In recent days, iPhone apps are changing. The Kindle application allows people to buy books directly from its website. Spotify offers users free trials. And Patreon, a subscription service, allows people to pay more money.
Changes are an early look at how a recent court ruling could turn the shopping experience into an iPhone. Last week, a federal judge ordered Apple to start allowing applications to offer promotions and collect payments directly from users. The decision allows applications to offer people new amenities, such as buying books directly from their website. The decision also allows applications to bypass a committee of up to 30 % that Apple collects in any sale of applications, which could lead to lower prices for consumers.
For more than a decade, Apple demanded that applications use its payment system for purchases and a committee collected for sales.
Now, all this is open to change. Here is what could be different in the future and why.
What rule of the judge?
Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, who began working in this case after the games sued Apple in 2020, ruled that Apple could no longer receive supplies from the application linked. It also limits the company from the drafting of rules that would prevent developers from creating buttons or links that allow people to pay direct applications for their goods and services and said they could not create messages – known as warning screens – that discourage users.
How will iPhone apps change?
For years, Kindle has not sold books in its application to avoid supplying 30 % of Apple. Now, it has added a “Get Book” button that directs users to its site to buy books. Similarly, Apple has prevented Spotify from offering free tests to new customers, but now Spotify has a button to apply it for a three -month test.
Other applications could start offering links to buy directly from online stores, which would allow the business to avoid paying the 30 % supply of Apple. Without having to pay these fees, applications could offer users lower prices, reducing a monthly $ 10 subscription to $ 7.
What will this Apple cost?
Apple makes $ 11 billion a year from applications in the United States, according to Morgan Stanley estimates. It won’t lose all this, but the bank estimates that $ 2 billion of it is now in danger.
How much Apple loses will be reduced to how willing people are to change their behavior. The decade old process for purchasing software and applications are not only familiar but also fast. People trust Apple with their credit card details. And the company makes it easy for people to cancel their subscriptions – keeping them all in one place. Many people may be reluctant to leave the app store to make their purchases and applications may prefer to maintain the current system.
What does this mean to the rest of the world?
Now that Apple is obliged to allow applications to receive the payment immediately, without paying the company in the United States, other countries are going to push for similar concessions. The regulators in Europe, Japan and South Korea, who asked Apple to relax its handle in the App Store, would not want their own citizens or developers to pay more than Americans.
Could Apple return the changes?
Apple said it was planning to appeal to the decision, but it would be difficult for the company to overthrow the decision. In 2021, the judge wrote a less editorial decision. Apple has limited the rule by entering a 27 % supply for application sales. The US Court of Appeal for the ninth circuit underlined the judge’s original ruling since 2021 and is unlikely to change its position, Mark A. Lemley, a professor of antitrust and technological law in Stanford, said. “They have to take their licks and let it be,” he said.
