Apple's Past Sideloading Plans, Ecosystem Lock-in Strategy, and More Revealed in Internal Documents

Documents highlighted by The Verge and disclosed as part of the Apple vs. Epic Games trial have revealed that Apple discussed plans for sideloading apps, sought to lock users into its ecosystem using gift cards, attempted to tackle chaos in the App Store review process, and more.

aapl logo banner
Several of the internal documents related to internal discussions around the possibility of sideloading iPhone apps outside of the ‌App Store‌. Some of these discussions may have gone further than expected, since in 2008, software chief Scott Forstall asked Steve Jobs what text should appear to iOS users when they want to open a sideloaded app. Jobs agreed to the following alert: "Are you sure you want to open the application 'Monkey Ball' from the developer 'Sega'?"

In October 2010, Jobs declared at a corporate strategy presentation that a key company aim would be to use the cloud to "tie all of our products together, so we further lock customers into our ecosystem."

In 2013, Apple's senior vice president of software and services, Eddy Cue, lauded the potential of bundling iTunes gift cards with new Apple devices instead of putting them on sale to lock customers further into the company's ecosystem and dissuade them from switching to a different brand. He also raged at the Apple Retail team for its disinterest in selling iTunes Store gift cards.

Who's going to buy a Samsung phone if they have apps, movies, etc already purchased? They now need to spend hundreds more to get to where they are today.

On a related note, our apple stores (online and retail) are the only distributors around the world that decreased year over year in iTunes card sales. We are starting to make progress again with retail but it is always an uphill battle. Our teams just don't get the ecosystem. We (Val and team) just heard from Jennifer that iTunes cards are not a priority for her. This is ridiculous. Who leaves Apple products once they've bought apps, music, movies, etc!

[...]

...In the meantime, Samsung is discounting and giving crap away everywhere...

Samsung is now pushing Google Play cards with placement right below the phones -

We haven't been putting our cards with our product displays (at 3rd parties) since the iPod. They have to be at a different location. We should have gift cards on the tables like we do in Apple retail. We should also consider having them pegged on all end cap of hardware.

In 2012, Cue demanded to ‌App Store‌ head Matt Fischer that Shazam would not be featured on the ‌App Store‌:

No promotion... we are not going to promote something that puts it's goal as replacing our music player unless it is significantly better than our player and this is not.

Apple went on to acquire Shazam in 2018. In 2016, Apple's Elizabeth Lee said that "Although they may be our best and the brightest apps, Matt feels extremely strong about not featuring our competitors on the ‌App Store‌," when asked why the company does not want to highlight apps from Google and Amazon. The email thread suggested that this was standard ‌App Store‌ practice, with some competing apps being seen "through a slightly different lens than most."

In 2015, Apple CEO Tim Cook addressed the issue of the Mac App Store's lack of traction, putting it down to a lack of gaming and productivity apps: "I think the lack of gaming (along with the lack of native productivity apps) are the main reason the ‌Mac App Store‌ is dormant." Apple marketing chief Phil Schiller answered:

We and the major game developers have tried high-end gaming on the Mac... but have failed to generate any sizable business in that genre.

[...]

On the native productivity app front it starts and ends with Microsoft and Adobe. Neither is on the store because they don't have to be. They can be on the Mac and distribute to users without sharing the revenue with us, following our rules on app engineering and business models, or go through any app review process.

Many of the disclosed documents showed how Apple executives responded to repeated failings in the ‌App Store‌ review process. In February 2012, Schiller ranted:

What the hell is this???

Remember our talking about finding bad apps with low ratings?

Remember our talk about becoming the "Nordstroms" of stores in quality of service?

How does an obvious rip off of the super popular Temple Run, with no screen shots, garbage marketing text, and almost all 1-star ratings become the #1 free app on the store?

Can anyone see a rip off of a top selling game? Any anyone see an app that is cheating the system?

Is no one reviewing these apps? Is no one minding the store?

This is insane!!!

