Apple rejects a large percentage of App Store submissions, CEO Tim Cook said Monday, arguing that the company’s strict oversight is necessary to keep iPhones secure.
He was responding to questions about moves by government regulators around the world that might result on Apple being forced to allow rival iPhone software stores.
The average U.S. iPhone user shelled out $138 for apps in 2020, according to a market research firm. That’s a 38% year-over-year increase.
As has held true for many years, mostly what people are buying is games.
Russia’s “anti-Apple” law came into force today, meaning that all smartphones, tablets, and computers sold in the country must offer local software and apps as part of the setup process.
Apple reportedly “strongly opposed” the law, and even went so far as to threaten to pull out of the Russian market over it. However, as was the case with a government-created “Do Not Disturb” app in India, it eventually relented.
The app ecosystem did very, very well during the global pandemic. While many businesses struggled, the app industry experienced a massive boom in sales, as people were stuck home with, in many cases, a lot more time on their hands.
It seems the 2020 rise in sales isn’t slowing down, either. According to a new App Annie, consumer spending on apps achieved a new record high in the first quarter of 2021. Across both iOS and Android, customers spent $32 billion on apps in the quarter. That’s a 40 percent increase from the same period last year — and the biggest quarter on record.
According to a recent complaint filed with a U.K. antitrust regulator, Apple and Google are working a bit too closely for comfort. The complaint alleges “collusion at a very senior level” of both companies when it comes to search engines.
But make no mistake: While things certainly cooled down since the days when Apple co-founder Steve Jobs threatened to go to “thermonuclear war” against Google, the two companies remain on a collision course. And the conflict will come over the exact same issue they’re currently allegedly colluding on.
It’s all about the future of search as we know it.
One of the big criticisms leveled at Apple over its control of the App Store is that it doesn’t allow ways of side-loading apps. That is to say that, if you want an app on iOS, it’s Apple’s way or the highway.
Apple, however, disagrees. In a response made as part of the Australian consumer watchdog’s probe into the App Store, Apple argues that this is not true at all — because people can create web apps or the internet.
Applications that trick users into paying huge subscription fees raked in over $400 million from the Apple App Store and Google Play Store, according to research done by Avast.
The so-called “fleeceware” takes advantage of a weakness in both app stores: deleting an application tied to a subscription doesn’t cancel the subscription.
Ron Okamoto quietly retired after two decades as Apple’s vice president of Developer Relations. He helped oversee the tools provided to third-party iPhone and Mac application developers, and helped set policies for the App Store.
His retirement comes as governments around the world are investigating whether Apple treats fairly the third-party developers who depend on the iPhone and Mac App Stores.
Since the very start of the App Store, some developers have criticized Apple for being opaque with its decision-making. Apple, it seems, doesn’t agree with these claims.
In a response to formal complaints made to Australia’s antitrust watchdog by Epic Games and others, Apple defends its reviews process. Far from being slow and tough to deal with, Apple argues that it works quickly, and provides all the information it needs to in a swift and open manner.
End-to-end-encrypted messaging app Signal is secure. So secure, in fact, that it’s the European Union’s encrypted messaging app of choice.
Unfortunately, it’s also secure enough that it’s gotten on the wrong side of the Chinese government. China has reportedly banned the app in mainland China as of March 16, TechCrunch reports. This is one day after its website was blocked in the country.
Apple devices sold in Russia will come preinstalled with Russian-made software approved by the government starting next month, a report published Tuesday suggests.
This is in response to a law, coming into force April 1, designed to promote the domestic tech sector. It affects all smartphone manufacturers, not just Apple.
Games in the App Store are getting bigger. An average of 76% bigger over the past five years to be precise. That’s according to a new report from app analytics platform Sensor Tower.
The firm recently analyzed the average file size of the top 100 revenue-generating mobile games on the U.S. App Store for each year since 2016. This includes only the file size of the original download, and not any additional content.
