Ben Thompson writes:

Last week this danger manifested, not as new legislation, but as this lawsuit, which attacks Apple’s integration much more than it attacks the App Store. I think, though, that it was Apple’s policies around the App Store that created the conditions for this lawsuit in the first place.

In short, I suspect the DOJ doesn’t want to follow in Epic’s footsteps, but they do want to sue Apple, so they framed Apple’s defining characteristic — integration — in the most uncharitable light possible to make their case. To put it another way, the Epic case may have shown that Apple’s policies around the App Store were (mostly) legal, but that didn’t mean they were right; now the DOJ, looking for another point of vulnerability, is trying to make the case that Apple’s right approach in delivering an integrated experience is in fact illegal.

Do read the article which succinctly covers the whole case. But the above sent a chill down my spine. And not for the first time. Ben has been making this case for at least a couple of years now. That’s by focusing too much on protecting its Apps Store revenue, Apple is inviting scrutiny of its software/hardware integration, the central piece to what makes Apple, Apple.

I don’t know what happens next with the case. It definitely feels like Apple will defend it which they should. It also unlikely that the company will not give up their Apps Store policies which got them here. At least not willingly.

All this made me think how once a beloved brand gets corrupted. I am not saying Apple brand is corrupted. But if there ever was a starting point, we are seeing that unfold right now. And I am not sure if I am just gonna blame DOJ for that. MG Siegler argues, in somewhat Apple’s defense, that Apple needs to defend its Apps Store revenue because Apple Services is the company’s growth story. Which makes sense as an argument but does not alleviate the broader concerns Ben highlights above.

Is Apple going to risk making worse iPhones to protect Apps Store revenue?

I hate to make ‘if Steve Jobs would have been here’ point because he is not here. And we don’t know how he might have run the world’s biggest company. But I am pretty sure he would not have been in this position. Listen to this clip below and replace in your head “Sales/Marketing people” with “people running Apps Store inside Apple” and it certainly feel like he is talking about Apple, not Xerox.