A new big tech bill aimed at allowing an alternative to Apple’s App Store is unlikely to become law, Mark Gurman writes for his Bloomberg News newsletter.
Mark Gurman for Bloomberg News:
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Influential lawmakers including Senators Amy Klobuchar, Richard Blumenthal and Chuck Grassley are pushing bills in Congress that, if enacted into law, could cost Apple billions of dollars per year and upend the App Store. But despite the threat that these bills pose, it seems unlikely they will become law anytime soon. pp
In other words, Apple, yet again, may come off mostly clean in the U.S. and not be forced to make any major App Store changes — at least in the near term…
For Congress to get these bills passed into law, several levels need to be cleared, and it’s unlikely that will actually happen. Let me break it down…
MacDailyNews Take: Again, even if these or other similar laws are passed in other countries, if developers like Spotify, Epic Games, and other wannabe App Store freeloaders want to advertise lower prices using Apple’s App Store, Apple should simply change In-App Purchase to “In-App Advertise” and charge a fee accordingly. We suggest it be 15% for developers making under $1 million per year and 30% for those making $1 million or more annually. 🙂
As far as third-party app stores go, if that somehow ever becomes mandated somewhere, perhaps Apple might consider a prompt during iOS startup/install that presents the choice to users, clearly explaining that choosing to enable a third-party app store protects Apple from certain warranty claims, absolves Apple of having to provide service, and even blocks certain or all Apple Services (iCloud storage, Apple Pay, etc.) and/or apps due to privacy and security concerns.
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That suggests that politicians are all bluster to get votes, and little real action happens. Say it isn’t so LOL Regardless, it is hard to see how Apple could be targeted on commission in a non monopoly space, without targeting the game console and general retail market, that create stores, select what to sell, when to sell, how much to charge and how customers pay.
For most people it was never about being able to freely advertise inside of apps purchased from the App Store but rather being able to distribute outside of the App Store… that’s where the always-snarky MDN takes make no sense to me… why would you charge 15-30% for apps sold outside of your store? How could you even?
In any case, my opinion is that Apple is too restrictive about what is allowed on the App Store, and that policy should change, but IAP freeloading is not one of them that should.
Add sideloading, get this over with already.
yes independent sellers and potential freeloaders must compensate apple to use its infra.