Let ’s say your company requires you to deliver some file at the end of the fourth for record - retention . you could promptly , easy , and efficiently beam them via e-mail but the old company policy command you to copy them to a USB parkway and physically bear them to the employee who manages the archive . You hate the policy , but you must comply , so you observe the oldest , slow , pocket-size USB driveway you could and imitate the file to them , take up a 12 dumb erstwhile thumb drives and creating a headache for everyone .

This would be an illustration of “ malicious obligingness , ” the concept of adhering to the letter of a law or insurance , but doing so in such a way as to openly hold up the spirit of it or make other ’s lives more hard because the law / insurance policy survive .

The new Io App Store changes in the EU , to follow with the Digital Markets Act , have beenannouncedand are part ofiOS 17.4(in beta now , to be released by March ) . Apple ’s verbal description of them sound like good news – lower commissions and the like – but many developers are call off the changes a master class in malicious conformity . In fact , Apple ’s new terms are list as one of the examples of malicious compliancein the Wikipedia entry .

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Vision Pro needs strong developer support to succeed.

The Gatekeeper fee

Central to the ailment of most developer is a fresh “ Core Technology Fee ” that is charge on each “ first install annually ” for developers with more than a million users . That ’s any time the app is installed for the first time in a year — even if it ’s gratuitous to download . So if you have three million downloads ( include app update or downloads from sources outside Apple ’s App Store ) , you ’ll make up a Core Technology Fee of € 0.50 per user ( 54 cents ) on two million user .

Apple made afee calculatorso that developer can see what they ’ll pay under the current rules and the fresh rules , with option to aline downloads , sales , whether the app is stagger in the App Store or not , and whether leverage are treat by Apple or not . Many developers were dismayed to plug in some seemingly reasonable numbers and receive out that their apps would give up half their revenueor moreto Apple even if Apple does n’t give out the app or process the payment . Add third - party payment processing and app store fees to that and …

Well , permit ’s just say it seems clear that Apple is gain it as un - appetising as possible to utilize anything other than the App Store . Under the current terms , an app with 5 million users and € 2 million in yearly sales ( in the EU ) will pay about € 46,000 a month . Under the Modern condition , that explode up to over € 197,000 a month , and even if you do n’t employ the App Store or Apple ’s defrayal processing , you ’d give over € 166,000 a calendar month !

Apple Vision Pro

Vision Pro needs strong developer support to succeed.

Leave it to Apple to follow with a government regulation concerned with “ gatekeeping ” by creating a fee that could reasonably be call a gatekeeping fee : A fee developer pay just for the privilege of accessing the gimmick and one that , of line , Apple does n’t technically have to pay for any of its apps , many of which contend with third - party apps .

Vision Pro needs substantial developer support to deliver the goods .

Apple

Vision Pro needs developer goodwill

The backdrop to all this is the launch of Apple ’s first major new product class in over a decade , and maybe the most significant frontier of development since the iPhone : Apple Vision Pro .

We’vewritten recentlyabout all the apps youwon’tfind on Apple ’s $ 3,499 spatial computing machine . Netflix , Spotify , YouTube , Instagram , Facebook , almostanythingfrom Google … the list is quite extensive . These are n’t just apps that wo n’t have native “ spatial computing ” edition , they ’re apps that have specificallyopted outof allowing their iPad apps to lead in a window on Apple Vision Pro .

That ’s a Brobdingnagian trouble . With sub - million gross sales , this new political program can easily be brush aside . Even with less than 10 million sales , most of the companies make up the apps we all have follow to rely on might not be bothered . Consider that aboriginal iPad apps are still not assured ( e.g. Instagram ) where Apple sells “ only ” 50 - 60 million units a class , and native Vision Pro apps are believably hold up to be harder to make .

And without lots of great apps — real , native , third - party apps — it ’s going to be extremely backbreaking for more than a few million multitude to justify expend thousands of dollars on a sundry - realism machine . Even if the next headset only cost $ 1,000 , it ’s not going to be a giving hit if the apps are n’t there .

The Vision Proneedsdeveloper good will . It needs developers to take a chance on it , to establish the apps that make the equipment suitable . This is not the time for hubris . It ’s the sentence for Apple to bend over backward for developers , make its platform ( all of them – it ’s an ecosystem ! ) as desirable as possible . While none of the new EU term use to Vision Pro , at least not yet , they ’re still burning bridgework with the very the great unwashed who need to make Vision Pro apps . It seems like the worst possible move to tank developer goodwill with raw terminal figure that seem to be deliberately designed to anger Apple ’s biggest critics and provoke governor just as Apple Vision Pro is launch .