How was it ill-gotten? It was a well known business arrangement that was well published. Google gained a lot from that arrangement.
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Apple Ordered to Change App Store in Europe Again
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Yep. Let em use android and sideload to their hearts content.
Well it’s not ill gotten nor is it for free.
"Well published"..?
I was leaked, not published, and Apple has been trying to hide it for years by labeling it as "services revenue"; they wanted to bump that revenue number, and hide it from investors because they knew it might not last.
Payloa..nothing more.
None of those things have anything to do with the store. Your suggestion is that Apple should run the store as a loss-leader.
Steve Jobs wanted the App store to be a break-even venture. It was never meant to be a profit center.
Eh well, whatever. I haven't paid a cent to the app store in almost two years.
If all iPhones/ iPads had Thunderbolt, maybe there's a world where they can back up to a Time Machine like Macs?
It’s time for Apple to read the room and to realise that want they want for the App Store is now not au fait with how many governments and trading blocs view fair competition.
They can’t keep on skimming in this way - and that’s what it is - forever more.
I think they’re being very foolish in persisting in this as they’re burning a huge amount of bridges - both with govts and with developers.
Particularly as the smartphone era is starting to wane as we enter the AI era and Apple are more strategically weak than they have been since the 00s - even if this is not yet apparent.
If they leave the EU, Tim Cook wouldn’t be in his job for too long.
Hmm thinking about it, maybe they should leave the EU then!
They can’t keep on skimming in this way - and that’s what it is - forever more.
I think they’re being very foolish in persisting in this as they’re burning a huge amount of bridges - both with govts and with developers.
Particularly as the smartphone era is starting to wane as we enter the AI era and Apple are more strategically weak than they have been since the 00s - even if this is not yet apparent.
I feel duty bound to point out that the EU is Apple’s second biggest market after North America - and a very stable and rich one.
If they leave the EU, Tim Cook wouldn’t be in his job for too long.
Hmm thinking about it, maybe they should leave the EU then!
Steve Jobs didn’t really want an App Store. He thought everything should be a web app. Things change.
IMO, the App Store has been one of the best business opportunities for an individual for decades. True, free SDKs existed for computers but the distribution model was not in one place. It required the individual to self-market and self-host. The App Store provided a global distribution system that allowed any individual to market to the world at very low up-front cost. The actions of the EU is breaking this model. And I’m not sure that the end result will benefit any but the currently well established.
We don‘t use imperial system in Europe.
Maybe Apple should drop commission all together, allow these links and just charge a monthly subscription for developers' apps to be in the App Store at all then. Still get profit, devs can promote outside their app all they want.
I think this will be the end result. But the ecosystem and business opportunity will not be the same.
Very important post!!!! You get it. The US Corporate Overlords brainwashed their sheep 🐑
Agreed. Sideloading was a proprietary phrase from the 90s, by i-drive, that meant something completely different.
Nobody is above the law whether you agree with it or not. Apple should pay the fine, make the required changes and move on.
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The EU is turning into the tech version of the Fifty Shades of Gray dude, but without the love..
Except history shows prices do not drop. Many developers chrge the same for Maac apps on the App Store or from tehir site, and when Apple lowered the fee for small developers the developers pocketed the new revenue ratehr than lowering prices.
I suspect Apple will eventually change the fees to be on the App Store so as to make up for lost revenue; as well as offer a lower commission rate for apps that exclusively use Apple's payment system. That way, a developer could chose how they want to charge for their Apps.
If Apple goes that route I suspect them to charge upfront, monthly and or d/l fees for Apps; all of which would hurt small developers since their upfront costs would go up with no certainty they can recover their costs. Users would likely suffer if there is a per d/l fee since the price would have to cover the % of d/ls that never make a purchase; that would significantly change the freemium market dynamics.
As have said before, the EU rules have the potential for hurting the consumer and small developer in the end.
Apple is a $3T company. Their operating profit last quarter was almost $30B. The 30% they collect from people buying coins and gems inside games is basically pure profit at this point. They do not need to engage in rent seeking to fund the App Store.
The $20B or whatever it is Apple gets from Google is essentially all profit.
"every other computing platform" on other mobile platforms such as Android its side loading. On devices such as game systems such as PS etc it would also be side loading. It's only desktop platform that's all just Installing.
In one of the Epic trials discovery included an email from Phil Schiller from 2011 suggesting that once the App Store had $1B in revenues Apple should think about reducing the commissions and keep it at that run rate. Imagine where Apple would be right now if Cook decided the company is making so much money off the App Store they can afford to reduce the commission to 10-15%. Of course he couldn’t do that because he promised Wall Street huge growth in ‘services’ to compensate for low to no hardware growth.
If that's the business model you prefer, feel free to start your business an enact it. "It has long been understood..." The market can determine what is understood.