Twitter's head honcho and self-proclaimed free speech absolutist, Elon Musk is having a meltdown over Apple Inc. And he's not stopped tweeting jabs at Apple using an iPhone since last night. There's also a very good reason why he should be melting down further.
But keep in mind that so far, the entire story is one-sided. We only know the details because Elon Musk claims it to be this way.
What happened? Poor little rich boy Elon Musk was busy propagating free speech, promising to expose the previous Twitter board's actions against free speech (what a noble deed indeed!), when his blazing change-the-world trail was rudely interrupted by Apple (HOW DARE YOU, Steve Job-wannabe!).
(Readers, there's no need to panic over the news yet!)
Now, Apple stopping its advertisements on Twitter is one big concern for Musk, but it doesn't end there. It just gets worse.
The REAL reason Musk is losing his s***: Apple has reportedly threatened Twitter that it will pull the app from its App Store.
(Now, you can panic!)
What does it mean? If Musk's claim of Apple withholding Twitter from the App Store is indeed true, then it could mean rejecting an update to the app.
Apple vs Twitter history: For long, Twitter has sparred with Apple over content moderation rules. It's not new that the two companies don't see eye-to-eye on the topic.
Why is this alarming for Twitter?
90% of Twitter's revenue comes from advertisements.
A bit of statistics: These are the number of Twitter users by country. The US has the largest market.
Another bit of statistic: In 2022, there were 120 million iPhone users in the US, making up nearly 49% of all smartphone users in the country.
Now, time to put two and two together: So, if there are some 80 million Twitter users in the US and 120 million iPhone users in the US, that doesn't really sound great news for Twitter, does it?
We need to wait and see what Apple has to say about the fate of Twitter. But rest assured, it seems like Twitter's fate is more or less in the hands of another non-Elon Musk company, Apple, in case it fails to play by its rules.
Also to note, Twitter is not a profit-making company at the moment and is likely billions of dollars in debt. Musk has not ruled out bankruptcy. But in the case of Twitter's bankruptcy, will Elon Musk blame Apple for its fate? Or will Musk just buy Apple worth NEARLY $2.3 TRILLION? Even the world's richest man will have to sit and count the zeroes in his bank account this time.