Telegram founder says iOS is software from the Middle Ages

"Every time I have to use an iPhone to test our iOS app I feel like I'm thrown back into the Middle Ages. The iPhone's 60Hz displays can't compete with the 120Hz displays of modern Android phones that support much smoother animations."

What you need to know

• Telegram's founder has blasted the iPhone and iOS in a scathing attack on the ecosystem.
• Pavel Durov said that Apple's hardware is overpriced and obsolete, and that using iOS is like being in the Middle Ages.
• He also said that iPhone users are "digital slaves of Apple".

The founder of Telegram has launched a scathing broadside against Apple's iOS software and the iPhone in response to a story about Apple's alleged involvement in surveillance and censorship in China.

As reported by our friends at Android Central:

Telegram's founder Pavel Durov says developing for Apple's software feels like working in the "Middle Ages," adding that users are a "digital slave" to the company.

Durov made comments in his public Telegram channel on May 19 in response to a recent New York Times investigation on Apple's relationship with China and its involvement in "large-scale surveillance and censorship at the behest of China."

In no uncertain terms, Durov said that Apple's business model was based on "selling overpriced, obsolete hardware to customers locked in their ecosystem". Durov said that using iOS was like being "thrown back into the Middle Ages", and that the iPhone's 60Hz displays couldn't compete with 120Hz Android phones. Apple is rumored to be planning the introduction of 120Hz displays with the iPhone 13 later this year.

Durov said the worst part (yes it gets worse), was an iPhone user is "digital slave of Apple" because you can only install apps from the App Store and can only back up your data to iCloud:

"It's no wonder that Apple's totalitarian approach is so appreciated by the Communist Party of China, which - thanks to Apple - now has complete control over the apps and data of all of its citizens who rely on iPhones."

Ironically, Apple was sued earlier this year for hosting Telegram on the App Store. According to the Coalition for a Safer Web, the app is used by hate groups and extremists as well as a "communications channel for the Russian government and affiliated Neo-Nazi and white nationalist groups, sowing misinformation and racial division in the United States and in Europe."

A previous Outline report has also raised questions about Telegram's links to Russia.