By Leo Kelion, Technology desk editor
Apple is halving the commission it takes from the sale of apps and virtual goods sold within them from many of the smaller developers using its stores.
From January, any existing app-maker who earned $1m (£830,000) or less from Apple’s marketplaces in 2020 will only have to give up a 15% cut in 2021. That compares to the standard rate of 30%. New developers also qualify.
It follows widespread criticism by developers of the fees Apple charges, and coincides with anti-trust scrutiny.
Chief executive Tim Cook was questioned several times about the rates his firm charges when he appeared before US lawmakers at a competition hearing in July. It emerged there that Amazon had negotiated a special 15% rate for in-app charges within its Prime Video app.
And the preceding month the European Commission opened its own probe into the marketplace’s rules.
Apple, however, has characterised the move as being a natural evolution of its policies, which it had made after listening to feedback from its developer communities.
About 28 million developers use Apple’s store, and the firm says the vast majority of those who charge fees will benefit.
But it has not provided a figure for how many it forecasts will be affected.
Sole store
By design, the scheme will exclude the highest-earning software creators for Apple products.
At present, the only way for developers to offer native apps – rather than those that run via a web browser – for iPhones, iPads, Apple Watches and the Apple TV set-top box is via the firm’s App Store.
By contrast, they can sell their products directly to consumers or via alternative marketplaces on its Mac computers.
Under the new scheme, the 15% rate applies if their total earnings from all apps sold via Apple fell below the $1m threshold the previous year.
But it rises to 30% again for the remaining part of the year if they hit $1m in 2021. The $1m figure is calculated on the basis of the developers’ post-commission earnings rather than the total revenue of their products. And Apple intends to continue the initiative in later years.
Cut-off point
One quirk of the scheme is that it gives developers an incentive to pull products or make them free towards the end of the year to avoid crossing the cut-off point.
This is because if a software-maker earns $1,000,001 they would face the full 30% rate the following year, but if they made $999,999 they would qualify for the discount.
An alternative would have been to simply let all developers benefit from the lower rate on the first $1m of their earnings.
But the tech giant has indicated it wanted to limit the scheme to its smaller, independent developer community and believed this was the best way to do that.
Source: bbc.com
