I think the problem is not that appel steal ideas, I think the problem is that Appels "home" apps have a unfair marked advantage over the concurrence:
1. They don't have to comply with the app guidelines (uh, I mean sometimes vaguely formulated rules).
- They don't have to go through the verifying process which sometimes does reject apps for questionable reasons (I'm not saying that they do it intentional but it happens anyway).
- They can do thinks which other apps can't.
- They can access API's which other apps can't or at last only can if you are some very large company or else wise got into a joint venture with apple (e.g. the NFC APIs, at last in the past).
- This sometimes means that some apps have to use other APIs as a work around potentially violating app guidelines leading to apple taking actions against them.
3. They easily get prominently featured in the app store.
4. They might get features in apple phone advertisements.
With other works they get a unfair advantage against there competition. The only reason this is legal in Europe is that the monopoly omissions doesn't treat the "apps for iOS" marked as a marked (but instead as a part of the "apps" marked, which IMHO is wrong).
Don't misunderstand I'm speaking about apps made by apple, not system features like flashlight or screen color.
The think is a lot of the thinks can be gained to some degree by 3rd party apps with money, the problem is that the just price of getting this makes it impossible to compete with apple.
This doesn't even include the situations where apple seemed to have miss-used the review process to hinder some apps to create a better starting point for their apps (and it's not just apple, there are also questionable thinks happening to e.g. 3rd party non profit navigation apps on android). On the other hand there are some many apps that literally might be just random fallout and it's close to impossible to judge without doing a proper study.
What I would which is a requirement for:
- Apply some monetary value apple has to pay for the advantage they give to they apps (sure they would pay it to them self, still this means they have to pay tax etc. on it and it shows up in the books).
- Clear guidelines and transparent processes (especially wrt. google actually).
- Limit how app stores can misuse their power, hold them responsible if they do. (e.g. wasn't there a thing where pebble couldn't properly advertise some features because it was conflicting with apples own producsts?)
- Limit how phone provides can "lock away" certain features they use them self (e.g. NFC). I'm ok with some over-the-top warnings if you want to use a app adding a feature which might be misused to track you, as long as the warning is only shown at installation. I'm also okay with some payed API access as long as the price is affordable by a small startup.
- Or alternatively just require support for "properly" having a alternate app store (not the "allow 3rd party apps" bs android has.