[pmontra]

Not necessarily. Apple can make a specific deal with Google that go beyond the general terms of service of the App Store. This applies to any pair of other companies and any service owned by one of them. It's not different from an AGPL project offering commercial licenses for using the source code in a proprietary way.

Furthermore there are some apps that Apple can't do without to be able to sell their devices IMHO. Examples: Gmail, video streaming services, banking. If any of those apps from well entrenched incumbents won't like to play by the rules I think that Apple has to make a special deal with them or risk losing sales to Android competitors.

Smaller companies don't have any leverage.