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Apple's EU Core Technology Fee Could Bankrupt Freemium App Developers
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Greedy Apple, steering those free apps to their own store so they can claim their 15% of nothing...
It's in Apple's interest to keep their application store as the number one store on iOS.
apple said checkmate and I’m loving this.
You wanted open. You got it. You just gotta pay.
If you want a free for all
Go android
You wanted open. You got it. You just gotta pay.
If you want a free for all
Go android
I'm an indy dev. I know exactly how much I pay to host my app, and how much I spend a year on hosting costs. The number is in the low 1's. At one point, Amazon gave me a $10 gift card for AWS, and I'm pretty sure it's because my costs were less than the credit card processors were charging Amazon for my monthly 3¢ bill.
I'm all for the Big Players to have a pissing match. It's good entertainment 🍿
But I'm also for Apple opening up the platform to indy developers - right now if you write free software, you're basically a person non-grata on the whole platform. Whether it's an alternative app store I can "sell" in, so that I don't need to pay Apple a ransom, or just side-loading an ipsw file that someone downloads off of my website, I'd like the platform to be more open.
I honestly don’t think some of these changes will stand up against the EU, especially the „either this or that“ „choice. The EU HATES this. They already don’t like it when a website doesn’t let you enter the website without accepting cookies
I have a free app. Until the dust settles I just removed it from all of Europe. It's just a game and its not super popular or anything so I dont think I would have to worry but I can't afford to pay anything on an app that doesn't make money so for now I've taken it off.
Posts like this are so weird
Apple isn’t some sports team, they don’t care about you at all.
This thread is full of comments defending this and I find that quite sad because this is basically Microsoft 2000s behaviour.
They won’t win this but the aim is to keep delaying it and create fear for customers.
That's exactly how it works on macOS. You can use Xcode and all of the APIs but still sell your app outside of the App Store without any per-user fee. Why is this any different on iOS?
Wouldn't this just drive app developers over to the android side and just completely leave iOS? Isn't this just like Apple shooting themselves in the foot?
Well, they could’ve done that years ago, but they didn’t.
Which would explain why we’re all still suffering under the EU’s botched cookie law.
Developers do have a choice, they can stay on the old terms. Apple clearly does NOT want anyone on these new terms that would allow them to be listed on 3rd party app stores, use other payment options,… There’s no way these new terms will ever become the main ones, Apple doesn’t want anyone on them, that’s why they put the 0.50 fee on it.
If I’ve paid to own that store then yeah.
I paid for my Mac and I can put what I want on it.
Looks like Apple will not do anything gracefully. EU will have to again intervene and kick Apple in the shins so that they scurry to fix this and be reasonable.
Apple is just a criminal organisation. How can they demand a fee for apps that are not even bought at their own app store? Also what gives them the right to monitor which apps someone installs from third party app stores? They somehow need to collect data to see how often an app is installed. That is private information that Apple does not have the right to access.
It seems clear for me that Apple already knows that the EU will stop those fees, but Apple also knows that the EU is slow and every day those fees still exist means millions for Apple.
It seems clear for me that Apple already knows that the EU will stop those fees, but Apple also knows that the EU is slow and every day those fees still exist means millions for Apple.
Well Nikita, you can continue to use the old system and just pay Apple 17% of your $10m sales. Nobody is forcing you to use an alternate App Store.
Massimo had fifteen patents, thirteen were struck down. Apple is holding out for the same thing to happen to the final two.
So you can fill the platform with even more junk than it already has? No thanks.
Forcing devs to pay stops them treating the platform like a kiddie’s hobby, and filling it with half-baked crap.
This looks like a shortsighted approach by Apple. They are already facing an uphill battle with the Indian and Chinese markets. Now, they are deliberately creating a lot of friction with the European market and all developers?
I see what Apple is going for here. They are telling the EU they can't enforce anything without Apple attempting to force developers into using the existing Apple App Store and payment systems. But in the long run, this might affect developers' revenue and Apple's overall sale of hardware in Europe.
This fee has no basis in reality. Apple cannot require this amount on an app-by-app basis to recoup the cost. It doesn't make any sense. This is something aimed at steering/forcing developers to stay with the status quo. I fully understand why Apple can't offer a closed-source operating system, developer tools, and API while opening up for everyone to dip their toes into their entire revenue stream for free. But this fee comes off as utterly ridiculous with no basis in reality. This just makes Apple look childish and will create a lot of friction with the EU and Europe as a market and a lot of conflicts with many developers as they are essentially being used as leverage by Apple.
Apple's most significant issue moving forward in terms of increasing revenue is how they are essentially running out of new users getting added into the platform and ecosystem. And markets like India and China, which are massive, are already making it difficult for Apple to succeed in those markets. Why would Apple go out of its way to invalidate yet another significant market? Seems very shortsighted to me.
You must also remember that Apple has a far less loyal customer base outside the US. Is Apple so complacent that it believes it can give the entire European market the biggest middle finger and expect it not to affect its overall user base? This is also affecting developers on a global scale, not just European developers.
I see what Apple is going for here. They are telling the EU they can't enforce anything without Apple attempting to force developers into using the existing Apple App Store and payment systems. But in the long run, this might affect developers' revenue and Apple's overall sale of hardware in Europe.
This fee has no basis in reality. Apple cannot require this amount on an app-by-app basis to recoup the cost. It doesn't make any sense. This is something aimed at steering/forcing developers to stay with the status quo. I fully understand why Apple can't offer a closed-source operating system, developer tools, and API while opening up for everyone to dip their toes into their entire revenue stream for free. But this fee comes off as utterly ridiculous with no basis in reality. This just makes Apple look childish and will create a lot of friction with the EU and Europe as a market and a lot of conflicts with many developers as they are essentially being used as leverage by Apple.
Apple's most significant issue moving forward in terms of increasing revenue is how they are essentially running out of new users getting added into the platform and ecosystem. And markets like India and China, which are massive, are already making it difficult for Apple to succeed in those markets. Why would Apple go out of its way to invalidate yet another significant market? Seems very shortsighted to me.
You must also remember that Apple has a far less loyal customer base outside the US. Is Apple so complacent that it believes it can give the entire European market the biggest middle finger and expect it not to affect its overall user base? This is also affecting developers on a global scale, not just European developers.
From Apple's developer website:
How does Apple know how many installs my apps are getting?
Apple provides secure installation APIs that can be called by the App Store or alternative app marketplaces to request the installation of iOS apps from within their app. This API, along with a signal when the installation is complete, enables Apple to accurately count how many times an app is installed.What I find even more interesting is that apparently Apple's applying the first annual install Core Technology Fee only to iPhones (strictly speaking anything that runs iOS, so at this time iPhones). I was fully expecting this to apply to iPads, too, for example. From their developer website:
Are app installs on iPadOS, macOS, tvOS, visionOS, or watchOS counted?
No. Only installs on iOS by Apple accounts in the EU may be counted as first annual installs.By my reading that means if the new business terms apply to you and you release for example an iPadOS or visionOS -only app in the EU you're not charged the CTF. What's more, apparently installing iPhone (iOS) apps on for example iPads (iPadOS) doesn't count either:
A more conspiracy-theory -minded person than I might think Apple plans to roll all of their OSes into one - iOS - some time in the (potentially far) future.
...but I suspect the truth is actually far less interesting than that.
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