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Some more details from Russian article. 1/3 mandatory payment to some non-yet-existent fund is only applied if a company chooses maximal commission rate (20%). Also Kommersant wrote that this bill is actually against Russian Civil Code's "freedom of contract" (yes, there are some freedoms claimed in Russian law). And also there is no penalty provided for violators.

General opinion is that this bill will probably not be passed (in this form at least). MPs in Russia don't have much individual power, so many bills are generated just for hype.
Thanks for the info, good to know.
 
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30% pays for many developer services like free CloudKit, free Apple Maps usage, fast app review times, many SDK features and improvements every year, and much more.

20% means Apple will cut back on developer services to make up the difference and likely charge for services that used to be 100% free for all developers.

I'm more looking forward to sideloading apps anyway, but hey come on, 30% to cover these services is hilarious.
At least 20% of is pure revenue, or why do you think they avoid disclosing it.
 
It was only a matter of time before a country did this. The question is whether this market would be too small that Apple would be willing to pull out of it. Apple really is in a losing position to not allow browser downloads of third party apps/stores.
 
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It was only a matter of time before a country did this. The question is whether this market would be too small that Apple would be willing to pull out of it.
They won't because at least EU will follow, and US probably too.
Sure they still can decide the stop their business in RU,EU, etc., Apple board wallets are full enough, but their greed weights more.
 
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Poor Russians, no App Store for you soon.

Correction: No Russian App Store for you soon. You can always sign up on a different App Store.

Not even Russian App Store. Apple Store are officially inexistent.
All Apple devices solds are through retailer, no BTO.
 
The Russian solution is a joke. Honestly. Cap at 20% bu than require 6.5% from the 20% to go to some dodgy state department ... I smell someone filing their pockets. So Apple would end up with 13.5%?

This is getting out of hand. Apple has all the tools to resolve this in a reasonable way without leaving others to decide for them with these crazy schemes made by .... Yes, they can leave Russia, what’s next leave the EU?
 
Yup! Even big companies like Yelp and Facebook are saving hundreds thousands of dollars each month by using Apple Maps in their iOS app instead of Google Maps. Every developer benefits!
Well, Yelp pays 30% of the app price, and 30% of in-app purchases. I think the app is free, and they have no in-app purchases :) Apple's App Store has identical rules for everyone, and as a result some companies pay for others.
 
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Seems like a rather dumb sollution. I understand that Apple has a partial monopoly, but it’s not a complete one: you always have the option of switching to android or a few small other operating systems.
I personally like the idea of a walled garden a lot as it contributes a lot to my digital safety.

Nintendo, Playstation, Xbox.....why aren't they getting the same demand?
 
Well, as a Russian myself, I get a say in this. It's a standard braindead initiative by a braindead official. Thankfully, they usually get revised once more intelligent officials start realizing how retarded they are. Previous attempts have included:

- Internet access only after submitting passport information for kids under 14
- $1000 fines for sex with prostitutes
- removing all images of alcohol from the movies
- banning selling cigarettes to people under 40
- storing all (!) user data on the servers of mobile operators (which was mostly reversed once the costs were estimated to be around a trillion dollars)
- banning Telegram via carpet bombing-style blocking of tons of Google and Amazon servers that Telegram used, resulting in thousands of small businesses unable to operate. Rather ironically, Telegram was still fully functional and more popular than ever, and used by the majority of the government officials.
 
They won't because at least EU will follow, and US probably too.
Sure they still can decide the stop their business in RU,EU, etc., Apple board wallets are full enough, but their greed weights more.

They can't unless they apply it to the whole industry, many companies are doing the same if not more premium but it's only fun to attack Apple.
 
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\o/ wohhhhhh it's slowly getting there...

The most important part of this news is "...the bill also proposes to oblige owners of mobile operating systems to allow users to install alternative stores."

Now just EU and US missing...

Great, just great news!
Are you kidding? I am 100% positive that Apple will just pull out of Russia rather than change their polices, especially in regards to third party app stores.
 
I'm more looking forward to sideloading apps anyway, but hey come on, 30% to cover these services is hilarious.
At least 20% of is pure revenue, or why do you think they avoid disclosing it.

