Elon Musk to manufacture smartphones if…Twitter’s new boss picks another battle


Photo: BCCL
“If Apple and Google launch Twitter from their app stores, @elonmusk should produce his own smartphone. Half the country will happily ditch the biased, sniffing iPhone and Android. The man is building rockets to Mars, a silly little smartphone should be easy, right?,” wrote Twitter user Liz Wheeler, to which Musk replied, “I sure hope it doesn’t come to that, but, yeah, if there’s no others are not. choice, I will make an alternative phone”.
The dialog follows hypothesis in US media that Twitter could also be dealing with fallout from a number of the current adjustments made by the corporate’s new administration in an effort to enhance income via subscriptions and eradicating restrictions on “freedom of speech”.
@Liz_Wheeler I positive hope it does not come to that, however, yeah, if there is no different selection, I’ll make an alternate cellphone undefined
— ANI (@ANI) 26 Nov 2022
These adjustments, which embrace the reinstatement of beforehand banned accounts corresponding to these of Donald Trump, Jordan Peterson, Andrew Tate and Kanye West in an effort to increase “freedom of speech”, might violate the insurance policies of Google’s Play and Apple’s App Store, in accordance to a CNN report.
App retailer charges charged by Google and Apple are another annoyance that Musk says is hindering the expansion of firms like Twitter
In an earlier put up, the new Twitter boss criticized the tech giants for charging a “hidden 30% internet tax”, the app retailer charges that Apple and Google cost firms like Twitter.
“App store fees are obviously too high due to the iOS/Android duopoly,” Musk tweeted earlier. “It’s a hidden 30% tax on the internet,” he added. He adopted up by tagging the US Department of Justice’s antitrust division, which is reportedly investigating app retailer guidelines.
Apple and Google cost 15-30% for in-app purchases, a cost that threatens the income from Twitter Blue’s $8-a-month subscription charges.
Twitter generated $5.01 billion in income in 2021, the vast majority of which got here from advertisers. Musk desires to transition from an advertising-based mannequin to a subscription-led income stream for the corporate. If that occurs, Twitter will find yourself paying a whole bunch of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} in royalties to Apple and Google.