Apple CEO Tim Cook and Elon Musk meet to settle their differences over the Twitter owner’s complaints about the App Store.
Key Details
- “Good conversation,” Musk tweeted. “Among other things, we resolved the misunderstanding about Twitter potentially being removed from the App Store. Tim was clear that Apple never considered doing so.”
- “Thanks @tim_cook for taking me around Apple’s beautiful HQ,” Musk wrote on Twitter.
- Musk shared a video of a walk around a serene pond on Apple’s Cupertino, California, campus.
- It looks as if the two companies are on the same page and can move on from the past issues.
Why it’s news
The meeting came just days after Elon Musk took to Twitter to call out Apple for cutting back on ad spending and charging a 30% fee in its App Store, which Musk called a “secret 30% tax,” even though it’s a fee most big developers pay for access to the store.
In the short amount of time that Elon Musk has been the owner of Twitter the social-media company has been in disagreements with many companies and the latest was Apple.
Musk took to Twitter to call out Apple for cutting back on ad spending and charging high App Store fees.
And without any real evidence, he claims that Apple has threatened to take Twitter off the App Store if the platform does not abide by its rules. Apple has removed apps before without hesitation—but with due process.
He also accused the iPhone making company of hating free speech in America because the company cut back on Twitter ad spending after Musk officially acquired it and set out to make it a free-speech platform.
Two days after Musk released the series of tweets calling out Apple he posted a video of himself at Apple headquarters thanking Cook for showing him around.
The meeting was to clear up any confusion between the two companies and allow the two to move on in peace.
Staying on the Good side
This meeting between the two was unexpected after Musk’s call-out tweets, but there are many reasons that both companies would want to reconcile.
Twitter wants to keep peace with Apple not only because it is one of the biggest advertisers, but most Twitter users use an Apple product.
Around 64% of Twitter users in the U.S. use Apple’s systems for iPhone or iPad while around 36% use Alphabet Inc.’s Android, according to Sensor Tower data.
If Twitter and Apple weren’t on the same page and Apple did decide to remove the platform from the App Store that would affect over half of Twitter’s users.
Apple also has some reasoning for wanting to stay on Twitter’s good side. Musk is making Twitter a free speech platform and said if Apple is not on board then the company is against freedom of speech, which puts Apple on the Republican lawmaker’s bad side.
