Apple Says UK App Store Steering Rules Would Be 'Highly Intrusive'

[Unregistered 4U]

“The way you’re currently doing business? Legally? Well, sorry to say that we’ve designated ‘the legal way you’re doing business’ as illegal. No no, OTHER companies can still do what you’re doing, it’s just you and maybe a couple other companies that can’t. We’re not outlawing the legal thing entirely, that would be devastating! We’re just outlawing YOU doing the legal thing.”

 

[theluggage]

You can go outside if you choose too. Use another platform.

The only other credible platform is Android.

Google have just announced draconian sideloading restrictions.

Android's new sideloading rules are here, and they come with a 24-hour lock!

Google is fundamentally changing how sideloading works on Android, especially for apps from unverified developers. Here's are the new rules.

www.androidauthority.com

You can still do it but you have to enable developer mode (last I looked that was a 'hidden' feature that required something like rapidly clicking 10 times on the systems settings icon) then answer questions to verify you're not being co-erced, re-boot, then wait 24 hours (!) then re-authenticate...

Hopefully that (esp. the 24 hour cool-off period) would be enough to protect people like @surferfb's mother-in-law from scammers, without totally preventing power users from sideloading - but it pretty much rules out any hope of a sideloaded app or third-party app store being able to compete with the Play store for regular customers.

We'll have to see whether that raises any accusations of anti-competitive behaviour (Google being subject to the same rules as Apple there) - if not there's nothing to stop Apple allowing sideloading with a similar level of... dissuasion.

Show me Europe's equivalent of Apple or Google, just for starters.

...not really the point - the "steering" argument is not about European phone/OS companies trying to compete with iPhone or Android, it's about all the other businesses who sell different products and services, and basically have no realistic choice to support both the Apple App store and the Android Play Store.

There's no "free market" if 98% of retail real-estate in the world is owned by one of two huge corporations who impose their rules on every shop.

...also worth noting that - even in the Land of The Free, Apple, Google, Meta etc. have been facing a series of expensive lawsuits over competition issues and access to their platforms, because that's the way the US regulates trade.

 

[surferfb]

You can still do it but you have to enable developer mode (last I looked that was a 'hidden' feature that required something like rapidly clicking 10 times on the systems settings icon) then answer questions to verify you're not being co-erced, re-boot, then wait 24 hours (!) then re-authenticate...

Hopefully that (esp. the 24 hour cool-off period) would be enough to protect people like @surferfb's mother-in-law from scammers, without totally preventing power users from sideloading - but it pretty much rules out any hope of a sideloaded app or third-party app store being able to compete with the Play store for regular customers.

For what it’s worth I think this is a reasonable compromise. From a philosophical perspective I still don’t think the government should be mandating this, and think it is still a worse user experience, but it takes care of most of my concerns about significant negative impact to users.

 

[Unregistered 4U]

Every App you buy and every subscription you buy on iOS, Apple forces an additional 30% on top. It is simple math for anyone who understands math.

Apple’s not forcing anything. The developer agrees to the terms when they sign up for the App Store. Don’t sign up and you owe Apple nothing. Personally, I find the terms deplorable and would never agree to them. So, I make my money via other ways that don’t involve paying Apple anything (unless I want to buy things from their retail operation).

For some strange reason, there are people that feel driven to VERY SPECIFICALLY do a thing that they really don’t want to do (apparently) and I’ll never understand why.

 

[Unregistered 4U]

No, Apple is charging developers for access to a large customer base with pre-loaded credit card data, payment processing, billing, features that benefit customers developers would otherwise not support, and use of Apple’s intellectual property.

Most developers are choosing to pass those fees along to their customers, which is totally their right to do. But let’s not pretend it’s Apple passing that fee onto customers. It’s the greedy developers who want access to Apple’s hard work without paying for it.

Look at anyone charging a commission and they do it as a fee for access to the customer base they’ve grown through their own efforts. If a developer can’t make a profit when the commission provides them 85% CUT? Then, they’re just bad at business… should probably get someone good at business to help them understand their costs vs. their revenue and either charge what’s required for them to make a profit OR, if consumers won’t accept that price… do something else?

If they can’t make a profit in any way, again with an 85% cut, then lucky for them there are hundreds of thousands of ways to make money that don’t involve dealing with Apple at all! If their idea of making money is, “Putting forth little effort and raking in the cash”, there’s probably not a LOT of markets out there they’re going to be successful in, commission or not.

 

[gaximus]

Apple banned developers from informing IOS user that they can get the same services for cheaper which is part of what this article is about. The CMA and the DMA rules is what is trying to stop Apple from preventing developers telling customers where to get the services for cheaper.

I think this is a great idea and all store front should have this. I know Walmart and Target will price match, but they need to tell me when a product is cheaper at their competitors.

 

[theluggage]

Apple’s not forcing anything. The developer agrees to the terms when they sign up for the App Store.

Sure - the developer has the "choice" not to release their App on iPhone and lose 30-50% of their customer base - and that's assuming they are happy Google's terms for the Play store, in which case the "choice" is do a Web App instead... which is likely to be less functional on a phone than a proper App (oh, and who decides what features are available to browser-based apps? Yup, that's Google and Apple again...).

The "free market" ideology usually boils down to this sort of illusory "choice" - and the only thing that stops anything resembling a "free market" evolving into a zero-choice monopoly is regulation (and the occasional taxpayer-funded bailout every time the free market crashes after going all in on $1000 tulip bulbs, .com startups with underpants gnome business plans, sub-prime mortgages or data centres with no power and water...)

Of course, Apple always has the choice not to do business in the EU or the UK if they don't like the regulations.