Apple is not on the friendly side of many apps and their makers. These companies have now rallied under the Coalition for App Fairness banner to oppose the iPhone maker. Currently most prominent among them is Epic Games, but others include the likes of Spotify and Basecamp, the makers of the Hey email app.
The new group aims to “create a level playing field for app businesses and give people freedom of choice on their devices”. And the process of doing so involves fighting three main issues. They are the 30% “tax”, anti-consumer policies and the lack of consumer freedom.
And these three issues are naturally related to one another. App makers can’t put their apps anywhere besides the App Store if they want to be on iOS devices. This also means they got to give a 30% cut on all sales to Apple. And if Apple has an app that does the same thing as a dev’s app, then the third party app is at a disadvantage because Apple doesn’t have to pay its own 30% cut to anyone else.
The Coalition for App Fairness makes some benevolent claims to its formation. One of its purposes is to allow smaller app makers to join in the fight against Apple, especially if they aren’t big enough to do so on their own. The Coalition also makes for a more coordinated effort for apps to face the iPhone maker, rather than have each individual member fight their own fight independently.
Also, the Coalition has a number of “app store principles” that it would like platform owners like Apple to adopt. In large part, it aims to solve the three issues stated above. Examples include not forcing app store exclusivity or forcing the use of the platform’s payment method.
Its an interesting turn of events, to be sure. The Coalition for App Fairness marks the first time all the app makers that have gripes with Apple coming together. But ultimately, Apple still sets the rules for its App Store. It remains to be seen if the Coalition can actually achieve any sort of change.
(Source: Coalition for App Fairness)
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