Apple also makes increasingly Byzantine rules to keep control over the app store, and they don’t always make sense. People’s familiarity with apps makes it harder for Apple to justify its restrictions and commissions as though people couldn’t find apps without the company’s help. Apple has been running its app store using the same approach since it started it in 2008.
The complainers could be a vocal minority among the couple million iPhone apps, but it’s an influential one - including Spotify, Match Group, Airbnb, Tile and the maker of the Fortnite video game, Epic Games, whose trial against Apple concluded last month. Other app makers believe Apple unfairly blocks their apps or puts them at a disadvantage to Apple’s competing internet services.
(It recently cut its commission to 15 cents per dollar for all but the top-selling apps, although that change affects a fraction of Apple’s app revenue.) Apple takes a fee of up to 30 cents per dollar of each sale in an iPhone app. Some are angry at what they see as high and capriciously applied commissions that Apple takes when someone subscribes to an online dating service in an app or buys virtual gems in the Clash of Clans game. It boils down to what some app companies and lawmakers say is Apple’s domineering control of iPhone apps. Here’s what you need to know about this dispute, where Apple and the unhappy app makers have a point, and my suggestions for reaching app peace. Some developers are angrier than ever at Apple’s dictatorship over iPhone apps, accusing the tech giant of imposing unfair costs and complexities on them and iPhone users. You can sign up here to receive it weekdays.Īpple’s annual conference for app makers, which starts on Monday, is usually a lovefest. The US firm takes a 30 per cent cut of cash earned by apps through the App Store – Fortnite maker Epic Games was blocked from the store after it tried to dodge this fee.Ī bitter court battle between Epic and Apple rages on.Įpic is asking a Northern California court to make Apple put Fortnite back on the App Store after the California firm blocked the app last month.This article is part of the On Tech newsletter. And Microsoft is currently preparing to launch its xCloud streaming service.Google launched the relatively successful Stadia last year.Sony bought a game-streaming called OnLive, but shut it down in 2015.But game streaming is still trying to get off the ground.
This sort of technology could eventually kill off gaming consoles for good, because all you'd need is a TV with game-streaming tech built in, and a controller to play with.It also means that you could potentially be playing an Xbox or PlayStation game on your console, and then leave the house and carry on playing using your iPhone.