A new report from Apple is singing the praise of its own App Store in helping small Aussie developers reach audiences around the world, resulting in a nice little boost to their earnings.
According to the report, “small businesses and app creators are finding more success than ever on the App Store”. Small developers in Australia, Apple said, are seeing a 99 per cent increase in earnings over the past two years, outpacing the earnings growth of large developers by more than double.
Australia is in fourth spot for growth when you look at this stat from a global perspective.
To be considered a ‘small developer’, they must have less than $1 million in earnings and fewer than one million downloads across all their apps in a given year.
More than 90 per cent of all developers on the App Store are small developers, Apple said, and thousands of new small developers from all around the world join the App Store every year. There’s over 1.8 million apps available to over 1 billion App Store customers worldwide.
They’re great stats, and you love to see the success of other Aussies (particularly in a globally competitive market). But the elephant in the report is that it doesn’t touch on in-app purchases.
The Apple App Store has caught the attention of regulators and policy makers in Australia, not just globally. Apple has long been accused of having a stranglehold on in-app purchases, which was really brought to light when Apple (as well as Google) in 2020 removed Fortnite from their respective app stores after Epic Games allowed players to purchase in-game currency directly from the mobile apps on iOS and Android.
This was a big deal because it enabled user to skip the regular in-app payment method that Apple gets a 30 per cent cut of. It opened up the ongoing debate over how much power Apple should really have over its App Store.