After being faced with recent, intense antitrust investigations, Apple has decided to cut its App Store fee in half that it took from the smallest app developers. The company will reduce the commission on app sales from 30% to 15% for developers who brought in $1 million or less from their apps in the last year. The policy will come into effect starting next year, according to Apple.
The impact of this change will not be much on Apple’s bottom line, but is still big considering that for the past 12 years, the company never settled to tamper with the significant growth that it gained through its App Store. Apple had always continued to aggressively defend itself against all the antitrust complaints.
It is estimated that the change in Apple’s policy will affect about 98 percent of the companies that pay Apple a commission. Apple on the other hand said that the new rate would affect the “vast majority” of its developers, but didn’t specify it in numbers.
In a statement that Apple released regarding the new policy, chief executive Tim Cook said that the smaller commission will help developers ‘'fund their small businesses, take risks on new ideas, expand their teams, and continue to make apps that enrich people’s lives.”
This move will however, still not do anything to make big app developers come on peaceful terms with Apple, especially those that have been protesting against the company's fee policy for the longest time.
Epic Games took legal action against Apple over its fee some time back, followed by 13 other companies and groups, including Spotify, that raised their voice against the tech giant for the same issue and even formed a nonprofit Coalition for App Fairness to fight the “app tax.”
Nevertheless, Apple seems to have found a way to earn good will from thousands of developers without having much to lose in return.
