One month after launching, the Coalition for App Fairness (CAF), a newly formed advocacy group pushing for increased regulation over app stores, has more than doubled in size with today’s announcement of 20 new partners, reports TechCrunch.
Epic Games, Spotify, and Tile — companies that have complained bitterly about Apple’s App Store practices — launched CAF on Sept. 24. It’s described as “an independent nonprofit organization founded by industry-leading companies to advocate for freedom of choice and fair competition across the app ecosystem.” The Coalition for App Fairness’ website lists its beefs with Apple as follows:
° Apple uses its control of the iOS operating system to favor itself by controlling the products and features that are available to consumers. Apple requires equipment manufacturers to limit options, forces developers to sell through its App Store, and even steals ideas from competitors. Below outlines two case studies from Tile and Kindle that illustrate these monopolist behaviors
° For most purchases made within its App Store, Apple takes 30% of the purchase price. No other transaction fee — in any industry — comes close.
iPhone apps (aka software) are only available via the Apple App Store. If consumers want an app to work on their mobile device, the app developer needs to follow the rules, taxes and requirements of Apple. Yet, if consumers want to run that same app from their computer, the rules, taxes and requirements don’t apply. It’s a crazy house of cards.
According to TechCrunch, new CAF partners include: development studio Beonex, health app Breath Ball, social app Challenge by Eristica, shopping app Cladwell, fitness app Down Dog Yoga, developer tool Gift Card Offerwall, game maker Green Heart Games, app studio Imagine BC, business app Passbase, music app Qobuz, lifestyle app QuackQuack and Qustodio, game Safari Forever, news app Schibsted, app studio Snappy Mob, education app SpanishDict, navigation app Sygic, app studio Vertical Motion, education app YARXI, and the Mobile Marketing Marketing Association.
Note: an Apple-funded study by the Analyst Group disputes this and says: “…. most app stores and video game marketplaces have the same commission structure as Apple’s (30%). This includes the Google Play Store, Amazon Appstore, Samsung Galaxy Store, Microsoft Store, plus game marketplaces across Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo and Steam platforms (Steam is 30% for sales below $10 million). Some stores drop the 30% commission rate in specific cases — for example, Steam drops it for higher sales; Amazon charges 20% commissions on video streaming subscriptions; Xbox charges 15% for nongame subscriptions, and so on.”
(Dennis Sellers has been covering the Apple industry since 1996. In addition to“Apple World Today,” he also runs his own freelance writing/editing service. If you want more info about the latter, email him at dennis.sellers@comcast.net.)
