Apple has raised a request to dismiss a law suit posted by seven independent consumers back in 2011. The lawsuit claims that Apple is restriction distribution of applications on iPhone by not allowing any third part app distribution services. A developer developing apps must use Apple’s App Store which takes a cut of 30% for providing the service. If the developer is not willing to accept to the terms set by Apple then he has no other means of distributing the apps to iPhone users.
According to the attorney representing the seven independent users, Apple is a monopolist as Apple does not allow other means of distribution.
But the district Judge handling the case, Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, says that having a closed system is not violating any Anti-trust laws. Apple argues that it is not forcing any developers to set any price for the Apps being published on App Store and thus there is no question of any anti-trust case against Apple.
Android users have a flexibility of downloading apps from Google’s Play or any third party stores like Amazon’s Appstore. Though such flexibility is not available for iOS users the app catalog, quality of apps and reliability of apps is much better on iOS than on Android platform.
The same Judge, Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, is handling another law suit against apple which argues in a similar way for music distribution through iTunes.