(Bloomberg Opinion)– When Apple Inc. opened the App Store in July 2008, it was a $155 billion business selling 12 million iPhones a year. A dispute with the makers of the popular Fortnite game app– along with new Apple antitrust probes by the European Union and the U.S. Department of Justice– brings that failure into the spotlight.
Apple takes a 30% cut of any earnings they make through the App Store (the fee falls to 15% for subscription-based apps after the very first 12 months). Unless youre providing away your app for free, you have to pay Apple to let it onto gadgets that run its iOS operating system. Nokia offered 468 million cell phones in 2008, nearly 40 times as lots of as Apple.
Nokia offered 468 million cell phones in 2008, almost 40 times as many as Apple. Putting in higher control permitted Apple to develop a compelling user experience, and if designers or consumers didnt like it, there were plenty of options.
Today, Apple has a stranglehold on much of the smartphone market but it demands the same guidelines. Its defense is “consistency.” This is a bad argument. It utilized to be unlawful in Britain to harbor a Catholic priest, however rules alter when they stop making any sense.
Fed up with turning over so much of their money to the smartphone os owners, Fortnite has produced a standoff with Apple and Alphabet Inc.s Google (which operates its own app store for Android devices). The video games developer, in which Tencent Holdings Ltd. has a 40% stake, states it will stop paying Apple and Google any piece of revenue. The Silicon Valley giants reacted, as Epic certainly understood they would, by dropping its app from their stores.
Google has remained in Europes antitrust cross hairs for quite some time now but Apple warrants analysis too for the squeeze if puts on independent app developers, as my associate Tae Kim has written. Facebook Inc., a frequent target of opprobrium from Apple Chief Executive Office Tim Cook, participated in the criticism on Friday.
Apples refusal to compromise is part of the intransigence that characterizes the business, however theres something else too: It has actually never experienced a serious antitrust reckoning. Possibly it believes its bulletproof..
Simply recently, a beta version of its next os for mobile and desktop gadgets showed Apples plans to redirect news-story readers clicking a link on a web internet browser to its News app, and far from news companies own sites. That appears characteristic of a company that isnt thinking seriously about whether its habits might be considered anti-competitive.
Apple states its marketplace sustains costs that require to be covered. Maybe the best response to allegations of anti-competitiveness is to present competitors.
This column does not always reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.
Alex Webb is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering Europes innovation, media and interactions markets. He formerly covered Apple and other innovation companies for Bloomberg News in San Francisco.
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(Bloomberg Opinion)– When Apple Inc. opened the App Store in July 2008, it was a $155 billion company selling 12 million iPhones a year. Its now a nearly $2 trillion company that offers more than 200 million iPhones yearly. In the time it took you to read those two sentences, Apple sold 60 handsets.
While the worlds most valuable business has altered, the rules by which it governs the App Store have not. Its like a 120-pound Great Dane that still believes its a puppy. It has failed to adjust to the outsized role it plays in the smart device market. A conflict with the makers of the popular Fortnite video game app– together with brand-new Apple antitrust probes by the European Union and the U.S. Department of Justice– brings that failure into the spotlight.
Apple takes a 30% cut of any income they make through the App Store (the fee falls to 15% for subscription-based apps after the first 12 months). Unless youre providing away your app for free, you have to pay Apple to let it onto gadgets that run its iOS operating system.
