High-profile Apple executive overseeing App Store deleted his Twitter account, which had over 200,000 followers
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A high-profile Apple executive managing the App Store deleted his highly-followed Twitter account over the weekend.
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Phil Schiller, a current Apple fellow and formerly its top marketing executive for over 30 years, had over 200,000 followers on his Twitter account which he started in 2008, before deleting it. The account now has a message for visitors saying: “This account doesn’t exist.”
Schiller’s account deletion came just after Musk commented on App Store fees being too lofty. In a tweet on November 19, Musk said: “App store fees are obviously too high due to the iOS/Android duopoly. It is a hidden 30% tax on the Internet.”
Musk is referring to the 15 to 30% fee Apple and Google charge companies like Twitter for purchases made inside their apps.
Twitter, Schiller, and Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment about Schiller leaving the platform, made outside regular working hours.
Musk had previously complained about App Store fees in May, once again calling the fee a “hidden tax,” adding that that the fee is “literally 10 times higher than it should be.”
Musk is planning to launch his Twitter Blue subscription service in an effort to increase the company’s revenues. When author Stephen King complained about the cost of Twitter Blue, Musk replied in a tweet: “We need to pay the bills somehow! Twitter cannot rely entirely on advertisers. How about $8?”
App Store fees would decrease the revenue generated by Twitter Blue, hence Musk’s complaints.
Twitter’s former head of safety Yoel Roth wrote in the New York Times that “failure to adhere to Apple and Google’s guidelines would be catastrophic, risking Twitter’s expulsion from their app stores,” emphasizing the stranglehold the tech giants have over the internet.
Despite Schiller’s departure from the platform, Apple CEO Tim Cook is still active on the platform, as are Apple’s corporate accounts.