The Japanese government is looking to force Apple to allow third-party app stores for iPhone and, presumably, iPad, Apple Watch, Apple TV, and even Apple Vision when it hits the market.
A government panel Friday drew up a set of regulations aimed at opening up the smartphone app stores of U.S. technology giants Apple and Google to competition.
The two companies dominating the smartphone operating system market will be obliged to allow their users to download apps by using services other than their own app stores. The government hopes that the move will spur competition and lead to app price drops.
MacDailyNews Take: The average prices for apps in the Apple App Store as of May 2023 is 88-cents.
The best minds are not in government. If any were, business would steal them away. – Ronald Reagan
The regulations were drawn up at the government’s headquarters for digital market competition, headed by Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno. The government aims to submit relevant legislation to the next year’s ordinary session of parliament.
App providers complain that Apple and Google charge them high commissions of up to 30% for such payments.
MacDailyNews Take: Again:
It’s Apple’s App Store. Of course they have a right to charge commissions.
Apple’s App Store isn’t a charity and it’s not free to operate. – MacDailyNews, November 14, 2022
How much did it cost developers to have their apps burned onto CDs, boxed, shipped, displayed on store shelves prior to Apple remaking the world for the better for umpteenth time? Apple incurs costs to store, review, organize, surface, and distribute apps to over one billion users. — MacDailyNews, June 10, 2022
That said, as we wrote last year:
Those who want safety, security, and privacy will stick to Apple’s App Store, but a single point of control is always a danger, especially when it comes to capricious censorship (see: pre-Musk Twitter, Apple’s App Store in China, etc.).
iPhone and iPad users must, like Mac users, have the ability to install third-party apps; even if they never do, for it will keep Apple honest. The ability to ban an app loses all power when it’s simply available in another App Store.
These moves, including removing the mandate to use WebKit, Apple’s Safari browsing engine, in third-party browsers ,will greatly reduce, if not eliminate, the threat of anti-trust actions against Apple for the foreseeable future.
Also, expect Gatekeeper to come to iOS and iPadOS from macOS.
Yes, Apple’s App Store revenue will take a hit, but there are new products for new markets on deck (AR/VR headsets, AR glasses, Apple Car, etc.) that will more than make up for any loss of App Store exclusivity.
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