This may just be the year that Apple’s walled garden ecosystem receives a few doors, windows and a breath of fresh air. A bill proposed in the North Dakota Senate in the U.S. aims to prohibit digital stores like the Apple App Store and Google Play Store from exercising a distribution monopoly and forcing third-party developers on their platforms to strictly use their respective platforms in the application systems. payment.
The Senate Bill 2333 (via TheVerge) targets “digital application distribution platforms” that “exceed $ 10 million in annual revenue”, not smartphone app stores in particular. But its broad definition really takes aim at both Apple and Google. This bill, if passed and becomes law for the state of North Dakota, USA, will restrict platforms from:
- Require a developer to use a digital application distribution platform or digital transaction platform as the exclusive way to distribute a digital product.
- Requiring a developer to use an in-app payment system as the exclusive way of accepting payment from a user to download a software application or purchase a digital or physical product through a software application.
- Retaliation against a developer for choosing to use an alternative app store or in-app payment system
Essentially, the application distribution platforms and payment platforms in question cannot exercise a developer monopoly. Nor can they retaliate against developers for choosing an alternative store or payment platform. Keep in mind that the proposed legislation will only affect business in the state of North Dakota. But in order to implement these changes, both Apple and Google will have to make quite large changes in their policies, leaving the space open for these changes to be taken to more states as well, or even in the U.S. and the world.
The proposed legislation targets situations such as the removal of Fortnite from the Apple App Store and Google Play Store as a result of Epic introducing its own payment system. There is a definitive payment monopoly on both platforms and the platforms have even made changes that make it more difficult to get around the commission they charge for using the payment platforms. Apple has cut its commission rate to 15% for smaller developers, but iOS developers are still stuck in the Apple App Store as an application distribution platform because of Apple’s walled garden approach to iOS. Android has the ability to sideload, but efforts to gain momentum in anything other than the Google Play Store are gigantic, renouncing developers to fight the Play Store as their only practical means of success on the distribution front. applications. Many major developers have even joined hands to form the non-profit “Coalition for App Fairness” to oppose Apple and Google. North Dakota’s proposed legislation looks more like a falling domino that could change the way apps are distributed on smartphones in the future.