In the last week, Apple announced some changes to the way it manages its App Store, which should give the possibility to those who develop the applications to be less tied to the company's payment system and its fees. The concessions offered, albeit modest, come after years of criticism for how it manages its distribution and sales service of applications for iPhones and iPads, both from developers and from antitrust authorities who in numerous countries have launched investigations for potential violations which could prove very expensive for the company.
The App Store was opened in 2008 and the intentions of the then CEO of Apple, Steve Jobs, should have guaranteed the dissemination of applications verified and certified by his company, in order to make iPhones (and later the iPad). The developers would have had all the tools available to make their apps, while Apple would have taken care of their distribution and to collect any payments, in exchange for a 30 percent commission on each purchase made by users within the 'App Store (either for purchasing an application or for purchasing additional services offered within the application, such as a subscription).
At a time when a real app market existed in very embryonic forms, the conditions set by Apple appeared reasonable. However, since 2008 things have changed: there are hundreds of millions of iPhones in circulation now, the App Store has a turnover of tens of billions of dollars a year and for this reason most of the application producers believe that 30 percent is excessive. The authorities that deal with free competition in the United States, the European Union and other parts of the world have also begun to think so, with investigations aimed at verifying whether Apple operates in a regime of substantial monopoly and if it is trying to make the most of it. advantage to the detriment of competitors.
In addition to antitrust checks, Apple has had to face other legal actions in recent months for how it manages the App Store. Last week, just one of these causes prompted the company to remove the rule that prohibited developers from informing users via email about the possibility of paying for certain services, available in their applications, outside the App Store and therefore without. the payment of the commission requested by Apple. However, this information cannot be provided directly within the application and there are aspects to be clarified on the communication methods that developers can use.
Before the judicial agreement on this rule, however, some application manufacturers were already using the communication system via email to warn about the possibility of alternative payments, with the possibility of saving for lower commissions. Spotify, the streaming music service, effectively blocked the possibility of subscribing through its app, simultaneously sending an email suggesting to subscribe via the site, without explicitly referring to this solution as a way to evade commissions. . The system was tolerated by Apple, which still has an open legal dispute over the App Store's policies with Spotify.
On Wednesday, September 1, Apple announced a further change to its rules regarding “reader apps”, ie applications that offer content that can be used via digital subscription such as those for reading magazines, newspapers and books, for listening to music like Spotify or for watching TV series and movies like Netflix. From next year, the developers of these applications will be able to insert links and references in their apps to the possibility of creating and managing their own accounts outside the App Store.
The two changes are a first concession, but as several experts have observed, they are small, considering that Apple has so far not shown any intention of wanting to change the rules for the most profitable type of applications on the App Store: video games. Data on their yield is not usually made public, but some details have recently emerged in the course of the company's ongoing trial against Epic Games, the producer of the famous video game Fortnite, which has challenged the commission system.
The information that emerged refers to 2016, but nevertheless gives an idea. 81 percent of the revenue generated through the App Store that year came from the gaming sector, 3 percent from music and 4 percent from other entertainment apps. Tim Cook himself, the current CEO of Apple, had also admitted that most of the revenues deriving from the App Store are made possible by video games. Revenues from “reader apps” are instead very low, and this could partly explain the new concessions.
However, analysts and observers believe that these openings are late, given the amount of investigations and lawsuits against Apple for the policies of the App Store. One of the biggest risks for the company is precisely constituted by the dispute with Epic Games, which was held in California in the spring and which should lead to a sentence in the coming weeks. The game maker essentially asks that Apple allow developers to completely avoid App Store fees.
It is unlikely that the ruling will sanction a possibility of this type, but the story could lead Apple to review the percentage requested from developers, reducing it significantly. Other solutions, such as providing the ability to download applications from alternative services, seem more unlikely, although requests from antitrust authorities could still force Apple to further review its plans.
The loss of fees would of course have negative consequences for the company's revenues, but the majority of revenues for Apple at the moment still come from the sale of the iPhones.
