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Dutch Regulator Says Apple's Plan for Third-Party In-App Payments is Insufficient, Fines Apple 5 Million Euros
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Do you vote with your dollars and support android then? 30% is cheap as Apple charges $99 and one has to supply the sweat equity. Then the dev just sits back and watches the revenue roll in.
Like how consumers were punished when anti-competitive behavior in railroads, airlines, phone companies, stock exchanges, etc.. were intervened by government action, right?
Android is looking more and more attractive for both the developers and the users.
And don't stop there - remove all the apps (because eventually all developers will come after Apple).
It's not that simple, I think? I mean Apple is the one that prevents other App Stores from exisiting which I fairly agree with, but then one could argue that there should be a limit to what they can ask of the developer for hosting, once this creates a sort of monopoly. Microsoft had to provide a browser choice screen for Windows. If all Apple has to do is allow other payment providers, they're still fairly lucky. And the user too, because I think a single app store with a rigid review process is still a good thing.
On the other hand, a percentage is a great way to 'tax' small and large players the same.
What will Apple change once his becomes a worldwide thing? I wonder!
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That's point though: there aren't any barriers to prevent Dutch dating app users from going to the internet version of a service or using an Android phone. The ACM is misrepresenting the market.
I think it would set a bad precedent for Apple, and they'd look even more dickish than they already do about this. I really think they're risking more than it's worth being so strident about the App Store, which could end up with a worse experience on the iPhone for us all.
To Apple's credit, they did change things up for smaller developers (but dragging their heels and mostly so they could have something to point to, but I suppose at least they did it), so now it's Apple mostly fighting things out with big companies. That said, Apple should remember that developers and apps bring value to the Apple ecosystem, it's a symbiotic relationship. They could probably get a lot of government regulators off their backs (at very little cost to their bottom line) if they'd make some concessions without governments having to twist their arm about it. Would be curious to know if internally this is an issue of bean-counting (gotta wring out every drop) or principle (we deserve every drop) on Apple's part. Given their behavior thus far, I'm guessing the latter.
Dev here. That 30% cut is actually great. It means for a flat rate, I don't have to worry about hosting, payment processing, getting my app in front of millions of eyeballs. I don't have to worry about the exchange rate in Tokyo and what that means. I get to spend far less time administrating my business and more time writing code, which is what I want to do. It's probably also cheaper than what I would pay if I did do everything piecemeal and manually, not even counting my time and what that is worth.
Everyone advocating for alternate payment processors is really only supporting billion dollar companies. The only devs who would ever use something like that are those who have a full on dedicated dept to run it (aka Epic, Spotify, Microsoft, Google) and are trying to squeeze every last dollar out to bump the shareprice. You aren't defending small devs or one person shops who don't want to spend all day administrating a business to save $5. I'll gladly pay Apple and Google to do that for me.
That was my thought, too. “YEAH THIS 5 million will show apple, that’ll break them down!” Not hardly. Which, incidentally shows the real reason behind these laws. Country says “Apple should allow Android apps to run”. Apple says, “We can’t do that.” Country says, “Fine, then we’ll fine you because having money is always good.”
The politicians get money, the users and developers end up with a more painful system to work within.
How much money does Apple make from in-app purchases in dating apps anyways? It’s not like this is gaming?
You could also say they got there by spending a large sum of money to design and build the hardware, design and integrate the operating system with that hardware, negotiate to find a carrier that accepted their requirements for a network operator, build out the manufacturing and delivery infrastructure and iteratively improve the product over time in such a way that more and more users would buy it.
One of these is a little more accurate of course, but you can absolutely say both
Spot on. People love to whine about this-n-that.
But they can never seem to step up and vote with their wallet purchasing computers/phones/etc from other companies. Have you?
I'm talking about developers in general, not dating app devs in particular. And I think you underestimate the scale of the dating app industry.
Comparing Apple to Pears…..
Developers have a choice to take their business and app elsewhere… But no, they want to hitch on to iOS store and then complain about paying to use someone else’s infrastructure….
They’ve already paid similar governmental fines in other countries (like $2 million to Brazil). I’d be willing to bet that the reason why the fine only amounts to $50 million is they wanted to ensure it was low enough that Apple would just pay and not fight it.
One can't avoid buying a phone or computer that isn't assembled or sourced by a large corporation. However, one can avoid entangling their own identity with those corporations and treating any perceived slight on them as a slight against themselves.
I think the folks that failed economics 101 are the ones that don’t understand “commissions”.
Then don't sell your app there. No one is forcing developers to sell apps on the app store.
Do you mean Apple specifically? That one can’t avoid buying a phone or computer made by Apple? Because I do think that’s correct.
Didn’t it work though? I mean, $50 million is a small price to pay to be left alone. It’d be different if the Dutch said, “This is NOT suitable and we will accept anything short of full compliance!” Instead it’s more like, “Well, we don’t like it, but give us money and you can keep it JUST as you defined it.”