Apple Confirms iPadOS Will Get Same EU App Changes as iOS This Fall
Apple today confirmed that it will be bringing all of the app ecosystem changes made to iOS in the European Union to iPadOS in the fall. Earlier this week, the European Commission said that iPadOS is also a gatekeeper platform under the Digital Markets Act.
EU developers will be able to distribute iPad apps outside of the App Store using alternative app marketplaces or websites, and all of the same terms will apply. The Core Technology Fee will be charged for apps that are distributed outside of the App Store and have more than one million first annual installs, though there are exceptions for small developers, which Apple also announced today.
With iPadOS being added to the mix, Apple has also confirmed that users who install the same app on both iOS and iPadOS in a 12-month period will only generate one first annual install for that app rather than two, which should help developers keep below the CTF threshold.
As with the changes to iOS, the upcoming changes to iPadOS only apply to developers who distribute apps in the European Union and iPad users in the EU. For the rest of the world, there are no changes and apps will continue to be available only from the App Store.
Popular Stories
There are concerning reports on Reddit that Apple's latest iOS 17.5 update has introduced a bug that causes old photos that were deleted – in some cases years ago – to reappear in users' photo libraries. After updating their iPhone, one user said they were shocked to find old NSFW photos that they deleted in 2021 suddenly showing up in photos marked as recently uploaded to iCloud. Other...
The iMessage service that Apple users to send messages to one another appears to be down for some users, and messages are failing to go out or are taking an extra long time to send. There are numerous reports about the issue on social networks and a spike of outage reports on Down Detector, but Apple's System Status page is not yet reporting an outage. Update: Apple's status page says...
Apple today previewed new accessibility features coming with iOS 18 later this year, and this includes some new options for CarPlay. Apple highlighted three new features coming to CarPlay: Voice Control: This feature will allow users to navigate CarPlay and control apps with just their voice. Color Filters: This feature will make the CarPlay interface visually easier to use for...
Today is the official launch day of the new iPad Pro models, and these updated tablets mark the biggest feature and design refresh that we've seen for the iPad Pro in several years. We picked up one of the new 13-inch models to check out everything new. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. When it comes to design, Apple is still offering 11-inch and 13-inch size options ...
This year's upcoming iPhone 16 Pro Max is expected to get a boost in overall size from 6.7-inches to 6.9-inches, and a new image gives us a good idea of how the current iPhone 15 Pro Max compares to what could be Apple's largest ever iPhone. The image above, posted on X by ZONEofTECH, shows a dummy model representing the iPhone 16 Pro Max alongside an actual iPhone 15 Pro Max. Dummy...
In April, Apple updated its guidelines to allow retro game emulators on the App Store, and several popular emulators have already been released. The emulators released so far allow iPhone users to play games released for older consoles from Nintendo, Sony, SEGA, Atari, and others. A list of some popular emulators available on the App Store so far follows. Released Delta Delta is...
Top Rated Comments
That core technology fee is the final obstacle that should be removed.
Most of the other artificial roadblockers they have going will fall like domino blocks (little to no resistance from Applw) with the EU starting their nitpicking period.
While I live in the "land of the free," I envy your added freedoms when it comes to shopping around for best app pricing, best in-app payment options and sourcing apps from alt stores or direct from the developers who made the app... just like the rest of us can do with our Macs. The virtually-no-consequences of that exact same bundle of consumer freedoms have not destroyed all of us Mac owners. I expect the experience to be just about exactly the same with both your iPhones and soon your iPads too.
This thread should fill with rants & raving about how terrible this is, how EU people are doomed to viruses, trojans, plague, locusts, frogs, etc... but I would guess that almost all of the people who are griping about EU laws do NOT live within the EU and thus are completely unaffected by what other people's laws do or do not do for those other people.
I would also be quick to place a pretty sizable bet that if we could take a peek at the apps installed on many the fault-finders Macs, we'd find AT LEAST ONE- IF NOT MANY- that did NOT come from the Apple Mac App Store.
Nevertheless EU Apple friends, enjoy apps the rest of us can't even consider on the very same devices we also "own" because the almighty "Father" forbids it. Enjoy knowing that towards 100% of the purchase price is rewarding the developer of the app instead of another entity taking the first 15-30% right off the top. Etc. With Almighty Father the richest company in the world on any given day, they don't actually have to have a big bite of every single app transaction to survive. But I bet the developer who actually made the app you're buying will appreciate getting to make a bit more than before on the app THEY created... even if they sell it to you for less because they don't have to cover the steep, "first bite" overhead.
https://www.macrumors.com/2021/02/09/scam-apps-ios-making-millions-revenue/