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Apple faces 'strong action' if App Store changes fall short, EU's Breton says (www.reuters.com)
submitted 2 years ago by to c/europe@feddit.de
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cross-posted from: https://sopuli.xyz/post/8419734

Apple faces 'strong action' if App Store changes fall short, EU's Breton says

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[–] 30 points 2 years ago (2 children)

The announced changes sound like retaliation. Considering Apple is acting like a sovereign state by collecting taxes from what it perceives as its subjects it looks suspiciously like an act of war.

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  • [+] -10 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Full access to NFC, bring your own browser engine, zero fees on third party stores, the changes are genuinely positive. What makes you say they feel like β€œretaliation”?

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  • [–] 10 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    See the core tech fee for developers that want the new terms. It's not zero fees on third party stores, it's 50 cents /month per install over 1 million users.

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  • [+] -6 points 2 years ago* (1 child)

    You are saying this as if 1M users is something that just happens overnight. This is a huge number, and there are very few non-profit generating apps which have that kind of reach.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Also it is 1M users annually, i.e. just in the past 12 months. A significant detail.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    It does not matter how significant or insignificant the detail is. Imagine developers had to pay Microsoft every time their app was installed on Windows.

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  • [–] 0 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Replace "Windows" with "Windows Phone".

    Again, it is not every time at all. Its after 1 MILLION first-time installs (per user, not devcie) in the last 12 months. This is an incredibly large number of installs!

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago

    Replace "Windows" with "Windows Phone".

    Why would I? "Others do it bad too so Apple is justified in being cunts"?

    And even if you must insist on this ridiculous argument

    Sideload apps in Windows 10 Mobile – Method 1

    https://www.windowslatest.com/2017/08/28/sideload-apps-in-windows-10-mobile/

    And I don't care at how many million they put the limit, any limit is too much and a gross overreach of what they should be allowed to do.

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  • [+] -19 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    Not sure what you mean, the announced changes are pretty much the best thing ever to happen to the Apple eco-system. The only bad part about them is they're restricted to EU.

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  • [–] 19 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (2 children)

    Have you seen the €0.50 "core tech fee" per app installation/year Apple wants to charge even if the app is installed from a 3rd party store? An app with 2 million users will be expected to pay 41000€ a month, and one with 10 million around 375000€ every single month, and this without counting the transaction fee.

    Of course, if you comply with Apple's feudal claims then you can stay stuck in the App Store and pay a 30% sales tax (that unlike sales taxes from non-mafia institutions you aren't allowed to pass to the customers, because obviously non-apple users also have to subsidize Apple users) like a good peasant, they "generously" wave the new fee.

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  • [+] -6 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 child)

    There is no 30% fee anymore. All the hate so far I find entirely unjustified, the changes are all really positive.

    You can argue it can be better, but saying it’s β€œretaliation” is a bit extreme.

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  • [–] 5 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    If you don't "volunteer" to pay the 30% fee you need to pay the 50 cents per I install core tech fee every month, so you have to pay a tax to Apple even if you don't have your app in the app store. And you still need to pay a 10% fee on payments if the user installed the app from the App Store. A fee, that unlike sales taxes, you can't pass to the users, so people buying on websites directly still need to subsidize Apple's (and to be fair Google's) neo-feudal fiefs.

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  • [–] 0 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    The EXISTING fees have changed, there is no 30% fee. It's 17% now.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    If you don't trust me, use the Apple fee fee calculator with different terms: https://developer.apple.com/support/fee-calculator-for-apps-in-the-eu/

    For 10 million in sales, you need to pay 250k with the old terms and 166k with the new ones if you use apple pay and 141k if you use an alternative in app method.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago (1 child)

    Read it again:

    The new business terms for iOS apps in the EU have three elements: Reduced commission β€” iOS apps on the App Store will pay a reduced commission of either 10 percent (for the vast majority of developers, and subscriptions following their first year) or 17 percent on transactions for digital goods and services.

    Qouted verbatm from here: https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2024/01/apple-announces-changes-to-ios-safari-and-the-app-store-in-the-european-union/

    There is NO 30% fee anymore, it is going to be 10% for most, 17% for some

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago

    Also there is a fee waiver for certain devs, like NPOs and educational orgs. Overall there is a TON of great stuff coming to EU and absolutely no negatives.

    Zero negatives, NOTHING is getting worse, and a lot is getting much much better.

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  • [–] 12 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    Being restricted to only the iPhone, not e.g. the iPad those liberations are all pretty useless if you are invested in the ecosystem.

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  • [–] 0 points 2 years ago* (1 child)

    This is the first I hear about the changes being iPhone-only, where did you read they are not coming to iPad?

    edit: ah looks like some 4y ago Apple switched to a separate iPadOS. Used to be that iOS was both for phones and tablets.

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  • [–] 4 points 2 years ago* (1 child)

    Here they say the most interesting stuff is basically all iPhone-only https://www.macrumors.com/2024/01/26/apple-eu-app-ecosystem-tidbits/

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  • [–] -1 points 2 years ago

    Not being on iPad is not useless. It will just hurt the iPad platform, not the other way around. Nobody really cares that much about it except some niche creative products anyway.

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    • [–] 14 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    As they should. Apple users worldwide are clearly unhappy with the way Apple is handling this. They’re a bit of a laughing stock right now.

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  • [–] 5 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Not a single Apple user has complained about this in my circles. Many non-EU are envious though.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago

    IRL, I agree. No one with an iPhone has even brought this up. I only hear about it from users online

    I live in the EU with an iPhone. While I do think Apple should just cut the crap and allow side-loading, the only thing I had personally wanted it for on iPhone was access to emulation and better alternative gaming markets. However, I bought a steam deck last month and lost the need for any of that.

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    • [–] 14 points 2 years ago

    Let's hope they get fined into oblivion for this obviously malicious compliance

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