Fortnite’s battle with Apple and Google could have an impact on news publishers
A lot of the articles and comments I have read, focus on the 30% cut. Which is definitely high, though primarily for those who sell externally licensed and&#x2F;or non-digital goods.<p>But to me (with my almost decade long iOS developer experience), the bigger problems are:<p>* You cannot install apps on an iPhone (even on a phone that you own) without paying Apple. Without a developer account, an app that you build and self sign works for only 7 days.<p>* If you are an app that exists on other platforms, and&#x2F;or accepts payments on other platforms, you can&#x27;t describe that or even link to it, from your iOS app. Your users need to know that the alternative options exist on their own. See the Netflix sign in screen for a nice example, but realize that 99% of apps won&#x27;t get away with that, only apps the size of Netflix can.<p>* You can only ship apps that Apple&#x27;s inconsistent review board agrees with. And of course, the rules and their inconsistent application keep changing in favor of Apple&#x27;s competing apps, which of course have access to internal APIs and don&#x27;t pay a 30% cut either. Spotify is a good example here, but it&#x27;s worse for many smaller companies.<p>* And now macOS is adopting the worst of iOS&#x27; draconian policies. You won&#x27;t be able to run non-notarized apps on macOS on Apple Silicon based computers at all.<p>Unfortunately there are many who drink the Apple koolaid about all of this being all about security. There are legitimately good things that Apple does which enhance user security, and I welcome changes like the new IDFA policy of iOS 14, but let&#x27;s not pretend that Apple does those because they affect Apple&#x27;s competitors&#x27; business and strengthen Apple&#x27;s (you have to now use Apple&#x27;s sdk for user tracking).<p>But none of the things I wrote about above are about the user, and some of them are actively worse for Apple&#x27;s users  (eg: not being able to buy a book on the Kindle app easily).