Thank You, Apple! May We Have Another?
The latest App Store press release drips with disingenuousness
It would be great if Apple would just tell it like it is. Not the watered-down PR-speak that exactly zero people are fooled by. We’re all adults here. We get that there’s nuance. That every story has two sides. Sometimes more. Just give it to us straight.
Let’s dive in:
Apple today announced a number of changes coming to the App Store that, pending court approval, will resolve a class-action suit from US developers. The terms of the agreement will help make the App Store an even better business opportunity for developers, while maintaining the safe and trusted marketplace users love. Apple appreciates the developer feedback and ideas that helped inform the agreement, and respects the ongoing judicial review process.
I mean, right off the bat, it’s a little weird. “Apple today announced”? By that they mean, they issued a press release, this press release, on a Thursday night. It’s true that they did announce one change, with regard to news publishers, earlier in the day. But that also looks weird now with this new release. It was sort of an attempt to look like they were magnanimously extending a carrot right before they got hit with a stick and had to throw out an entire bag of carrots. Many of which are rotten.
As for the terms making the App Store an even better business opportunity for developers, I mean, sure, maybe slightly. It seems pretty clear that these changes, which we’ll get to, aren’t going to change much of anything, actually. But Apple is of course saying they will, hoping that will be good enough to settle the matter, quite literally.
But the last sentence there really takes the cake. “Apple appreciates” — that is a very nice sentiment from a… two and a half trillion dollar corporation. They appreciate the feedback and ideas which had simply never crossed their minds before. The super-ultra-mega-corp also respects the law. Does it also give out hugs?
The agreement clarifies that developers can share purchase options with users outside of their iOS app; expands the price points developers can offer for subscriptions, in-app purchases, and paid apps; and establishes a new fund to assist qualifying US developers. The updates constitute the latest chapter of Apple’s longstanding efforts to evolve the App Store into an even better marketplace for users and developers alike.
“Clarifies” — did anyone need that clarified? I don’t think so. The clarification is that Apple can’t stop a developer from talking about — outside of their app — that other purchase options exist. I mean, Jesus Christ, I hope not! I hope Apple isn’t allowed to do some sort of mass surveillance — too soon? — to ensure the other payment options are never uttered in say, a park.
The key element not clarified here — because it’s not changing — is that you still can’t talk about the other purchase options inside the app. Even if you’d need to make the purchase elsewhere, like on the web. That remains utter bullshit. Full stop.
But the only real change that would matter here would be allowing apps to use any purchase capability they wish (sure, providing it’s not fraudulent, etc) and forcing Apple to compete for the payments by having the best offering. Just to clarify, this does not change any of that.
Expanding price points is whatever. It’s a Kleenex on an open gunshot wound. But the last part is the icing on the gunshot wound. “The latest chapter”? It’s like the second chapter, if that? And any other “chapters” were also the result of direct pressure being applied by the developer community. “Longstanding” — the only thing “longstanding” are the many App Store ridiculous policies which are outdated by a decade. Who is Apple kidding with this nonsense?
“From the beginning, the App Store has been an economic miracle; it is the safest and most trusted place for users to get apps, and an incredible business opportunity for developers to innovate, thrive, and grow,” said Phil Schiller, Apple Fellow who oversees the App Store. “We would like to thank the developers who worked with us to reach these agreements in support of the goals of the App Store and to the benefit of all of our users.”
“An economic miracle”! Jesus Fucking Christ. It’s an awesome business. For developers, yes. But especially for Apple. Read the room, Apple Fellow. Tone down the “miracle” nonsense. This is capitalism, not Catholicism.
“We would like to thank” the Academy for this performance.
“Following a productive dialogue” we get the seven deadly wins:
In a validation of the App Store Small Business Program’s success, Apple and the developers agreed to maintain the program in its current structure for at least the next three years. Businesses earning less than $1 million annually will continue to benefit from the reduced commission, while larger developers pay the App Store’s standard commission on app purchases and in-app payments.
Yes, this was one of the first “chapters” of changes Apple was forced to make to the App Store rules under pressure. Now it stays for… three years? What a strange mandate. Why not thirty years? Why not three months? Who the hell knows what the world will be like in three years? Maybe this ends up being a bad thing?
App Store Search has always been about making it easy for users to find the apps they’re looking for. At the request of developers, Apple has agreed that its Search results will continue to be based on objective characteristics like downloads, star ratings, text relevance, and user behavior signals. The agreement will keep the current App Store Search system in place for at least the next three years.
I mean, what? Most developers tend to think App Store Search sucks, no? It’s gamed by ads from the competition just like every other search engine is. And now that stays in place for three years. Yay?
Also, now I just want to know how on Earth Apple was thinking about changing App Store Search — let’s call it A.S.S. for short — that they felt the need to commit not to change it for three years. Was it going to be based on non-objective characteristics? Curated search? Apple is framing this as a huge concession to developers, is that true? On either side?
