App Store: Apple makes major concessions to developers

Apple will allow publishers toapplications mobile devices to offer their customers payment methods outside of the App Store, a radical change announcement Thursday by the American technology giant, which suffers a strong pression authorities and many companies on its approach to competition.

The Californian company proposed in a press release several changes to the rules of its essential app store. They must be approved by a court to end the lawsuits of small businesses that design applications. ” This agreement specifies that developers can communicate offers to users outside of their iOS apps. (the operating system d’Apple, editor’s note) ”, indicates the group.

Concretely, the applications will be able to send an email to their users to inform them that they can buy a subscription, for example, via their website. In this case, the publisher does not pay any commission to Apple. Services of streaming known as Spotify Where Netflix were already bypassing the commission by not offering the option to subscribe via the app. But they couldn’t direct them to their site internet. On the app Spotify, this message is displayed next to the paid plans: ” You cannot take a Premium subscription on the app. We know, it’s not ideal “. For the user to understand, as for Netflix, which he must subscribe on the online platform. Which he liked to do for such popular services, but not necessarily for small applications.

Developers will have more leeway to set their prices

The new agreement also plans to give developers more leeway to set the prices of their apps, subscriptions or in-app purchases. Apple finally intends to create a fund to help small American publishers, earning less than a million dollars per year for all their apps in the United States. With these concessions, the manufacturer ofiPhone no doubt hopes to ease the pressure on various fronts.

On the side of the courts, Apple awaits soon the verdict in the lawsuit brought against him by Epic Games. The publisher of the game Fortnite, like many other small and large developers, accuses Apple of abusing its dominant position by taking too high commissions on consumer spending and by imposing on them the App Store as a mandatory intermediary between them and their users. Apple has always emphasized the imperative of security and confidentiality Datas. Yes iOS set up a more open system, the App Store would become “a big bazaar”, had assured in May Tim Cook, the boss of the group, in court. The shop digital is the only place where iPhone or iPhone usersiPad can download third-party apps.

As iOS is the second mobile operating system in the world, after Android (Google), these consumers represent a juicy market. They spent $ 643 billion on apps in 2020, according to Apple. Until now, the group has mainly made concessions on the commission, which is 30% on sales in the App Store and on purchases of digital goods and services within apps, the standard level in the industry. .

Not enough to satisfy iOS app developers?

As of January 1, 2021, Apple has applied a reduced rate of 15% for newcomers and developers who made less than $ 1 million in revenue (after commission) the previous year. This was already the case for subscriptions, from the second year.

Not sure, however, that this evidence of goodwill is enough to appease the enemies of the Cupertino group. “ (The deal presented Thursday) is unlikely to be successful in keeping the developers happy. », Reacted analyst Rich Greenfield, of Lightshed, on Twitter. « No chance Added Benedict Evans, an independent analyst specializing in Silicon Valley. As for the authorities, they don’t seem about to change their tone.

Hearing a complaint from Spotify, the European Commission estimated in April that the apple group has “ distorted competition To oust his rivals. In August, US senators proposed a law to regulate the two dominant stores and force the Google-Apple duopoly to open up much more to competition.