App Store

Update: CNBC reports that Chinese regulators are now examining the complaint. No formal investigation has been opened at this stage, however.

To be clear, the Chinese regulators are not formally investigating Apple over any breach of antitrust laws. Instead, the SAIC is only reviewing the complaint. Following their review, the regulators may choose to start an investigation.

Apple has been reported to Chinese antitrust regulators by a group of 28 app developers, accusing it of monopolistic behavior.

The WSJ reports that the developers make three specific complaints …

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Apple and Google have removed hundreds of financial trading apps from their app stores following an investigation suggesting that thousands of people may have been scammed – many of them seniors. Some have reportedly lost their entire life savings.

The action follows an investigation by a newspaper and a review by a securities & investment body …

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At the Postback conference last week in Seattle, Apple’s vice president of advertising Todd Teresi sat down with TUNE to discuss the company’s continued efforts in analytics and and mobile measurement. Teresi discussed how Apple plans to continue working with developers to improve metrics in the App Store, and more.

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Update: When reached for clarification, Apple said “This is not a new guideline. We have never allowed apps on the App Store that are designed to interfere with the performance or capabilities of other apps.” It also said it would remove other apps that offer features that block advertising in third-party apps if they “may have snuck on to the App Store.”  Apple added, “We have always supported advertising as one of the many ways that developers can make money with apps.”

Apple has seemingly recently shifted its policy regarding adblock apps on the App Store. The company, according to the developer of several major adblock apps that reached out to 9to5Mac after its app updates were rejected, has reversed its policy on VPN-based adblock applications, which install certificates on the device itself to block advertisements both in Safari and in other third-party applications.

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A report earlier this week detailed Apple’s efforts to remove spam and copy-cat apps from the App Store, and one area the company specifically seems to be targeting is China. As noted in a new report from People.cn, Apple has removed around 58,000 Chinese apps from the App Store over the last two weeks, a drastic increase compared to normal.

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Apple has made it clear recently that it is doing a lot to improve the overall quality of the App Store and a new report from TechCrunch dives deeper into Apple’s efforts. The report explains that Apple this year is putting a heavy focus on clone and spam applications…

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As part of E3, Sony today announced it will launch a new collection of games branded “PlayLink” that will support cross-platform gameplay experiences between PS4 and mobile devices including iOS devices. The games will be built with a second screen experience and group play in mind, meaning they’ll take full advantage of opportunities for touchscreen controls, cameras on mobile devices, multiple devices and more.

The games will work together with iPhones (and possibly iPads) via a companion app that Sony confirmed will be available for both iOS and Android. For the most part, the games appear to use mobile devices as controllers, offering a second screen experience while playing games with others on a PS4 in the living room:

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A quite stunning story came to light over the weekend of a scam app charging people a staggering $400 per month through an in-app purchase disguised as a free trial – for an app that does nothing in the first place.

Taking advantage of App Store search ads to achieve visibility, the app claims to be a virus and malware scanner, and for anyone naive enough to install it presents a dialog box offering a ‘free trial’ that actually charges them $99.99 for a 7-day subscription …

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Prior to WWDC last week, Apple highlighted that it has now paid developers over $70 billion through the App Store, with $21 billion of that occurring the last year. A new post on Medium from Johnny Lin, however, highlights that not all of that $70 billion is necessarily legitimate…

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The App Store is getting a big redesign with iOS 11, and today Apple gave a preview of some of the new changes coming for developers at WWDC 2017. Head below for a first look at the refreshed app including new editorial content and features coming with iOS 11 this fall:

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Ahead of WWDC kicking off tomorrow and the unveil of iOS 11, 32-bit applications have stopped appearing in App Store search results. This is the latest piece of evidence that suggests iOS 11 will drop support altogether for 32-bit applications when it’s unveiled next week to developers and to the general public later this fall.

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Ahead of its developer conference next week, Apple has announced that all-time earnings from App Store developers have topped $70 billion. The App Store launched with iPhone OS 2 in 2008 and has exploded ever since.

In the last twelve months, the company said Apple Store downloads have increased more than 70% …

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Apple this weekend has clarified changes to its iTunes Affiliate Program. While it was originally stated that Apple would cut affiliate rates for apps altogether from 7 percent to 2.5 percent, the company has now confirmed that its original announcement was misinterpreted and the changes aren’t as drastic…

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Data from App Annie shows that the average smartphone owner spends 2 hours and 15 minutes a day using apps – the equivalent of one month a year. The average person has 60-90 apps installed on their phone, using around 30 of them each month and launching 9 per day.

Utilities and Tools led the way thanks to numerous pre-installed apps, such as Safari on iOS and Google on Android. After pre-installed apps, some of the largest categories by average apps used are Social Networking, Communication, and Social. This underscores the continued importance of social categories to marketing efforts for all types of apps.

The time spent using apps varied dramatically depending on the type of app …

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As Apple boasts of creating two million U.S. jobs, it has been accused of making life as a small developer unsustainable.

The claim was made by Matt Gemmell, a software engineer who used to work for Apple as a contractor and whose source code has been used in hundreds of iOS and macOS apps.

No company has done as much damage to the perceived value of software, and the sustainability of being an independent developer, as Apple …

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