> That is the only article I have ever heard state that.
Did you also miss Apple saying it themselves?
"[Developers generate] revenue from advertisements in [their] apps. Apple receives no commission from supporting, hosting, and distributing these apps."
> 20 bucks says apple introduces their own platform that will safely allow ads but it will cost a fee.
Apple already offered an advertising platform from 2010 to 2016.
Because Netflix is following the guidelines for their app!! Games are considered applications because they can take user input in real-time and react to that input. The App Store guidelines explicitly ban store-like interfaces that aren’t run on the hardware being used and they also ban thin-clients for cloud applications which are both true of XCloud and Stadia. You’re not running the application on the hardware and you’re not even loading them on the device in question. You’re running them off of a remote computer. That’s what rules they were breaking. Netflix is not the same at all because the content front end is all in the application and the app itself is needed to consume the content along with a subscription. Netflix isn’t streaming the interface, it’s native.
As for the source, how about Apple themselves? https://www.apple.com/ios/app-store/principles-practices/
“Free with subscriptions” lists out pretty clearly that they charge 30% for the first year and only 15% per year after that. This is not new nor exclusive to just Amazon.
If you're talking about avoiding the fees, then that's a rule applied too all apps in those category ('reader apps').
> These are apps where users exclusively purchase or subscribe to content outside the app, but enjoy access to that content inside the app on their Apple devices. Examples include books, music, and video apps. In these cases, developers receive all of the revenue they generate from bringing the customer to their app. Apple receives no commission from supporting, hosting, and distributing these apps.
So, offer sign ups inside your app? Then you are offering an In-App purchase. In-App purchases on iOS use the iOS payment platform and pay the iOS payment platform processing fees. No sign ups in app? No usage of the iOS payment platform, no requirement to pay platform processing fees.
Those are the rules for everyone.
And if you think any of this sounds draconian: flip this around and think about fraud protection, unscrupulous third parties, and credit card number theft... This system is set up to protect people from having their CC information stolen.
The 30% wouldn't go to Apple if you don't use their payment processor to begin with, here, straight from apple:
>#Free with in-app purchase These apps are free for users to download and users can pay for additional digital features and content in the app with Apple’s In-App Purchase system. Developers earn 70% of sales from in-app purchases and Apple collects a 30% commission.
>#Free with subscription These apps are free to download and users can purchase auto-renewing subscriptions inside the app. If developers choose to sell digital subscriptions inside the app, they use Apple’s In-App Subscription system. In that case, developers earn 70% of subscription sales for the first subscription year, and Apple collects a 30% commission. After the first year, the developer earns 85% for all successive years that the user remains a subscriber, and Apple collects a 15% commission.
>#Paid These are apps that customers pay upfront to download from the store — and include free updates. Developers earn 70% of sales from paid apps and Apple collects a 30% commission.
They don't get the 30%, they don't have to budge if they don't want and if you don't do as they say you get no app.