The dispute between Apple and the FBI was the story that marked the beginning of 2016, but it seems that another dispute will be the protagonist of the summer: Spotify vs. Manzana. Yesterday, the undisputed leader of streaming music sent a (public) letter to Apple in which it complained that they had rejected its latest update, claiming that those of Cupertino did it to harm the competition and favor their own service, but Apple's response has not been long in coming.
Apple attorney Bruce Sewell has handled reply to Spotify in a three page letter in which he accuses Spotify of speaking of "rumors and half truths", at the same time that he reminds them that they have taken advantage of the App Store since the launch of their application for iOS in 2009.
Spotify talks about "rumors and half truths"
There can be no doubt that Spotify has benefited immensely from its partnership with Apple's App Store. Since joining the App Store in 2009, Apple's platform has led to more than 160 million downloads of your app, resulting in hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue for Spotify. That is the reason why we see a problem where you ask for an exception to the rules that we apply to all developers and you publicly resort to rumors and half-truths about our service.
But the most interesting thing about Apple's letter to Spotify is that they remind them that they have delivered two updates that violated the rules from the App Store:
During a number of discussions between our team and Spotify, we explained why this sign-in feature does not meet our guidelines and asked that you re-deliver a version of the app that meets them. On June 10, Spotify released another app that again incorporated a sign-in feature directing App Store customers to submit an email address so they could be contacted by Spotify directly in an ongoing attempt to bypass our guidelines. The Spotify app was rejected again for trying to avoid the in-app shopping guidelines and not, as you say, because Spotify is looking to communicate with its customers.
And if before I said that the most interesting thing about the letter was when they remembered that they delivered two versions that violated the rules of the App Store, perhaps I was also saying half truths. What is probably more interesting is what seems to me to be a veiled threat that they will retire the current version of the application, reminding them that the version that is currently in the App Store also violates the rules:
From what I can see, the Spotify application currently on the App Store still violates our guidelines. I'd be happy to facilitate a quick review and approval of your app as soon as you submit something that complies with the App Store rules.
If you wish, you can read the entire letter (in English) on BuzzFeed from THIS LINK. It seems that this story has only just begun.
