Sideloading and alternate apps are being brought to the iPhone
Is the Apple Store releasing anything digital in EU? The case for an EU-protected app store: a comment from Steve Jobs
The iPhone’s app ecosystem is about to go through its biggest shake-up since the App Store launched in 2008. The Digital Markets Act of the European Union will come into effect in March and Apple plans to change the rules for developers releasing software in the EU. Third-party app stores won’t be exclusive to the Apple App Store and will be able to sell on the platform for the first time. The changes will arrive with iOS 17.4 in March.
Developers, meanwhile, can choose whether to use Apple’s payment services and in-app purchases or integrate a third-party system for payments without paying an additional fee to Apple. If the developer wants to stick with Apple’s existing in-app payment system, there’s an additional 3 percent processing fee.
Going forward, developers could pay no commission to Apple at all in the EU, depending on how they choose to distribute their apps. Apple is making changes to how its fee structures work, both in the App Store and for apps newly distributed outside of it. Developers can either choose to use these new business terms or stick with the existing model and continue to distribute through the App Store as normal.
As well as designating iOS, Safari, and the App Store as core platform services, the European Commission also opened an investigation into whether iMessage should be included (which would include having to make it interoperable with rivals), but reports suggest it might avoid being designated, and today’s announcement from Apple makes no mention of changes coming to iMessage.
It appears that he is just getting started with his criticism of Apple’s EU policies. “There’s a lot more hot garbage in Apple’s announcement,” he says. “It will take more time to parse both the written and unwritten parts of this new horror show, so stay tuned.”
Epic, which operates the Epic Games Store as well as the game Fortnite, has been one of the companies calling most loudly for these kinds of changes. In the US, it fought a legal battle against Apple over their approach to the App Store.
