April 7 news, Apple released the iOS 15.5 Beta development preview yesterday, updated several less important new features, and fixed some bugs. Recently, foreign media 9to5Mac found from part of the code that Apple's "reader" App has increased payments to third-party payment channels, and users can bypass the App Store to pay.
For a long time, the majority of Apple users have been tormented by Apple taxes. The Apple App Store and in-app do not support third-party payment channels, and each transaction is charged an additional 30% commission. Not only does this result in lower revenues for software developers, but it also means that Apple users need to pay more than Android users when they buy the same content.
A large number of users and app developers oppose Apple's approach, believing that Apple has caused them great losses. But some large companies have expressed support because the platform can better manage issues such as user refunds and billing. Once a third-party payment channel is introduced, the App Store cannot directly manage purchases and subscriptions, users cancel or delete externally purchased apps or content, and iOS cannot send reminders. Apple said this would pose a threat to the safety of users, so it has been reluctant to open up third-party payment channels.
EPIC also launched a years-long lawsuit with Apple to cancel the high platform fee. At the same time, users in the United States, Russia and other countries have also sued Apple many times, believing that Apple uses the industry monopoly position of the App Store to charge users a high commission. Apple has been subjected to so many lawsuits but remains indifferent, offering to open up third-party payment channels last year, but progress has been slow.
Today, Apple's support for third-party payments in the latest beta version of iOS is an important milestone. Currently, external link account authorization only applies to the Reader app, and if the user uses third-party payment, they can no longer use the Apple platform to provide in-app purchases. Apple is also testing another reminder feature to control and notify users of content or apps purchased outside the platform.
However, it is not happy too early, Apple only tests this function in the "Reader" App for the time being, and whether it will be fully promoted in the follow-up, when to promote it is not easy to determine, it is estimated that it will not be too fast. In addition, whether the third-party payment will also be drawn by Apple, how much is currently uncertain. Once the experience brought by third-party payment is not good, Apple may close again, Xiao Lei feels that it should be impossible to say goodbye to apple tax completely, and can only hope that the third-party payment channel can be slightly lower.