If you want iOS to be Android, why don’t you just get and Android phone? Most people don’t want the ability to side load apps on their iPhone. They appreciate the security and convenience of a single App Store. Additionally most developers are also fine with the App Store being the only way to load apps as it levels the playing field. You sure have an agenda- just not quite sure what it is yet.
 
their greed weights more.
I sincerely don't understand what you mean when you say that a company is greed.
I hope you do realise companies exists to make business and earn money, not to be no profit organisations.
So, what is your problem if a company does its best to be successful.
 
Nintendo, Playstation, Xbox.....why aren't they getting the same demand?
Because you can buy games everywhere (retail, craigslist etc.), not only at the e.g. Xbox-Store.

What? So banks and payment merchants like visa / mastercard / etc profit instead? Okay.
You can already pay at these shops via credit card... so there's no real benefit for them.
 
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I'm sorry but I have to say this. Those making comments like "extortion" and "unfairness" against Apple's 30% commission and believe Epic is playing the hero have either no understanding of business and economics, are simply delusional.

Epic has one objective. Make more money. This isn't about the consumer. It's about them making more money.

Apple have been clear and transparent since day one. The fact they have got so successful without making any changes to their tier is quite remarkable.

It's also amusing to note Epic wouldn't be the billion dollar company they are without Apple's platform so this is a total stab in the back to gain more $$$.

I'm not always pro-Apple (read my previous posts), but I'll put a bet down today; Epic won't win and nor will all the other creeps jumping on the band-wagon to make more money.
 
Because you can buy games everywhere (retail, craigslist etc.), not only at the e.g. Xbox-Store.


You can already pay at these shops via credit card... so there's no real benefit for them.

Not correct. You need a payment merchant. That is what Apple is in payments.
 
I hope all OS and hardware manufacturers face it, the one more the other less. AppStore monopoly (doesn't matter which company), needs to be regulated by law. Well, Apple is just #1 one in the line, the rest will face it too, or quickly adapt to avoid it.

By the logic that app store monopolies need to be controlled, you then also must think that engine monopolies must also need to be controlled? I mean it's totally unfair that I can't make Ford install a Ferarri engine in my new car. That engine will cost me more in fuel, oil and maintenance over the life of the car than the car itself, it's a big deal cost-wise.
Ferrari makes a smaller, lighter, simpler engine that costs 30% less over its life to operate I should be able to force Ford to let me use it.
 
So they want the industry-standard fee cut to 20% with no consolation on if this is viable or not, and on top of that, 1/3rd of that fee should be paid to the government on top of whatever sales tax they have. Sure these companies will just have to cut something to make it work, perhaps free apps and free hosting.

I am sure developers will be delighted when their $2000/month storage bill comes in whether they sell a single unit or not, like the good old days.

On S3 10TB of transfer costs $8 a month. And if you didn't know, Apple charges every dev $99 a year for the privilege of being on the App Store, so there you go, they can survive 10TB of transfer for every single developer account. I can tell you this, 99% of devs paying the $99/yr are not using anywhere close to 10TB of transfer per month with app sizes < 50MB.

Nobody is paying $2000/month for a physical server to host an indie app in 2020 (Not even back in 2010.)

I don't agree with Russia's position, but Apple is not throwing devs a bone here either. The only ones that walk away with massive profit + zero cost are your amazon/target/netflix/instagram/Facebook/epic games. And that is the problem, Apple should charge rent based on downloads, and not based on revenue. That would mean those top companies actually contribute something back to Apple for their own hosting costs, and at the same time small developers no longer subsidize these huge companies getting a free lunch.

If you own a store in a shopping center, how much do you pay the landlord? 30% of all sales? Nope - a flat fee based on the size of your space + how much foot traffic will walk by it. If it worked that way 95% of businesses just would not work because their margins are lower than 30%.

My solution - drop IAP percentage to 15% to allow more business ideas to have a chance, allow devs to link to outside purchases (IAP should compete and be better than outside purchase, not win by default because apple doesn't allow anything else), drop the $99/yr dev fee and instead add a per-app fee that starts at $3/mo, but scales up over time based on download counts (IE 10 downloads and no change, 2M downloads and you pay proportionally.)
 
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If you want iOS to be Android, why don’t you just get and Android phone?

The Android user experience is subjectively terrible. Although are a number of improvements which would make my life easier when using my iPhone and Apple Watch, I do enjoy the experience and how these devices work together to enhance my day to day life.

I’d much prefer to work towards improvements and enhancements to my current devices rather than switch to something which I believe to be years behind in usability.
 
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