Apple: tighter control, selective openness

Apple is loosening one door in the iPhone world while fighting to keep the main gate locked. In court, Apple is trying to pause new limits on App Store fees and linking rules, and in cars, Apple is opening CarPlay to outside voice tools without letting them replace Siri. (cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov) (developer.apple.com) (9to5mac.com) The court fight comes from Epic Games’ case against Apple, which started after Fortnite was removed from the App Store in 2020. A federal judge later ordered Apple to stop blocking developers from pointing users to payment options outside the App Store, and the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit left that injunction in place. (cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov 1) (cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov 2) Apple’s current move is not a new trial win. On April 6, 2026, Apple said it planned to ask the Supreme Court to review the latest App Store ruling and asked for a stay so the existing App Store setup could remain in place while that petition is prepared. (techcrunch.com) (macrumors.com) What Apple is protecting is the layer where money and distribution pass through Apple’s rules. The original Epic case described iPhone software as a “walled garden,” meaning Apple lets third-party apps in but keeps the store, the approval process, and key payment rules under its control. (cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov) CarPlay shows the same design in a friendlier setting. Apple’s own developer documents say CarPlay apps appear only after users download them from the App Store onto the iPhone first, which means even the car dashboard still starts with Apple’s phone software and Apple’s app pipeline. (developer.apple.com 1) (developer.apple.com 2) Now Apple is reportedly making room for outside artificial intelligence assistants in CarPlay, including chatbot-style tools, but not as full replacements for Siri. Reports say users would open those apps directly, while the steering-wheel voice button and the “Hey Siri” wake path would still belong to Siri. (9to5mac.com) Apple’s own Siri tools explain why that line matters. SiriKit lets outside apps plug into Siri for specific tasks, but Siri remains the traffic cop that decides how voice requests are routed, which is very different from handing the whole dashboard microphone to another assistant. (developer.apple.com 1) (developer.apple.com 2) So Apple is opening the edges and defending the center at the same time. Developers can get more ways to appear on a car screen, and maybe more ways to answer a question, but Apple is still fighting to keep final control over the store on the phone and the default voice layer in the car. (developer.apple.com) (techcrunch.com)