iWar: Fortnite, Elon Musk, Spotify, WeChat, and Laying Siege to Apple’s Empire

by Tim Higgins

The wildly enthralling and entertaining story of Apple's monopolistic impulses and the global business and political forces arrayed against its $3 trillion empire.

iWar is a saga of corporate intrigue, control, and competition, featuring some of the world's most brilliant and powerful minds. It is the story of Apple, the tech corporation which has built near unassailable market power through its iPhone and app ecosystem and controls not only commerce, but also culture, and—increasingly—the flow of ideas. And it is the story of a powerful cadre of tech moguls determined to take it down.

Over time, a loose and disparate group of billionaires, each driven by their own reasons, has formed to challenge Apple’s supremacy, including Daniel Ek (Spotify), Tim Sweeney (Epic Games/Fortnite), and Elon Musk (Twitter/X). With colorful, in-depth reporting, Wall Street Journal business columnist Tim Higgins chronicles these modern-day robber barons and their quest to destroy a powerful rival, aiming at destroying the “tyranny” of Apple’s iOS, while telling a larger story of the global digital and information economy. Full of intrigue and twists, featuring a cast of colorful characters, iWar is a masterful business-techno tale that rivals the best John Grisham novels.

Genres: Nonfiction

288 pages, Hardcover

Published September 16, 2025

Reviews

[William · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well researched and I’d recommend it to anyone working on app development or in games.

[Robert · Rating 5 out of 5]

Extremely well written and researched. Obviously the book focuses on a bunch of companies greedily fighting over who if anyone should be taking a cut of their revenue and how Apple and Google will go to extremes to get their share.

It’s hard to feel sorry for any of the companies involved but the author never implies one is more wrong than the other which was nice. There was no bias or opinions trying to sway you one way or another.

I listened to the audiobook and it was well narrated and I definitely learned a lot.

[Dan Watts · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is somewhat of a niche read, though it covers an important topic that is widely overlooked, especially by those most affected by it.

That topic is the exorbitant fee that Apple collects for purchases made through its app store, and the outrageous attempts it made to block any attempt by app developers to circumvent it. There has actually been significant coverage of this by the press, but the heart of the book are internal documents uncovered during the various lawsuits. I don't recall reading about most of these documents in the press.

The title is rather misleading... WeChat had little to do with the rebellion against Apple's fees, and Elon Musk even less. I guess their names are more eye-catching than those of Apple's most ferocious opponents, Tim Sweeney of Epic Games and Margrethe Vestager of the EU. Also, much of the first half of the book will already be very familiar to anyone who has followed press coverage, and the conclusions reached will no doubt be gradually overrun by events, like the surprising court decision to allow Google to continue to pay Apple to remain the default search engine on Apple devices.

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Won a finished hardback copy of this title in a Goodreads giveaway. 4.5 stars. Based on the cover, I initially thought this was a self-published work and, honestly, didn’t have high hopes. (I’m a cover snob, I’ll admit it!) Was surprised by how solid this book turned out to be! Not only is the writing clear and concise, but there’s an easy-to-follow, albeit intricate narrative that covers both the macro and micro aspects of Apple’s takedown by Musk and other billionaire tech leaders.

I learned a lot about tech, sure, but also about policy and power, especially in regard to these leaders’ influence in DC and across the world. Kind of a depressing account in that sense: us plebians are so out of our depth when it comes to having input into what we actually want; we’re really only given so many options as a consumer due to these companies’ monopolies, even if what they produce is often useful and fairly accessible. Definitely recommend this read to folks looking to better understand the tech, business, and political worlds, and how they intersect.

[Navdeep Pundhir · Rating 2 out of 5]

A 250 odd page book which should have been a 130 page book. Good start, terrible second half

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this if you're interested in how Apple exploits its App Store monopoly and how Tim Sweeney of Epic Games and others have tried to fight it.

Covers the period 2006-2024.