Stop using the reviews you see in the App Store to help you decide what applications to buy. They’re meaningless because so many of them are fraudulent. And these purchased fake reviews are frequently used to trick people into buying scam applications.
The problem is severe enough that Apple should take reviews completely out of the App Store if it can’t come up with a better solution.
TikTok has cemented itself at the top of the App Store for yet another month, showing the seemingly unassailable dominance of the video-sharing app. According to app analytics platform Sensor Tower, TikTok was the top-grossing, non-gaming app worldwide for February 2021.
For the month, it raked in more than $110 million in user spending across both iOS and Android. That’s approaching twice what it earned in revenue that month last year, although marginally down from the $128 million it pulled in back in January.
Spotify’s accusation to the European Union that Apple uses its control of the App Store to squeeze out competition reportedly will soon result in antitrust charges being filed against the iPhone-maker. This comes on the same day the UK begins an investigation of the App Store.
The two antitrust agencies could force Apple to lower the commissions it charges software developers. Or even require rival iPhone app stores.
Antitrust investigators in the Netherlands are reportedly coming to the end of a “years-long” investigation into Apple and its control of the App Store.
The Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) has been investigating this matter since 2019. It focuses on Apple’s “payments system” in the App Store, which charges developers 15% to 30% in commission. With its impending decision, it could become the first antitrust authority to rule on this contentious issue.
Apple will highlight the contributions of women to society in many ways during Women’s History Month, including suggesting relevant outstanding books, podcasts and apps. It also plans virtual Today at Apple sessions led by female creators.
Plus, there’ll be an International Women’s Day Apple Watch Activity Challenge for March 8, and there’ll be other ways of observing this day.
Developers have updated instructions for filling out the privacy “nutrition labels” shown in the App Store. There are additions and clarifications.
Apple asks developers to submit the information for these privacy labels shown to users. There’ve been questions about how accurate the devs’ responses are — including some from a Congressional committee — and the new instructions might be part of Apple’s response.
After booming during lockdown in 2020, the App Store isn’t likely to slow down over the next five years, according to a new report.
App analytics platform Sensor Tower’s projections indicate App Store spending could hit $185 billion per year in the next half-decade. That’s compared to $72 billion in 2020.
Users who don’t get on board with WhatsApp’s terms and conditions will be unable to send or receive messages after May 15. While calls and notifications will continue to work for a short while, this will supposedly only be for a period of a “few weeks.”
WhatsApp first announced the changing privacy policies in January. The changed policy notes that, “As part of the Facebook family of companies, WhatsApp receives information from, and shares information with, this family of companies.”
Apple has reportedly began cracking down on apps that feature subscriptions Apple considers to be unreasonable, claims 9to5Mac.
The report cites a rejection email sent to one developer saying that the price of in-app purchases do not “do not reflect the value of the features and content” on offer. It also calls it a “rip-off to customers.”
Subscription apps are thriving right now, and nowhere more so than on iOS. According to a new report from app analytics platform Sensor Tower, worldwide spending on the top 100 subscription apps on the App Store generated $10.3 billion in 2020.
That’s a massive 32% increase from the $7.8 billion spent in 2019. It’s also close to four times what Android apps in the Google Play store pulled in in 2020. (They earned just $2.7 billion.)
A U.S. House of Representatives committee sent Apple CEO Tim Cook a letter with questions about the App Privacy labels displayed in the App Store. The letter was prompted by a published report that many of these privacy “nutrition labels” contain incorrect information.
Google and Facebook are rivals of Apple, but they also rely on it a whole lot — as a new report by app analytics platform Sensor Tower makes clear. It highlights how Google and Facebook were two of the top three publishers on the iOS App Store in January, with Google holding the top spot.
It’s the perfect illustration of the “coopetition” relationship that exists between the tech giants.
TikTok is off to a great start in 2021, as app analytics platform Sensor Tower notes that it was the top grossing, non-gaming app worldwide for January. In total, users spent $128 million on TikTok during the month, an increase of 3.8x in revenue from January last year.
