This week, Apple announced a $100 million settlement with the small application developer suing it, causing an uproar.
According to the terms of the agreement,Apple will allow developers to use e-mail and other communication methods to tell users how to pay outside IOS applications, and will expand the price points that developers can provide for applications, in app purchases and subscriptions.
As part of the settlement,
- Apple will maintain the existing structure of the app store small business program over the next three years. Enterprises with an annual income of less than $1 million will continue to pay a 15% commission, while developers with an income exceeding this goal will pay a standard 30% commission.
- the search results of the app store will continue to be based on objective features such as downloads, star rating, text relevance and user behavior signals. Apple will maintain its current app store search system for at least three years.
- Apple will allow developers to share information about payment methods other than their IOS applications using communication methods such as e-mail. Developers will not have to pay apple a commission on purchases made outside the app or app store. This communication must be approved by the user and you can choose to exit.
- Apple will expand the number of price points that developers can use for subscription, in app purchase and paid apps from less than 100 to more than 500. Developers have complained that the minimum price of the app store is $0.99 and can't provide a price point that doesn't end at $0.99, so this may change.
- Apple will retain the option for developers to appeal against the rejection of applications based on perceived unfair treatment. Apple will add content to the app review website to help developers better understand the appeal process.
- Apple will create an annual transparency report based on the data of the app store, providing meaningful statistics on the app review process, including the number of apps rejected for different reasons, the number of customer and developer accounts deactivated, objective data on search queries and results, and the number of apps deleted from the app store.
Despite the announcement of these changes,
In the long run, none of this will have much impact on the actual operation of the app store, nor on the developers who make the most profits from the app store.
This agreement makes concessions to small companies on the app store, but only a few large companies earn most of their profits through the app store itself.
In 2021, the economy of Apple App store is a rule formulated by a company with a market value of trillions of dollars to obtain revenue from in app transactions of developers who account for 2% of 95% of Apple platform commerce. All these rules, regulations, reconciliation and clarification are to appease the vast majority of developers, who are actually onlookers involved in this large-scale exchange of fire.
So what would Apple care more if it had to give up $100 million here (from its latest class action lawsuit) or $59 million here (estimated Apple's annual cost in its small application business plan)?
In fact, as long as apple can defend the 30% purchase cut from larger developers and apps flowing through its store, it can make any concessions it needs in terms of search ranking or new price points of apps to solve class action litigation.
In fact, Apple's biggest change is to discuss alternative payment options. Apple will allow developers to use e-mail and other communication methods to tell customers about payment methods outside IOS applications, and will expand the price points that developers can provide for applications, in app purchases and subscriptions.
However, if you want to really sell something in your application, you still have to use Apple's payment method (and pay a commission belonging to Apple), which is still the main issue debated by many developers.
The fact is simple. At present, the app store is a huge business of apple. The business of the app store is in app purchase and subscription. Take the best-selling apps in the apple store as an example. There are no paid apps in app Annie's top 50 best-selling apps list; Only one of sensortower's 200 games is minecraft's game that highlights the built-in payment function.
The platform's biggest source of money is all free games, streaming media services and subscription based applications, which rely on users to buy and subscribe through Apple's payment processor.
In this case, it is impossible for apple to let developers remind users to use other payment methods in their own applications.
It is estimated that the sales of app store will be about $64 billion in 2020. If the company's 30% commission is included, Apple's revenue is about $19 billion. Although the actual figure may be slightly smaller, considering that Apple offers a 15% discount on its app store small business project and subscription service after one year.
But in the end,Apple will never give in, because the app store is too important for the company.
The way the app store operates in 2021 means that Apple will not make much changes to the app store unless the court decides otherwise. Because Apple doesn't want anything to change.
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Original link:Lei Feng net
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