To give developers even more flexibility to reach their customers, Apple is also clarifying that developers can use communications, such as email, to share information about payment methods outside of their iOS app. As always, developers will not pay Apple a commission on any purchases taking place outside of their app or the App Store. Users must consent to the communication and have the right to opt out.
Again, this is the main bullshit. “Such as email” — oh, thank you so much Apple for that privilege. Apple is committing not to shoot down any carrier pigeons bringing word of outside-of-apps payment mechanisms. Unless the users don’t opt-in to carrier pigeons. Then Apple can shoot away. What about smoke signals? Legal or nah?
Apple will also expand the number of price points available to developers for subscriptions, in-app purchases, and paid apps from fewer than 100 to more than 500. Developers will continue to set their own prices.
I mean, great. What a grand, epic gesture of tweaking like five lines of code.
Apple will maintain the option for developers to appeal the rejection of an app based on perceived unfair treatment, a process that continues to prove successful. Apple has agreed to add content to the App Review website to help developers understand how the appeals process works.
Thank you, Sir! May I have another?
Over the last several years, Apple has provided a great deal of new information about the App Store on apple.com. Apple agreed to create an annual transparency report based on that data, which will share meaningful statistics about the app review process, including the number of apps rejected for different reasons, the number of customer and developer accounts deactivated, objective data regarding search queries and results, and the number of apps removed from the App Store.
This is 2021. The golden age of transparency reports. We have transparency reports about transparency reports. They weren’t already doing this?!
Apple will also establish a fund to assist small US developers, particularly as the world continues to suffer from the effects of COVID-19. Eligible developers must have earned $1 million or less through the US storefront for all of their apps in every calendar year in which the developers had an account between June 4, 2015, and April 26, 2021 — encompassing 99 percent of developers in the US. Details will be available at a later date.
I mean, the last sentence says it all. This is priority number seven of seven for Apple. Perhaps not a forced gesture of goodwill, but not exactly an unforced one either. Also, I hope no developer made $1.01M in say, 2018.
Nice attempt at some sort of heartstring vote with the COVID-19 call out?
Oh and then, did they mention the News Partner Program? Oh, that’s right, we got an entirely different press release about it earlier in the day when normal press releases go out. And guess what? A wave of good press as a result. It’s almost like this was coordinated. But it’s also just weird to have this program mentioned in two separate press releases in the same day.
And, I mean, is it a good deal for publishers? Maybe. But it’s also maybe a bad one if it transfers the customer relationship from them to Apple. It’s perhaps selling your rolodex (and future) for 15%.
I suspect we’ll see similar “carrots” for other App Store verticals in the future so that Apple can look good in lowering the 30% cut while also getting something in return. Because why do the right thing for free when you can get paid to do the right thing? I’m fine with this, and it extends a practice Apple had been quietly doing behind-the-scenes to get video streamers on Apple TV, for example. But come on, how many times do we get the word “support” in this release? The funny thing is that this is more about supporting Apple News than supporting the actual news, of course.
Anyway, here’s what I wish Apple would have said in this release:
Look, we’re obviously under a lot of pressure and scrutiny to change some of the App Store policies. We get it, we’re a $2.5T company. And it’s 2021, not 2011. A lot has changed, and Apple has changed. But we haven’t been as quick to change some of these policies as we probably should have been, so we’re doing it now under some pressure. That doesn’t mean it’s not the right thing to do. And it will probably benefit everyone, including us, in the long run because it will keep developers happy alongside our users.
So today, effective immediately, we’re lowering our in-app purchase cut to 15% across the board. We can probably get away with a higher cut in certain verticals, like games, but we want to keep it simple and fair. For developers who make less than $1M a year, we’re lowering it to 10%.
We’re also going to allow approved third-party payment providers to be used for in-app payments. We’re going to vet these to make sure there’s no funny business. But as long as it’s an upstanding payment provider, that will be fine. We are going to ask that developers still give the option to use our payment stack, but we’re aiming to compete for the business. We believe our stack is the best, most seamless way to pay on our devices, and we think developers and customers will agree.
If you’d rather use a non-approved third-party payment provider, you can do that on your own website. And you can leave a message in your app to point users there, but if this is flagged as nefarious in some way, we may ask you to remove such language.
We appreciate that some of these changes are long overdue. We don’t always get it right, and here, we may have lost sight of the goal a bit. But we hope these changes showcase our commitment to our ecosystem and our openness to changing with the times.
To address the elephant who is sadly no longer with us in the room, I obviously don’t think Steve Jobs would acquiesce to all these demands. But I do think he would have been much more straightforward in talking through the pluses and minuses of such changes. Or, at the very least, he would have been more blunt. And that would have been infinitely better than this disingenuous press release that ultimately amounts to very little.
Published on August 26, 2021 📆Written from San Francisco, California 🇺🇸Written on a 2020 13-inch M1 MacBook Air 💻
