11mo ago

Apple's New Fees Will Kill Free Apps

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Such a clickbait-y headline I am not going to watch it.
Free apps aren’t changing in anyway.
The tl;dr is that for developers using the app store, nothing changes. Developers wishing to not use the app store have to agree to a new fee structure.
Apple, as expected, intends to make up for lost profits by charging more money.
If you are outside the EU none of this matters to you.
Note that I am not disagreeing with the sentiment , but rather I am disagreeing with the clickbait headline.
- Well, it basically prevents something like F-Droid for iOS arising from the EU ruling. Kinda big deal. Not that the fanboys would care though. Apple is infallible.
- But the whole regulation was not about installing an app outside of the App Store icon, but outside Apple. To free the market of apps, such that the manufacturer is not the only one deciding what app you can install.
  It's like BMW would say you can equip tires different than from BMW store, but those other stores still must give them a fee.
  
  Kudos. That is such a great analogy.
- „Apples new fee might kill free apps in the EU that get downloaded more then one million times a year and want to be distributed via alternative app stores“ just doesn’t have the same ring to it I guess.
  Realistically this will only really hit stuff like Netflix Games when they want to try to make their own store or something similar.
- Right it's fine that apple is doing this, because... This video title doesn't end with "if people opt into this obviously shit set of terms". Makes sense.
  
  Nobody said this is a great policy. I was just pointing out the garbage level reporting of it by folks like the author.
  
  It's not garbage reporting. The title of the video is not even that misleading, because it is exactly what would happen if people opt into that. It's way less misleading than apple representing the terms here as a "choice"
  
  It is miss-leading. You don't pay any money unless more than 2% of the EU population uses your app (there's about 50 million people in the EU who own an iPhone, and you need a million of those people to run your app to pay this fee).
  If you have that many users, and zero income, then all you need to do is register as a non profit - then Apple will exempt your app entirely from the fees.
  Every mass market truly free app that I can think of is already run by a non profit - so most don't have to do anything at all.
  
  You obviously didn't watch the video
  
  No, it is completely misleading because:
  this change will not impact a single developer outside the EU.
  Any developer not using a third party app store will also not be affected.
  You can still build free apps and literally nothing changes assuming you use Apple’s app store.
  Like I said, it is a shit policy, but for nearly all developers nothing changes.
  The video’s thumbnail said Apple is killing free apps. That is a complete lie. There is not an ounce of truth to it.
  
  If this is a complete lie, then their new policy "option" is 100 "complete lies". I support any effort to get out the word that apple is anti competitive as fuck, a video title being 30% inaccurate does not change that for me at all.
  
  To further add you would have to have more then one million downloads per year and also not fall under "Nonprofit organizations, accredited educational institutions, and government entities".

39 comments