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US developers can offer non-app store purchasing, Apple still collect commission

macrumors.com

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Re: US developers can offer non-app store purchasing, Apple still collect commission

#31

Post by danpalmer »

lxgr wrote: post #25
danpalmer wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> So Apple will be collecting 27% (instead of 30%) for... what exactly? Off the top of my head... - Bandwidth - Running the App Store for users - Marketing the App Store - App review - Security efforts to keep malware off the store - Making App Store optimisation tools for developers There's a lot of moving parts to this. You could argue that none of this is necessary if you sideload, but distribution is worth a lot…

If that's true (and I even believe that it is to a large extent!), there should be no problem for Apple to let its value proposition stand for itself and allow some competition. Besides that, that list is very bundled. What if I e.g. want the convenient subscription payment processing, but want to (or need to) bring my own CDN for most content? What if I want their marketing and am willing to pay for it, but prefer m…

I agree, although I think this is doing that to some extent. Sure there's some scary text in the popup that I think could be toned down, but I'm not an expert, and to be fair there are risks going externally.

Allowing other app stores would be the big win in competition here, properly forcing Apple to win on value proposition. The DMA could force this, but I'm not certain about the details.

Re: US developers can offer non-app store purchasing, Apple still collect commission

#32

Post by MBCook »

lxgr wrote: post #8

So Apple will be collecting 27% (instead of 30%) for... what exactly? They might just get away with something as crass in a vacuum, but given that the DMA will go into effect very soon, there will be a point of reference in a similar economy, and I don't think it'll be pretty for Apple. US regulators (federal or state; I could see something equivalent to GDPR and CCPA) will be taking a very close look.

The DMA has surprisingly little effect on the US.

In the EU has the 30% (or now 27%) been found illegal? I know they’re being forced to allow other app stores or side loading or something. But what about the fee?

Re: US developers can offer non-app store purchasing, Apple still collect commission

#33

Post by Vt71fcAqt7 »

danpalmer wrote: post #23

This is not new. The 27% fee has been around for over a year now I think, may have been announced in 2021 even, for markets outside the US that already mandate this. I've seen these screens already in apps.

It seems like according to Sweeny the 27% rate itself is not new but it only went into effect today.[0]

[0] https://twitter.com/TimSweeneyEpic/status/174728054136210228...

Re: US developers can offer non-app store purchasing, Apple still collect commission

#34

Post by MBCook »

meteor333 wrote: post #6

wow! Looks like Apple finally caved. This is a huge win for the developers, despite that pesky warning. They can still ask users to circumvent apple pay/in-app purchases and get away by not giving a revenue cut to Apple.

They didn’t cave. A court gave them no choice.

Re: US developers can offer non-app store purchasing, Apple still collect commission

#35

Post by cyral »

mortenjorck wrote: post #26

Demanding a 27% commission for transactions taking place entirely outside of Apple infrastructure is obviously a finger in the eye, but I'm not entirely sure whose eye yet. Epic? The court? The FTC? The developer community? All of the above?

I love how apple has provided suggested language, such as "To get [X%] off, go to [X]", knowing damn well that a discount would only be offered if they weren't collecting a commission.

Add to that that the link can only be displayed on a single page (not a modal or popup) and cannot be part of a purchase flow (where else would it go?). Certainly a huge slap in the face to all developers and the court's intent.

They also say that using parameters in the URL is a privacy concern, when the real reason is they don't want you to use some kind of one-time-link to log the user in. They want the user to have to log in again, making it as painful (and least likely to convert) as possible.

Re: US developers can offer non-app store purchasing, Apple still collect commission

#36

Post by tommymachine »

This appears to be a huge boon, due to the fact that developers can now send their external marketing directly to their own online landing/checkout pages. Apple appears to be only charging commission for traffic sent there and that checks out within 7 days of clicking the in app link.

In other words, a developer can have a Facebook ad or similar go directly to the checkout page and buy the app there, bypassing the app store commission for traffic the developer is bringing to the app store themselves. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong on this.

This being the case, any recommendations for carts / processing services / etc that would be ideally positioned for this kind of use are MASSIVELY welcome!!!

Re: US developers can offer non-app store purchasing, Apple still collect commission

#37

Post by danpalmer »

Vt71fcAqt7 wrote: post #33
danpalmer wrote: post #23

This is not new. The 27% fee has been around for over a year now I think, may have been announced in 2021 even, for markets outside the US that already mandate this. I've seen these screens already in apps.

It seems like according to Sweeny the 27% rate itself is not new but it only went into effect today.[0] [0] https://twitter.com/TimSweeneyEpic/status/174728054136210228...

I think this is still just a US announcement.

This was announced for dating apps in the Netherlands in Feb 2022, I think Korea also has had similar changes. https://www.computerworld.com/article/3649111/apple-begins-t...

Re: US developers can offer non-app store purchasing, Apple still collect commission

#40

Post by lxgr »

MBCook wrote: post #32
lxgr wrote: post #8

So Apple will be collecting 27% (instead of 30%) for... what exactly? They might just get away with something as crass in a vacuum, but given that the DMA will go into effect very soon, there will be a point of reference in a similar economy, and I don't think it'll be pretty for Apple. US regulators (federal or state; I could see something equivalent to GDPR and CCPA) will be taking a very close look.

The DMA has surprisingly little effect on the US. In the EU has the 30% (or now 27%) been found illegal? I know they’re being forced to allow other app stores or side loading or something. But what about the fee?

I wouldn't be so sure about that.

For obvious reasons, the US government and justice system is probably not interested in being the beta tester for such a regulation – they have relatively little to gain and much to lose. Even "green bubbles" seem to be a much bigger point of contention in US public discourse than sideloading/the 30% tax.

But if the DMA it ends up working well well and consumers like it, and app store customers manage to sell that fact to the US voting population, the wind could change for Apple too.

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