In 2015, Schiller asked the ‌App Store‌ team to "PLEASE develop a system to automatically find low rated apps and purge them!!"

In February 2019, a scam app that purported to be able to measure blood pressure using the ‌iPhone‌'s camera and a fingertip reached the top ‌App Store‌ rankings for medical apps. Later that year, apps that claimed to be able to measure a user's heart rate through Touch ID also came under internal scrutiny after being accepted on the ‌App Store‌ during the review process.

Apple's Tom Reyburn seemingly admitted that "LinkedIn has been rejected for using the same language on their subscription call to action button that Apple uses in our own apps." "It's not right, but apparently it is what it is," Apple's senior director of developer relations Shaan Pruden replied. Reyburn added, "Amazon is also complaining about this. We need to have one set of rules that all apps follow whether they are from Apple or third-party developers."

Apple also realized that it had erroneously allowed two separate games that featured school shootings on the ‌App Store‌, seven months after they were approved. Discussions put the error down to the fact that "it took a total of 32 seconds to review both apps." In a similar case, Schiller questioned how a game about shooting protestors was accepted during the review process.

Separately, the documents show that in 2011, Schiller suggested that Apple could "ratchet down from 70/30 to 75/25 or even 80/20 if we can maintain a $1B a year run rate," in terms of ‌App Store‌ commissions, since the 30 percent commission rate would "not last forever."

He also proposed a scheme called "Jump Start" in June 2018, which would have given half of Apple's 30 percent commission back to developers in their first year to spend on iAd advertising. This idea appears to be a precursor to the ‌App Store‌ Small Business Program.

In February of 2020, Apple's head of fraud, Eric Freidman, said that Apple was "the greatest platform for distributing child porn." He added that "we have chosen to not know in enough places where we really cannot say." It is not clear if these discussions were related to Apple's recently announced child safety features.

Other interesting findings and tidbits from the internal document disclosures showed that Apple seemingly offered Netflix a discounted 15 percent in-app purchase commission, much like its arrangement with Amazon Prime Video, instead of its usual 30 percent rate, Schiller said that in terms of "threat level," the Amazon Appstore posed a "very high" threat to Apple, and in the second quarter of 2016, the ‌App Store‌ grew to be worth more than the Mac and iPad to the company.

To read the full documents or for more highlights, see the original article.

Popular Stories

iPhone 16 Battery Life Feature

iOS 26's New Battery Life Mode Available Only on These iPhone Models

Saturday June 21, 2025 9:02 am PDT by
Last week, we reported that iOS 26 introduces an opt-in Adaptive Power Mode on the iPhone, alongside the existing Low Power Mode. Apple says that Adaptive Power Mode can make "small performance adjustments" when necessary to extend an iPhone's battery life, including slightly lowering the display brightness or allowing some activities to "take a little longer." The full description of...
apple wallet drivers license feature iPhone 15 pro

iPhone Driver's Licenses: These 17 U.S. States Offer Them or Will Later

Thursday June 19, 2025 11:28 am PDT by
In select U.S. states, residents can add their driver's license or state ID to the Wallet app on the iPhone and Apple Watch, providing a convenient and contactless way to display proof of identity or age at select airports and businesses, and in select apps. Unfortunately, this feature continues to roll out very slowly since it was announced in 2021, with only nine U.S. states and Puerto...
ios 26 call holding

iOS 26 Beta is Hiding a New Ringtone — Here's What It Sounds Like

Thursday June 19, 2025 7:25 pm PDT by
Apple is hiding a new ringtone within iOS 26. The new ringtone is an alternative version of the existing Reflection ringtone, which has been the default ringtone since the iPhone X was released in 2017. It was discovered within the code for the first developer beta of iOS 26, but it remains hidden, so you will not find it in the list of ringtones available in the Settings app for now. It...
iPhone 17 Pro Blue Feature Tighter Crop

