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| Apple's in-app payment system faces challenges |
Apple's lawsuit against Epic Games has mysteriously ended, opening a small loophole in the iPhone maker's control over in-app payments, and now a small developer is trying to get around it.
A company called Paddle has announced its own integrated payment system that charges less than 5-10% in commissions from Apple. This is not a 15-30% commission charged by the iPhone manufacturer.
It's a way to defeat the committee that originally started the fight with Epic Games, and it's likely to be the start of a new battle for developers.
The row system is designed to take advantage of court decisions that require Apple to allow third-party payment links. Before a decision is made, App Store rules prohibit external links or other calls to action that lead customers to a purchase mechanism. However, the judge concluded that the rule violated the counter-directive law.
The paddle system provides an external link that can direct users to an external page where they can pay before returning to the app. This method has additional steps, but if you want to bypass Apple's in-app purchase system, this is far from a solution.
One of the main selling points of the paddle is its cost. Apple is known to charge most developers a 30% commission on in-app purchases. Paddle offers 10% commission for payments under $10 and 5% commission plus $0.50 for payments over $10.
Epic Games beta makes developers ignore Apple's commission
The real test is how apps that include paddle payments perform when testing the app. If Apple wanted to find policy violations in apps that use paddles, it probably would.
The company said it was trying to figure out how to change its rules to comply with the judge's orders. But the new rules have not yet been announced.
"We are waiting to see how the details of the decision are implemented," Badel said. We have created several versions of the system to make it easier to adapt to all Apple rules. We plan to launch the in-app payment service on December 7.
As mentioned in the inquiry, Paddle said that unlike Apple, developers can display customer email addresses for easy billing.
Paddle also listed other benefits of his system, such as the ability for developers to price their apps the way they want without worrying about whether Apple would agree, and the ability to set prices for each country and offer coupons.
Since this is the first major challenge to the company's integrated purchasing system since the decision was made, it is likely to attract a lot of attention.
If the new system is widely adopted by developers and users, it could threaten Apple's profit machine. The App Store is part of the company's service activities. The company's 2020 revenue was $53.8 billion, with a gross profit margin of 66%. This corresponds to about 20% of sales.