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The reactions to Apple’s new EU App Store rules remain particularly critical. The developer and company boss David Heinemeier Hansson, who has often collided with the rules in the iPhone manufacturer’s software store with his company 37signals, has his thoughts recently on LinkedIn collected. Since he was one of the spokesmen for those who want to open Apple’s closed iOS ecosystem, his assessment is worth considering. For example, he calculated what Meta would conservatively have to pay if Apple’s alternative to the App Store commission, the “Core Technology Fee” (CTF), existed.
Filled with “poison pills”?
“At first glance, it might appear that Apple was actually trying to comply in good faith with the Digital Markets Act, which comes into effect in the EU on March 7th. But once you start peeling back that onion, “You find out that it’s filled with poison pills,” said Heinemeier Hansson. And they are “so toxic that you can hardly believe Apple’s chutzpah.”
It is a “blackmail regime” for “every major developer” that Apple is operating there. This applies to anyone who finds it tempting to use an alternative app store, which must be permitted under the new EU law. For Metas Instagram, Heinemeier Hansson calculated $11.2 million per month, or $135 million per year. The figure comes from an estimate that there are 250 million downloads in the EU each year. And for Meta it doesn’t stop there, it still has Messenger and other programs.
CTF as a brake for alternative app stores
According to Heinemeier Hansson, Apple’s main concern is to prevent developers from abandoning the old rules of the App Store. The CTF, which is 50 cents for every first download or update or redownload per year, does not exist in the regular model. Here you pay 15 to 30 percent commission.
“This poison pill is expressly intended to ensure that no second app store can ever establish itself. Without the big apps, there is no attraction,” says Heinemeier Hansson. Apple has now responded to the criticism and wants to work with developers meet for consultations.
(bsc)