Apple decides to take an interesting strategy with a new press release, stating that third party applications across the company’s devices perform better than its own products.
You know what’s probably not fun? Being under constant public and legal scrutiny over some drama with some random small company that’s not even as important as you, and it’s, like, such a hassle. No, that was not me detailing my thoughts on Apple’s latest press release. That was merely my closest approximation of the inner monologue that I feel the corporation’s PR team has playing in their minds on repeat 24/7. Apple’s been fielding lawsuits and criticism left and right over its questionable practices with regards to hosting third-party applications on the App Store. Many developers and iOS users alike have called the company’s 30% cut of all in-app purchases to be both excessive and near-predatory. Apple’s a massive corporation that houses literally billions of applications on its platform, and yet takes such a substantial amount of money away from fledgling indie developers who need the financial backing to keep themselves afloat. It’s not like they have the option to migrate elsewhere either, what with iOS being such a dominant force in the marketplace.
Combined with these less than savory tactics is the company’s lawsuit against Epic Games (the creators of Fortnite). The latter tried to circumvent the former’s 30% cut by encouraging users to conduct purchases directly from the Epic Games Store. Apple responded by removing Fortnite from the App Store, despite the developers’ actions having been nowhere near illegal. A lawsuit was issued on August, 2020 against Apple, citing anti-competitive behavior on the technological giant’s part. It’s also brought a lot of bad press to the company; however, I genuinely doubt iPhone sales have been significantly affected by the proceedings.
Apple’s recent report is actively trying to counter Epic Games’ portrayal of its anti-competitive behavior by showing just how well third party apps are doing on the App Store. Data also reveals that Apple’s own applications pale in comparison to some third party apps. For example, Spotify is used 1.6x more than Apple Music; Netflix 17x more than Apple TV+; and Kindle 4.5x more than Apple Books.
Here’s the thing, though: it doesn’t matter if third-party apps gain more traction than their Apple counterparts or not. Not every app on the platform enjoys the same success as Netflix or Spotify, which are industry giants respectively. The average developer rakes in a few thousand bucks in a lucky month. Of those, he’s expected to fork over 30%. It’s a business model that’s not very sustainable, and devs can’t just pack up and move somewhere else. With Apple and Android being the only major businesses in town, there’s simply nowhere else to turn to.
Read next: New Controversy For Apple's App Store As It Pilot Tests Allowing Developers To Charge Users For Price Hikes In Subscription
You know what’s probably not fun? Being under constant public and legal scrutiny over some drama with some random small company that’s not even as important as you, and it’s, like, such a hassle. No, that was not me detailing my thoughts on Apple’s latest press release. That was merely my closest approximation of the inner monologue that I feel the corporation’s PR team has playing in their minds on repeat 24/7. Apple’s been fielding lawsuits and criticism left and right over its questionable practices with regards to hosting third-party applications on the App Store. Many developers and iOS users alike have called the company’s 30% cut of all in-app purchases to be both excessive and near-predatory. Apple’s a massive corporation that houses literally billions of applications on its platform, and yet takes such a substantial amount of money away from fledgling indie developers who need the financial backing to keep themselves afloat. It’s not like they have the option to migrate elsewhere either, what with iOS being such a dominant force in the marketplace.
Combined with these less than savory tactics is the company’s lawsuit against Epic Games (the creators of Fortnite). The latter tried to circumvent the former’s 30% cut by encouraging users to conduct purchases directly from the Epic Games Store. Apple responded by removing Fortnite from the App Store, despite the developers’ actions having been nowhere near illegal. A lawsuit was issued on August, 2020 against Apple, citing anti-competitive behavior on the technological giant’s part. It’s also brought a lot of bad press to the company; however, I genuinely doubt iPhone sales have been significantly affected by the proceedings.
Apple’s recent report is actively trying to counter Epic Games’ portrayal of its anti-competitive behavior by showing just how well third party apps are doing on the App Store. Data also reveals that Apple’s own applications pale in comparison to some third party apps. For example, Spotify is used 1.6x more than Apple Music; Netflix 17x more than Apple TV+; and Kindle 4.5x more than Apple Books.
Here’s the thing, though: it doesn’t matter if third-party apps gain more traction than their Apple counterparts or not. Not every app on the platform enjoys the same success as Netflix or Spotify, which are industry giants respectively. The average developer rakes in a few thousand bucks in a lucky month. Of those, he’s expected to fork over 30%. It’s a business model that’s not very sustainable, and devs can’t just pack up and move somewhere else. With Apple and Android being the only major businesses in town, there’s simply nowhere else to turn to.
Read next: New Controversy For Apple's App Store As It Pilot Tests Allowing Developers To Charge Users For Price Hikes In Subscription
