Apple is in a global fight to protect its App Store business model, and the latest development lands us in Russia. Apple is taking legal action after objecting to a ruling by the country’s Federal Antimonopoly Service that would allow developers to promote alternative payment methods to Apple’s in-app purchases.
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A class action lawsuit alleging that Apple has an App Store monopoly has been rejected by a federal court judge, in a 34-page ruling.
Part of the ruling essentially said that the plaintiffs did a poor job in stating their case, but another element potentially puts Apple in a strong position when it comes to defending other antitrust cases against the App Store …
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Apple has announced its 2021 App Store Award recipients today, and this year’s list of winners all stand out for enhancing connection and interaction throughout the year. Included in the list of 15 apps and games are LumaFusion, Carrot Weather, Among Us!, and Bumble.
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An agreement has finally been reached on the scope of planned European antitrust legislation. It was previously unclear whether or not Apple would be included in the companies targeted, but it has now been confirmed that the definition will be broad enough to include the iPhone maker.
There had been significant disagreements about the appropriate targets for the EU’s planned Digital Markets Act (DMA). Some wanted it to be laser-focused on social networks like Facebook and Twitter, while others wanted it to target the very largest tech companies …
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Epic’s battle with Apple, in which both sides claimed victory, is at least partly motivated by the developer’s metaverse ambitions, suggests a new report today. The term was used by Facebook, which even renamed the company to reflect its goals in this area.
Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney said there’s a race to be the first metaverse company to get a billion users …
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“Apple must be stopped,” said Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney, at an app conference in South Korea. He also said that Google was “crazy” in the way it handled app purchases …
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Update: Apple has addressed this and said it is standard practice, and that it regularly communicates with developers about it.
Major developers have accused Apple of secretly buying ads for their apps. While that might sound like an odd complaint, they say that the company’s motive is greed, and the effect is to cost them money.
Apple is said to be costing them millions of dollars …
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Apple has been facing a huge battle with developers recently, as the company is accused of forcing strict rules on the App Store — the only way to deliver apps to iPhone and iPad users. While the company argues that app sideloading is a bad thing because it helps cybercriminals, macOS has always been based on having third-party apps installed from anywhere. So what is the problem?
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In the latest move to get around Apple’s 30% App Store commission, Facebook is launching custom web links for creators to take payments with “Facebook Pay.” As it stands today, it seems the maneuver is allowed via an App Store rules gray area and Facebook is even giving bonuses to creators who use the new option for the holiday quarter.
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A major backlash to this week’s Notability subscription announcement has forced the developer of the popular note-taking app to make a U-turn in the way it treats existing purchasers. Some existing owners pointed out that the developer was breaking App Store rules.
The company announced a switch to a subscription model, which is rarely a change that goes down well – but the bigger controversy here was regarding those who had previously purchased the app …
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After hearing rumblings about Netlifx working on its gaming service this past summer, the media giant is officially jumping into the space with its first five mobile games. Netflix launched its gaming service exclusively for Android but the company says iOS compatibility is “on the way.”
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Indie developer Aaron Pearce recently launched an all-new HomeKit management app called HomeLog. Pearce has developed a suite of apps that improves Apple’s HomeKit platform over the years. The newest tool is designed to make troubleshooting HomeKit issues less frustrating. 9to5Mac recently caught up with Aaron to find out more about HomeLog and solving problems with HomeKit.
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About a month ago, Apple began letting users review some built-in apps via App Store review. Now, just after the release of iOS 15.1, the company is opening up Messages, Phone, Photos, and Safari to user’s scrutiny.
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The latest Apple antitrust case could see the company face an unspecified fine in Russia. This follows the company failing to meet a September deadline for allowing app developers to tell customers about alternative payment options.
While the potential size of the fine is not specified, the wording implies that it could be significant …
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Apple is announcing a trio of updates to the App Store Guidelines today that focuses on giving developers more flexibility for communicating with their customers. One of the changes specifically comes to address Apple’s settlement in a class-action lawsuit from small developers in the US, first announced back in August.
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One of the iOS 15 and iPadOS 15 features announced at WWDC 2021 was support for discovering in-app events directly through the App Store. Apple has announced today that in-app events will officially go live in the App Store on October 27, and developers can schedule them now via App Store Connect.
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Apple notified developers last month about a change in India’s local payments system that would impact apps with recurring transactions. As the company is asking developers to promote payments using the Apple ID balance, Apple is now giving a 20% bonus to Indian users who add funds to their Apple ID.
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A popular Quran app has been removed from Apple’s Chinese App Store at the request of the government, according to a new report today.
The removal of the Quran Majeed app was first noticed by a site called Apple Censorship …
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US antitrust legislation due to be unveiled later today is reportedly continuing to gain bipartisan support, despite Apple’s PR push yesterday.
Apple yesterday published a 28-page report on how the App Store protects iPhone users from malware, and why it should be allowed to retain full control of how iPhone apps are sold …
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Back in September, Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers announced her decision in the case of Apple vs. Epic Games. Judge Rogers ruled that Apple could no longer forbid developers from redirecting users to third-party payment systems, but Apple is now appealing that ruling – which could delay App Store changes by years.
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Even though the Epic vs. Apple case is likely far from over, software revenue platform Paddle is looking to get in on the fallout early. Following Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers’ ruling last month that Apple must allow App Store developers to redirect users to other payment systems, Paddle has announced what it is marketing as “the industry’s first alternative In-App Purchasing system for iOS.”
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Earlier this week, App Store users and developers noticed that Apple had quietly started rolling out a new “Report a Problem” link to app listings. Now, Apple has officially confirmed that this feature is available for users in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United States – with plans to “expand to other regions over time.”
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The App Store Report a Problem link was removed years ago, but has quietly returned in iOS 15. It is not yet available in all countries.
Apple has also made two significant improvements to the feature …
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A new antitrust law in South Korea will force both Apple and Google to support app store third-party payment options – and the two companies have now been given to the middle of the month to explain their plans to comply.
This could have wide-ranging implications, as similar pressures are being applied in other countries, and Apple is likely to want to adopt a consistent approach around the globe. Whatever the company proposes in October could reveal its third-party payment plans worldwide …
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