Not being able to abandon lucrative Chinese market and at the same time defend own sovereignty the US-based company decided it is time to comply with the local legislation. At the end of July Apple removed all VPN-related applications from Chinese AppStore, leaviAt 30th of Julyng local iPhone owners without a slightest chance of remaining anonymous in the Internet.
Several VPN software developers, previously affiliated with Apple and still interested in selling their iOS products, have already expressed discontent. VyprVPN and ExpressVPN said they didn’t break any of the Apple rules but still were removed from AppStore without prior warning.
This is actually the first time China has won a battle against a major international tech company. According to the Apple top management, the enterprise owes much of its success to cooperation with the customers, which is no longer the case for the Chinese market. By bending to the state government’s demand, Apple can easily lose a portion of its clientele and significantly damage the corporate image in the eyes of the global community.
The decision can also backfire on the other side of the planet, where Apple least expects it. By creating a precedent of trading user friendliness and privacy protection for money, the company will no longer enjoy moral superiority in clashes with the United States government. Especially when the latter asks for personal information of Apple users “for security reasons”.
