Apple’s practice of incorporating features from third-party apps into its iOS and Mac operating systems has become a major concern for developers, with a new report suggesting that the company’s changes may affect apps that generate an estimated $393 million in revenue and have been downloaded roughly 58 million times over the past year. This phenomenon, dubbed “sherlocking,” has been a common occurrence at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference, where the company often unveils features that were previously only available through third-party apps. While Apple argues that this practice helps to improve its software and adapt to consumers’ needs, critics argue that it raises questions about whether the company is leveraging proprietary data to make its determinations about what to build next, and whether third-party apps are being offered a level playing field. The report highlights several genres that have found themselves in Apple’s crosshairs, including trail apps, grammar helpers, math solvers, password managers, and emoji-making apps.
Apple’s Shadow Looms Over Third-Party Developers
Apple’s ability to offer similar functionality built-in could be detrimental to the potential growth of these apps.
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