Apple Can't Delay App Store December Deadline As Epic Legal Battle Continues (bloomberg.com) 24
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg: Apple failed to persuade a federal judge to push back a December deadline to change the lucrative business model for its App Store while the iPhone maker's legal fight with Epic Games is appealed. Unless the iPhone maker wins a reprieve from an appeals court, it will soon have to start allowing developers to steer customers to payment methods outside the App Store, an overhaul the judge ordered in September that could cost the tech giant a few billion dollars annually. Apple asked U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzales Rogers to put on hold a part of the injunction that said the company must undo its rule forbidding developers from using web links or other means within apps to inform consumers about payment methods outside the App Store. "Apple's motion is based on a selective reading of this court's findings and ignores all of the findings which supported the injunction," Rogers said in an order Tuesday. "The motion is fundamentally flawed."
"Apple believes no additional business changes should be required to take effect until all appeals in this case are resolved," the company said in a statement. While Apple largely won its showdown with Epic, the world's most valuable technology company isn't out of danger from challenges to its role as a gatekeeper to the digital economy. The iPhone maker continues to face a plethora of antitrust lawsuits in and outside the U.S seeking to open up the App Store to competition, monopolization enforcement investigations brought by federal and state agencies, and legislative bids to restrict its business practices. Bloomberg Intelligence has said that pressure on Apple to lower its App Store commissions on developers, which currently run as high as 30%, could squeeze revenue by $2 billion to $4 billion in a worst-case scenario.
"Apple believes no additional business changes should be required to take effect until all appeals in this case are resolved," the company said in a statement. While Apple largely won its showdown with Epic, the world's most valuable technology company isn't out of danger from challenges to its role as a gatekeeper to the digital economy. The iPhone maker continues to face a plethora of antitrust lawsuits in and outside the U.S seeking to open up the App Store to competition, monopolization enforcement investigations brought by federal and state agencies, and legislative bids to restrict its business practices. Bloomberg Intelligence has said that pressure on Apple to lower its App Store commissions on developers, which currently run as high as 30%, could squeeze revenue by $2 billion to $4 billion in a worst-case scenario.
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Yes, I have seen, and no they have not been trampled.
There are several gardens in the neighborhood, some pretty elaborate and none of them have been trampled.
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Have you ever seen a garden with a locked gate? That's how Android works. Don't want it open, don't unlock it.
With that said, I've seen lots of uncontained, untrampled gardens. They were either in locations without natural traffic flow through them, or they were designed with paths through them to facilitate throughput.
If the typical Apple user is as short on imagination as you are I can see why they might choose a platform they're not at all in control of.
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You mean those locks that you can just reach over the fence and open? Yeah, that is how Android works.
Provide a citation that shows that sideloading has been enabled by an app, and not by the user.
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Apparently you have to log in to post these days, so they did create an account, but their post is a troll so they checked the post anonymously box so as to dodge the inevitable moderation hit.
Anonymous posting should be disabled completely, this whole psuedo-anonymous posting thing is worse than worthless. The real trolls can still create an account and the fake anonymous posting gives a false sense of security to those who actually need to be anonymous.
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Yes, as someone who cares about facts, I hate trolling.
Oh no (Score:3, Insightful)
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Offer developers a choice like brick stores do (Score:3)
Charge a per app sales fee that has a high cost or let them run all sales through the App Store.
This is a pretty standard bussiness style. You can either sell your merch to a store for them to sell or you can profit share with the store like a consignment shop.
For example if google sold Nest products for free or 1$ but then had a $200 activation fee Would Walmart carry the. Product ? Um no. This is why for example carrier locked cell phones are not sold for free ( or if they are then store is getting a p
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Re: Offer developers a choice like brick stores do (Score:2)
App developers are free to sell their apps in other stores too. But like movie theaters you cant bring your own popcorn into the Apple theater. You need to go to the drive in instead
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Oh no. One of the richest companies on the fucking planet will have to make slightly less money from doing pretty much nothing. However will we survive? More to the point, how will apple survive without their cut?
Somebody's gotta pay for that opulent (and mostly empty) spaceship campus.
apple can remove most censorship in the store for0 (Score:2)
apple can remove most censorship in the store for 0 cost and they may be better off lower there cut / giving people better currency conversion rates.
Maximize Shareholder Value (Score:1)
Re: Maximize Shareholder Value (Score:3)
Nope. They are required to follow their corporate charter. There is literally no legal requirement, express or implied, requiring corporations to maximize profit.
If the charter says their goal is to maximize ROI then they have to do that, but it does not have to say that.
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From Google: "To Oversee Management and Evaluate Strategy. The fundamental responsibility of the directors is to exercise their business judgment to act in what they reasonably believe to be the best interests of Alphabet and its stockholders. It is the duty of the Board to oversee management’s performance
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We know that for Apple that's not necessarily true; Tim Cook has previously said that ROI isn't important when it comes to accessibility. Apple also continues to make strides in recycling and green energy, even though that costs more.
So we can see that at least, Apple's governance allows them to forgo short term gains. Tim Cook is no dummy; I'm sure that his comments on ROI and Apple's stance on the climate/pollution in general are to engender a good feeling in customers that are considering them, and thus
apple poor currency conversion rates may bad EU (Score:2)
apple poor currency conversion rates may bad for them in the EU 30% cut + fees. For 30% apple can make the currency conversion not be an added fee on top of that.