This has been a big year for iPhone users in the European Union. First, Apple was forced to allow them to download apps from third-party stores, with that functionality added with iOS 17.4, and now the latest beta of iOS 17.5 lets users download apps directly from websites.
This change – which has been in the works for a while thanks to the EU's Digital Markets Act (DMA) – means that users and developers are no longer chained to Apple’s App Store. However, it comes with a lot of conditions for developers.
As we’ve previously reported, developers will need to have been in the official developer program for at least two years to offer downloads from their website. They’ll also only be able to offer apps that had one million or more first installs on iOS in the EU in the previous year.
Developers will also need to be transparent about their data collection policies, and these apps also need to make it through Apple’s notarization process (which checks that they’re not malicious).
All of this is arguably good news for users, as it helps to ensure that the apps they’re downloading are safe to install, just as when they download apps from the App Store itself.
For developers, though, it’s a lot of hoops to jump through, and Apple might be hoping that not too many bother to jump through said hoops, since the company has been vocally reluctant to allow app downloads from anywhere but the App Store.
Switching one fee for another
That said, many of the requirements here would also be required for developers using the App Store. So the main reason they might want to do this, instead of or as well as offering their apps on the App Store, is that they won’t have to pay Apple the 30% fee it gets for apps downloaded from its store.
However, they’ll instead have to pay a 0.50 euro ‘Core Technology Fee’ for each install over one million in the previous 12 months, which in some cases could probably end up being more expensive.
So one way or another Apple is still getting paid, and from a user perspective downloading the app from a website rather than the App Store probably won’t be much different. Still, it’s nice to have the option – though everyone outside the EU will have to keep getting apps the old way for now.
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