I’m sure we all remember the legendary Big Brother Super Bowl commercial in which Apple portrayed IBM as a Orwellian Big Brother figure to be smashed by its plucky Cupertino rival. Fast forward to 2024 and my how things have changed. The DOJ is reportedly looking into Apple for ant-trust around its iOS App Store as are authorities in Europe and a federal judge ruled that Apple has to open up its mobile platform to direct payments to developers via outside links. Well, they did it…. but just barely and in such a toxic way as to be basically useless in just about every conceivable case. I’m not going to bury the lead here — if you’re an indie or small developer just be a good like sharecropper and use Apple’s IAP and cough up that sweet commission — it will save you tons of hassle. However, if you won’t take my word for it, here’s some of the things to keep in mind with attempting to go around the App Store.
Getting right down to brass App Store tax. You’re almost certainly not saving any money. Apple is only taking three-percent off their cut even if you process the payment via another processor. Payment processors charging what they tend, that means you will likely save no money whatsoever; this is increasingly apparent once you begin to consider the implementation cost of setting up third-party payment processing and complying with the rest of Apple’s onerous terms.
Danger! Danger! Much like the robot screaming to Will Robinson that’s what Apple’s uncharacteristically ugly interstitial modal pop-up will say to your users each time they click a button for your outside payment mechanism. Apple doesn’t come out and say it but does a decent job of implying that the potential customer risks their device security up to but not limited to their payment info. Before your customer can even click your “button or link” you have to apply for each app for a special OS entitlement via Xcode that Apple could in theory just deny and likely flags your app for special (read stricter) scrutiny from App Review. I can’t stress this enough – all of this is absolutely mandatory.
Our warning screen is doing more than just trying to scare off potential purchasers. It’s phoning home every single time. That’s right! The company that lauds itself on being ant-tracking and therefore pro user privacy, has implemented the same exact tracking scheme that Facebook was using to track downloads from apps after a user clicked an ad for said app on Facebook or Instagram; the hypocrisy would be hilarious if it weren’t so breathtakingly avaricious. Taking a further page out of Facebook’s book, Apple doesn’t just charge you for successful purchases, but rather any and all purchases the user makes up to week after clicking your scarlet link or button.
Now you may be wondering how Apple could actually enforce this. Well there’s always the threat of being chucked off the App Store which for many means sending your company to the electric chair, but that’s not all. If you even take the entitlement at all and fail to get even a single click on the tell-tale button, you still have to submit monthly reports on Apple and contractually agree to audits by Apple. That’s right! Like a good IRS agent, Apple is there!
This is all ridiculous and for this Apple fan it’s a little sad to see the company that made its name by fighting the Big Brother of its time decide to not only become and even bigger brother but do so in such a petty and capricious way.
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