Tag Archive for: app’

Court orders Apple to implement App Store changes, 2022 forecast, TikTok tries gaming – TechCrunch

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Welcome back to This Week in Apps, the weekly TechCrunch series that recaps the latest in mobile OS news, mobile applications and the overall app economy.

The app industry continues to grow, with a record 218 billion downloads and $143 billion in global consumer spend in 2020. Consumers last year also spent 3.5 trillion minutes using apps on Android devices alone. And in the U.S., app usage surged ahead of the time spent watching live TV. Currently, the average American watches 3.7 hours of live TV per day, but now spends four hours per day on their mobile devices.

Apps aren’t just a way to pass idle hours — they’re also a big business. In 2019, mobile-first companies had a combined $544 billion valuation, 6.5x higher than those without a mobile focus. In 2020, investors poured $73 billion in capital into mobile companies — a figure that’s up 27% year-over-year.

This Week in Apps offers a way to keep up with this fast-moving industry in one place with the latest from the world of apps, including news, updates, startup fundings, mergers and acquisitions, and suggestions about new apps and games to try, too.

Do you want This Week in Apps in your inbox every Saturday? Sign up here: techcrunch.com/newsletters

Apple lost its request to delay App Store changes

Epic Games Inc. Fortnite App As Gamers Flock

Image Credits: Andrew Harrer / Bloomberg / Getty Images

A federal judge ruled this week that Apple can’t push back the deadline to update its App Store policies, as previously ordered in the court’s decision on California’s Epic Games v. Apple lawsuit. Though Apple largely won that case when the judge declared that Apple was not acting as a monopolist (as Epic Games had alleged), the court sided with the Fortnite maker on the matter of Apple’s anti-steering policies regarding restrictions on in-app purchases.

The original ruling stated that Apple would no longer be allowed to prohibit developers from pointing to other means of payment besides Apple’s own payment systems. But Apple wanted that decision put on hold until its appeals case was decided — a delay that would have effectively pushed back the App Store changes by a matter of years.

The judge heard Apple’s requests for a stay on the injunction…

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Facebook tests App Store rules, Apple fights sideloading, Netflix games go global – TechCrunch

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Welcome back to This Week in Apps, the weekly TechCrunch series that recaps the latest in mobile OS news, mobile applications and the overall app economy.

The app industry continues to grow, with a record 218 billion downloads and $143 billion in global consumer spend in 2020. Consumers last year also spent 3.5 trillion minutes using apps on Android devices alone. And in the U.S., app usage surged ahead of the time spent watching live TV. Currently, the average American watches 3.7 hours of live TV per day, but now spends four hours per day on their mobile devices.

Apps aren’t just a way to pass idle hours — they’re also a big business. In 2019, mobile-first companies had a combined $544 billion valuation, 6.5x higher than those without a mobile focus. In 2020, investors poured $73 billion in capital into mobile companies — a figure that’s up 27% year-over-year.

This Week in Apps offers a way to keep up with this fast-moving industry in one place with the latest from the world of apps, including news, updates, startup fundings, mergers and acquisitions, and suggestions about new apps and games to try, too.

Do you want This Week in Apps in your inbox every Saturday? Sign up here: techcrunch.com/newsletters

Google Play to allow support for alternative billing systems in South Korea

Following the passage of the so-called “anti-Google law” in South Korea, Google says it will comply with the new mandate by giving Android app developers on Google Play the ability to offer alternative payment systems alongside Google’s own. The legislation represents the first time a government has been able to force app stores to open up to third-party payment systems for in-app purchases — a change that could impact both app stores’ revenues, as developers look to skirt the tech giants’ commissions.

Image Credits: Google

In a blog post this week, Google says developers in South Korea will be able to add an alternative in-app billing system in addition to Google Play’s billing system for their mobile and tablet users in the country. At checkout, users will be able to choose which billing system they want to use for their purchase. Details for developers about how to…

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Windows 10 Mobile security flaw

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Apple Makes Case Against App Sideloading by Comparing iPhone Security to Android Malware Stats

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Of the two major mobile operating system vendors, Apple enjoys a reputation for being the more private and safe option. The company attributes iPhone security to its “walled garden” approach, restricting app sideloading and making the App Store the only simple and straightforward way to get software onto its devices.

In the face of court decisions that may ultimately force it to loosen this policy, Apple is engaging in a PR campaign that has commissioned research to connect the more open architecture of Android to increased risk of malware. Among other claims, Apple says that an Android device is up to 47 times more likely to contract malware and that allowing app sideloading would attract a wave of cyber crime to the iOS platform.

Apple touts iPhone security ahead of regulatory decisions

Apple’s latest research-driven pamphlet touts the “critical importance” of iPhone security, making the case that a smartphone tends to be the type of device that contains the greatest amount of sensitive personal information. The central theme is that app sideloading would cripple its carefully-structured security protections and expose users to attacks.

The statistics it presents certainly cast Android in a poor light. Apple claims that its rival mobile OS experiences 15 to 47 times more malware infections, totalling six million attacks per month and about 230,000 new malware infections per day.

Apple also claims that allowing app sideloading would be detrimental to its users in a number of ways. Cupertino predicts a wave of cyber crime coming to its ecosystem, even if app sideloading was restricted to approved third-party app stores, along with reduced control over apps for users and the removal of “core components of iPhone security” from iOS due to requirements created by certain sideloading initiatives. Apple also predicts users being tricked by fake third-party app stores and forced into sideloading of apps by employers and schools.

While it is in Apple’s financial interest to paint as dire a picture as possible, the company is not factually wrong on some of its core assertions. However, it also may be exaggerating the case. As the Pegasus spyware…

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