iPhone 17 Pro Launching in Three Months With These 12 New Features

Saturday June 21, 2025 2:45 pm PDT by
The iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are around three months away, and there are plenty of rumors about the devices from credible sources. Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models as of June 2025:Aluminum frame: iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to have an aluminum frame, whereas the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro models have a titanium frame, and the iPhone X...
iPhone 17 Pro Blue Feature Tighter Crop

iPhone 17 Pro Launching in Three Months With These 12 New Features

Saturday June 14, 2025 5:45 pm PDT by
The iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are three months away, and there are plenty of rumors about the devices. Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models as of June 2025:Aluminum frame: iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to have an aluminum frame, whereas the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro models have a titanium frame, and the iPhone X through iPhone 14 Pro have a...
All Screen iPhone 2027 Feature 1

iPhone Reportedly Moving to All-Screen Design in Two Stages

Sunday June 22, 2025 3:58 pm PDT by
Apple has long been working towards an iPhone with an all-screen design, and it might finally achieve the feat in a few more years from now. In his Power On newsletter today, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said that Apple will shrink the size of the Dynamic Island on new iPhone models released next year. A year after that, he expects Apple to release a redesigned 20th-anniversary iPhone model....
Wi Fi WiFi General Feature

iOS 26 Adding Two New Wi-Fi Features, Allows AirDrop and AirPlay Alternatives

Saturday June 21, 2025 7:02 am PDT by
iOS 26 is gaining two new Wi-Fi features, including Captive Assist and Wi-Fi Aware. MacRumors contributor Aaron Perris discovered a reference to Captive Assist within the code for the first iOS 26 developer beta, but Apple has yet to enable the feature. It should be available by the time the software update is released later this year. In his Power On newsletter last month, Bloomberg's...
apple watch ultra 2 new black

Apple Watch Ultra 3 Finally Coming After Two-Year Hiatus

Monday June 16, 2025 8:45 am PDT by
Apple will finally deliver the Apple Watch Ultra 3 sometime this year, according to analyst Jeff Pu of GF Securities Hong Kong (via @jukanlosreve). The analyst expects both the Apple Watch Series 11 and Apple Watch Ultra 3 to arrive this year (likely alongside the new iPhone 17 lineup, if previous launches are anything to go by), according to his latest product roadmap shared with...
iPhone 17 Pro Blue Feature Tighter Crop

iPhone 17 Pro's Alleged Vapor Chamber Cooling System Partly Revealed

Sunday June 22, 2025 6:37 am PDT by
Apple's upcoming iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max models are rumored to be equipped with a vapor chamber cooling system, and a leaker known as Majin Bu today shared a photo of an alleged copper thermal plate for the system. Many high-end Android smartphones like Samsung's Galaxy S25 Ultra are equipped with a vapor chamber cooling system, which can manage heat dissipation inside the...

Top Rated Comments

Beats by Frey Avatar
50 months ago
See, this is their privacy leaked. How does it feel?
Score: 56 Votes (Like | Disagree)
TheYayAreaLiving ?️ Avatar
50 months ago
Wow! Atleast with this legal battle we’re getting to see the dirt.
Score: 43 Votes (Like | Disagree)
nwcs Avatar
50 months ago
Wow, companies acting like companies do and execs talking about ways to increase/maintain sales and revenue. Horrors!
Score: 42 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Expos of 1969 Avatar
50 months ago
This is extremely interesting and revealing. Keep it coming. Squirm Cook squirm...
Score: 35 Votes (Like | Disagree)
SRQrws Avatar
50 months ago
Sounds like typical marketing/product management discussions that go on in corporations every day. You want dirt? Read transcripts of convos that went on at Enron.
Score: 30 Votes (Like | Disagree)
vagos Avatar
50 months ago

Wow, companies acting like companies do and execs talking about ways to increase/maintain sales and revenue. Horrors!
Companies acting like companies is quite a vague statement. There are ethical practices and unethical ones. I'm glad we get to see apple for what it is. I don't like it when people make a glorified image of apple in their minds as if it's not a huge company which puts money over customers to a point.
Score: 30 Votes (Like | Disagree)