India says Apple has abused its dominant market share of iOS apps
The Indian government wants its own state-backed apps to be pre-installed on every iPhone and Android phone, but Apple and Google are expected to refuse.
India’s government has a thing about pre-installed apps, having previously told Apple it should let its experts examine them before any updates are allowed. That was reportedly in a private discussion in 2023, and appears to have gone nowhere — which might be what happens with the new demand too.
According to Bloomberg, India’s latest private discussions with Apple and Google revolve around the government’s own apps. It wants its own state-backed suite of apps to be supplied pre-installed on all phones, and also to be downloadable from third-party App Stores without “untrusted source” warnings.
Android accounts for 90% of the Indian population’s approximately 700 million smartphones, and Google is reportedly refusing to comply. The same unspecified sources say that Apple is expected to do the same.
There were apparently discussions about legal recourse in a meeting between the government with Apple, Google, and other smartphone manufacturers. The possibility of changes to India’s laws to require pre-installed apps was reportedly raised.
Unlike the idea of India vetting all app updates before Apple or Google could release them, though, there is a possibility that this new request will work. As well as the potential for law changes, there is also precedent.
In 2021, Apple finally agreed to pre-install apps on iPhones sold or activated in Russia. It followed a law change that was introduced in 2019, although then briefly postponed.
One factor that may also mean Apple is more likely to agree to India’s demands is that every app under discussion is already available on the App Store in that country. So they have all already gone through Apple’s App Review process, and the Indian government’s reasoning is that pre-installing them is the way to greatly boost their usage.
However, Apple has resisted the Indian government’s apps before. In 2017, India complained that Apple was dragging out talks over its anti-spam app because it involved call log data being sent to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India.
Apple did eventually agree to make a constrained version of this app that didn’t surrender user data. Google simply allowed the app onto its Google Play Store without delay.
There is also this issue, though, of the apps being made available on third-party app stores and without cautionary warnings. It’s hard to see why India would want this if it wins the pre-install argument, unless this is the first step toward forcing Apple to open up third-party app stores in general.
That seems more likely since the European Union was successful in doing the same thing.
