Ahead of WWDC next week, Apple is out with a new report today touting how the App Store “helps developers reach new heights.” According to Apple, the global App Store “supported” $1.3 trillion in billings and sales in 2024.
This comes after Apple touted the $406 billion impact of the App Store in the United States alone last week.
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Update: Apple has responded to the ruling with a statement provided to 9to5Mac, saying it “strongly disagrees” with the court’s opinion. You can find the full statement below.
Apple has just taken yet another hit in its ongoing legal standoff with Epic Games. As reported by Reuters, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Apple’s emergency request to pause key parts of a lower court order that forces the company to immediately open its App Store to greater competition.
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Two payment companies have teamed up to let developers sell in-app purchases outside the App Store, offering a single service that works across iOS and web.
Even small businesses can save money on the deal, paying 10% on payments of under $10, and 5% plus $0.50 above that threshold. For users, the experience is almost as seamless as Apple’s own system when you opt to use Apple Pay …
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At The Information’s The Future of Influence event on Tuesday, Substack co-founder and CEO Chris Best praised recent changes to Apple’s App Store policies, calling them “fantastic”, and a major win for independent media.
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Apple has for years been fighting antitrust battles all around the world, most of them concerning the App Store, and most of them coming down to a single issue: having monopoly control over the sale of iPhone apps.
Opinions on both sides of the debate are strongly held, and there’s little sign of that changing anytime soon – but it seems to me that there is one thing we could perhaps all agree on …
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A new Apple-funded study performed by Analysis Group says that the United States App Store “facilitated over $400 billion in developer billings and sales in 2024.” This marks 2.9x growth in the ecosystem since 2019, according to the study.
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After a heavy lobbying campaign that included Apple CEO Tim Cook personally calling Texas Governor Greg Abbott to veto Texas Senate Bill 2420, known as the App Store Accountability Act, the bill was signed into law today.
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Apple is currently under fire for its App Store practices, with the most prominent recent issue being rules around in-app payment methods. Today the company has outlined the many ways its rules have protected users from attempted fraud, and thus saved those users billions.
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Tim Cook is personally involved in an attempt to stop a Texas child safety bill targeting the App Store from becoming law, the Wall Street Journal reports.
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Apple introduced app privacy labels to help people better understand what data an app may collect, including what data is linked to them or used to track them across the web. When released back in 2020, the labels set a precedent in the industry and were a major first step in raising awareness of privacy-invasive apps. It became easy for users to compare something like Signal, which collects virtually no user data at all, and Facebook Messenger, which gobbles up anything and everything it can. The feature set out to help users make informed downloads.
However, in recent years, I have seen a growing conversation around whether these entirely self-reported labels located further down on the application’s App Store page still impact the user’s decision before hitting “Get” to install.
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Spotify was one of the first companies to take advantage of recent changes to the App Store Guidelines. The company swiftly submitted a new version of its app with links that make it easier for users to subscribe to Spotify Premium using external payment methods.
In an amicus brief filed in support of Epic Games this week, Spotify touts that it has already seen a measurable increase in Premium subscription conversions thanks to these changes.
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Epic Games made good on its recent promise by bringing Fortnite back to the iPhone and iPad in the U.S. after a federal court injunction forced Apple to change App Store rules around payments and commissions. Nearly five years after its removal, the game returns with a major change. Still, Fortnite is only available through the App Store in one region, and there are several reasons it could be removed again.
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Microsoft has filed a court brief in support of Epic Games, blaming Apple for its delay in plans to open an Xbox mobile store using.
While Apple yesterday allowed Fortnite back into the US App Store after some strong words from the judge, Microsoft says there’s still a very big problem …
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After a nearly five-year hiatus, Fortnite is back on the App Store for iPhone and iPad users in the United States. Epic Games announced the return of the battle royale gaming app this afternoon, and you can head to the App Store now to download it.
Fortnite is also back in the Epic Games Store and AltStore in the European Union.
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In the latest edition of the Power On newsletter, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman outlined some of his expectations for how Apple will remain competitive in the App Store payment processing market. Late last month, a judge ruled that Apple’s 27% commission on external payments was illegal. Many large developers have already begun implementing their own payment processing systems.
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Last week, Epic Games resubmitted Fortnite to the App Store in the United States. This followed a court ruling that stated Apple wasn’t allowed to charge a 27% commission on payments conducted through external payment services on the U.S. App Store.
However, when it submitted the new version of Fortnite for app review, Epic Games didn’t hear back for quite some time.
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Today, Apple announced upcoming changes to App Store pricing and developer proceeds. New tax adjustments will take effect immediately in Brazil, and additional pricing updates will roll out in multiple regions over the next few months.
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If you closely follow Apple’s inner workings (and since you’re here, I’m guessing you do), you know Phil Schiller has always been known for his unrelenting and fierce protectiveness of Apple and the App Store.
This is why perhaps the most surprising aspect of Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers’s recent scathing order to Apple in the Epic Games case was how Schiller emerged as the uncompromising good cop within the circular walls of Apple Park.
But here’s the thing: outwardly, Schiller is still Schiller.
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Update May 16, 2025, 8:36 a.m. PT: Apple tells Bloomberg that it did not take action to block Epic Games from releasing its Fortnite update in the European Union. Instead, the company asked it to resubmit the EU update without including the US to avoid impacting other regions.
There’s still no word on the status of Epic’s attempt to bring Fortnite back to the App Store in the US.
Last week, Epic Games announced that it had submitted Fortnite to the App Store in the United States. The move followed an injunction in which a federal judge said Apple couldn’t charge a 27% commission on out-of-app purchases initiated through in-app links.
In a new statement today, however, Epic says that Apple has “blocked” this submission…
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Update:
This message has been live in the App Store since the beginning of Apple’s DMA compliance efforts in March 2024.
In August 2024, Apple announced multiple changes to its compliance plan – including a change to the disclosure message that appears in the App Store for apps that do not use Apple’s In-App Purchase system. Apple proposed updating the disclosure to read:
Transactions in this app are supported by the developer and not Apple.
Learn more
The proposal also changed the design of the disclosure message, replacing the bright red “!” icon with a less aggressive gray “i” icon, as you can see below.
Apple tells 9to5Mac it was ready to implement the changes and that the EU took no issue with the updated disclosure sheet. According to Apple, however, the EU requested the company not implement the changes at that time and never followed up with further guidance. It then fined Apple $500 million for noncompliance last month.
Apple’s comments today align with a report from Politico last week, which said Apple tried addressing the EU’s concerns last summer but was stonewalled.
Here’s the updated disclosure sheet proposed by Apple:
Original story below.
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Epic Games submitted Fortnite to the App Store for review on Friday. Now what? The version under review offers both Apple’s in-app purchase system and an external payment option via the Epic Games Store. But despite recent policy changes forced by a federal injunction, Apple isn’t legally required to approve the app. Still, rejecting Fortnite could deal Apple a blow in the court of public opinion, especially as its standing with developers continues to slip.
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Update: Epic Games says it has submitted Fortnite to the U.S. App Store for review. The ball is now in Apple’s court to approve the app submission.
If Fortnite does return to the U.S. App Store this week, it won’t be before Friday. That’s according to Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney, who shared an update on the long-awaited comeback today.
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Apple has asked the U.S. District Court in Northern California to pause the enforcement of new App Store rules following its recent loss to Epic Games.
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While some companies, including Spotify, Amazon, and Patreon, have been quick to jump at the opportunity to add external payment links to their apps, Netflix is taking a slower approach.
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