation. Among other things, we resolved the misunderstanding about the possibility of Twitter being removed from the App Store. Tim made it clear that Apple never considered doing this,” Elon Musk summed up in another tweet.
On Monday, the tempestuous entrepreneur claimed that Apple “threatened” to remove Twitter from its App Store, and “refused” to “say why”, after a series of bellicose tweets accusing the iPhone maker of “censoring and abuse its dominant market position.
The billionaire’s outburst came as the relaunch of his flagship project, “Blue Verified”, scheduled for Friday, was postponed, according to the specialized bulletin The Platformer.
Blue Verified, the new subscription to Twitter for eight dollars a month, mixes an existing paid formula (to benefit from practical advantages) and the authentication of accounts, until now free and reserved for personalities and organizations.
Its initial rollout on Nov. 9 resulted in a rash of fake accounts impersonating athletes, businesses, and Elon Musk himself, among others. He was suspended after two days.
But even if it is well implemented, 30% of the amount will in fact go to Apple and Google, which control the two main mobile operating systems, iOS and Android.
All mobile applications that want to be present on smart phones must comply with the very similar rules of the two American companies, from content moderation to the payment of a 15% to 30% commission on all user spending.
On iPhones, the Apple App Store is essential.
Elon Musk has accused Tim Cook’s group of “secretly suppressing free speech” and applying a “secret 30% tax”.
But he “clearly needs the money” and he “is having a fit because he doesn’t want to pay Apple,” said independent analyst Rob Enderle.
The entrepreneur is not the first to rebel against the “Apple tax”, as his many detractors call it.
The boss of Spotify thus stepped up to the plate on Wednesday on Twitter, again accusing Apple of “granting all the advantages while harming innovation and consumers”.