Apple TV streaming and news party may end up with hangovers for rivals

Slick new gadgets are usually the stars of Apple s splashy events. But on Monday the company will focus on subscriptions and services .

A forced new TV service is expected to overwrite Apple's event at Steve Jobs Theater in Cupertino, California. Apple is likely to uncover a news subscription service embedded in a reimagined Apple News, as well as a bundle to manage them all, linking all services with Apple Music. In addition, it is always possible for the show to pack up "one more thing."

In other words, Apple takes a new field of rivals ̵[ads1]1; just like two of Apple's existing competitors are crying wrong .

In the past two weeks, Spotify and Kaspersky Lab have filed complaints with regulators claiming that Apple is stealing services that directly compete with their own. The two companies, a streaming music giant and a cyber security security support, made similar claims that Apple abused the Marketplace in the App Store to quell competitors' features, promotions, or awards. Apple Apple rejected Spotify's claim and has not commented on Kasperskys. Apple refused to comment on this article.)

These disputes about antitrust issues seem unclear and removed, but they can affect programs and services you use every day. They can trigger changes in how easily you can buy services from Apple rivals and how much you pay for them. And with Apple expanding the services already offered by businesses on the platforms, several of your favorite programs can be sucked in.

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Apple's dominance has not gone unnoticed. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a democratic presidential candidate, has called for tech titanic breakouts, including Google, Facebook and, indeed, Apple.

"What we really face here is an existential crisis of … a new economy," said Rivka Gewirtz Little, a payment strategy analyst for IDC. "We live in a market economy where innovation is endless, but we still haven't answered the questions of making money with it with justice."

Another powerful regulator has shown that she also listens to being arrested against Apple.

Margrethe Vestager is the EU's competition commissioner. You can know her from billions of euros in fines that the EU has hit on Google. One day after Spotify filed the complaint against Apple at his office, Vestager confirmed the "strong message" Spotify's boss sent.

Although these complaints are filed in Europe or Russia, action against Apple can affect customers worldwide.

Apple would "have two different systems in different jurisdictions? It's just not how the Internet economy is set up," said Barbara Sicalides, an antitrust lawyer at Pepper Hamilton.

Team of rivals

Apple and Spotify are the world's two most dominant forces in streaming music. With 96 million paying customers, Spotify is the world's largest. Apple Music, with more than 50 million subscribers, is next.

But Apple's expected services Monday may bring it to more direct competition with a bunch of other services you use.

Netflix, Hulu and other subscription video services are going to be in Apple's competitive crosshair as it frees its $ 1 billion plus slate of original shows from the likes of J.J. Abrams, Brie Larson, Oprah Winfrey and Reese Witherspoon. By offering add-on video subscriptions, Apple will bring top with Amazon Prime Video and its channel model – even bump into traditional partners like wireless company AT & T, offering a VRV package of niche streaming.

And Apple's news service, which is expected to offer a single subscription that opens access to a number of magazines and newspapers, would mean that Apple devoted its membership dollars to any subscription-based publisher who does not participate in Apple's bundle.

Don't expect to read the New York Times there, for one: Today's CEO said he was "leery" of the concept.

One of his delusions – which will not give up part of the Times & # 39; $ 15-month digital subscription – comes into one of Spotify's main accusations of how Apple stacks up against competitors: App Store & # 39; s 30 percent fee.

Apple's bite

There is a lot of services grabbing about. For any digital good or service sold in an iOS app, Apple takes 30 percent cut. That means that whenever Spotify registers a new Premium Premium member within the iPhone app, Apple takes $ 3. That fee falls to 15 percent when a subscription lasts longer than one year.

Spotify says that because Apple Music does not face the same tax, Apple has an unfair price advantage: Spotify has to choose between charging iPhone customers $ 3 more or living with 30 percent less than its biggest competitor for each iOS member .

Google's Android mobile system also has a powerful marketplace, Google Play, and it also charges similar fees. But services can release apps for Android outside of the Google market – known as sideloading – easier than for Apple. Epic Games does it with Fortnite and therefore, the crazy popular game is available in the App Store, but not Google Play. Epic's CEO Tim Sweeney has called Apple's costs a "parasitic loss".

But Apple's answer to Spotify's complaint underscores an unpleasant point if you are a fan of these rival services. "Spotify wouldn't be the business they are today without the App Store ecosystem," Apple said. Spotify wants to "avoid contributing to maintaining that ecosystem for the next generation of app entrepreneurs."

Part of it is undeniable: Spotify would not be a giant without App Store gateway to 900 million active iPhones. Spotify's recruitment against Apple has been to simply stop selling subscriptions in the app. But for services that are still searching for the scope of Spotify, it is not possible to choose from the App Store.

Update lockdown

The second of Spotify's complaints last week, echoed by Kaspersky's claim Wednesday, can also disrupt Apple's fans soon to be competitors. Both say that Apple maintains the app updates as a way to boost the competitor's competitive advantage – by using its App Store policies to shrink features or prevent you from knowing about bargains.

Spotify claims that the beginning of 2016, as a way to crack a rival while Apple Music rages, Apple began rejecting Spotify's app updates. Last year, for example, Apple rejected the app because the word "free" was in Spotify's app screens on the App Store, it said.

And according to Kaspersky, after iOS has rolled out its own parental controls, Apple banned a type of coding that allows competitors' apps to offer similar features. Kaspersky Safe Kids hosted the App Store without incident for almost three years, the company said, until last year's iOS 12 update meant that Apple itself became a rival.

Apple has rejected Spotify's claim. "The only time we've asked for adjustments is when Spotify has tried to sidestep the same rules that every other app follows," it said. Apple has not responded to Kaspersky's claim.

"There is a level of closed-off capability and lockout that Apple has long worked on," Little said . "You can't get other apps on the fucking thing."

It can mean challenges for video and news programs on the iPhone. And maybe others, depending on what Apple has in the store of "one more thing."