Adam Kos Yesterday we informed you about how the EU might not be all bad when it plans all the regulations and rules that Apple will have to follow. He now only shows his stubbornness and proves that he is like a little boy in the sandbox who does not want to lend his toy to anyone.
The EU wants Apple to open up the possibility of downloading content to its devices from other distributions than just the App Store. Why? So that the user has a choice and so that the developer does not have to pay such a high fee to Apple for helping him sell his content. Apple probably can't do anything with the first one, but with the second one, it looks like they can. And the developers will cry and curse again.
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As he states The Wall Street Journal, so Apple reportedly plans to comply with EU law, but in a way that maintains tight control over apps downloaded outside of the App Store. The company has yet to reveal its final plans to comply with the DMA, but the WSJ provided new details, "citing people familiar with the company's plans." Specifically, Apple will apparently retain the ability to control every app offered outside of the app store, and will also collect fees from developers who offer them.
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The exact details of the fee structure are not yet known, but Apple already charges a 27% commission for in-app purchases made through alternative payment systems in the Netherlands. It was there that he already had to take certain steps after being forced to do so by the Dutch regulatory authority. That's only a three percent lower share than his classic App Store fee, but unlike Apple's commission, it doesn't include tax, so the net sum for most developers is actually higher. Yes, it's upside down, but Apple is all about money.
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Various companies are said to be already lining up to take advantage of these upcoming changes, which should be available from March 7. Spotify, which has a long-standing relationship with Apple, is considering offering its app only through its website in order to bypass the App Store's requirements. Microsoft is said to have considered launching its own third-party app store, and Meta plans to launch a system for downloading apps directly from its ads in apps like Facebook, Instagram or Messenger.
Therefore, large companies can theoretically make money from it in some way, but it will probably be disadvantageous for small ones. From a technical point of view, Apple can still do almost anything it wants, and if it lives up to the wording of the law, no matter how it gets around it, the EU probably won't do anything about it - yet. It is very likely that after the mentioned March deadline, he will present a revision of the law, which will modify its wording even more according to how Apple will try to circumvent it in the first instance. But again, it will take some time before Apple has to adapt, and for now the money will happily flow on.
No one is worth downloading from other sources anyway. And I'm not even talking about the crap the EU comes up with. In fact, apple should laugh and do nothing, even leave the EU market, people would quickly eat them up. And it would only benefit Apple in the end.