Facebook has commissioned a study of whether owners of Android and iOS devices tend to mainly use the default apps offered by Google and Apple. Sit down for this bombshell: the study concluded that they do.
“The results show that the majority of apps people use on their phones in the US come preinstalled by either Apple or Google,” reported The Verge, which was given the first look at the report. “Preinstalled services dominate when it comes to basics like weather, photos, and clocks, according to the report, suggesting these categories will be difficult for other apps to compete in. Defaults don’t win out exclusively, though: Apple Maps and Music don’t appear on the iOS list at all, and Gmail makes the iOS list several entries below Apple Mail.”
This is one of those studies that will be greeted with a fair deal of scepticism though. Although commissioned from comScore as an independent study, it plays neatly into Facebook’s arguments about its big tech rivals’ gatekeeping power. Apple has already clapped back, with its spokesperson claiming that “This Facebook-financed survey from December 2020 was narrowly tailored to give the false impression that there’s little competition on the App Store.” The battles continue.
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