The CEO of Tesla criticised Apple via Twitter today over App Store fees. An often outspoken character, Musk stated in full:
Apple app store fees are a de facto global tax on the Internet. Epic is right.
Elon Musk via Twitter
This isn’t the first public bashing by Elon Musk. Not even the first one this week. Earlier in the week during an earnings call, Musk threw shade at Apple for a similar reason. Namely App Store fees.
“I think we do want to emphasize that our goal is to support the advent of sustainable energy,” Musk said in response to a question about letting competitors use its charger network. “It is not to create a walled garden and use that to bludgeon our competitors which is used by some companies.”
Musk proceeded to fake cough the word “Apple.”
Apple has of course faced stiff scrutiny regarding the App Store as part of ongoing anti-trust lawsuits. Most notably in its ongoing case against Epic Games.
There is however an irony to this situation. Tesla notoriously does not allow CarPlay on their in-vehicle entertainment systems. And servicing of Tesla vehicles is only allowed to be performed at official Tesla service centres.
ouimetnick via Macrumors said it best. And that this is a case of “One man in a walled garden throwing trash into another man’s walled garden”.