What the Epic Games vs. Apple Injunction Means for Software Companies -

Regardless of whether you believe the claims that Epic Games or Apple won in the recent U.S. Injunction decision of U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers certainly captured the attention of the mobile development community.

"When we learned about it, we just stopped what we were doing," an app developer said to us in an earlier call. "It shut down our shop for a time. We all wanted to read through the order to understand what it meant."

In the meantime, Apple's appeal is pending. Gonzalez Rogers ruling would enable developers to link to payment platforms that are not Apple's (like !) for purchases in-app which is a good thing for businesses that make money through an upsell or upgrade pricing system.

Apple received 90 days from the ruling of September 10 to alter its system to allow the kind of payments that are external to Apple. The company has since requested the court for a stay -- which is likely to be decided on in November.

We don't know what will transpire in the future, but we do believe this decision could result in an enormous growth opportunity for SaaS as well as software-related companies- especially those using a product-led growth model.

New Revenue Opportunities From Mobile Apps

For companies that may have avoided apps for mobile devices, Google and Apple's policy modifications, along with the Gonzales-Rogers decision could result in significant revenues.

I expect to see more B2B businesses taking advantage of the opportunities that app stores provide when partnered with much more sensible payment methods.

The robust desktop platform could utilize mobile to create a new advantages in the market

In the future using a mobile application could provide a advantages for companies that want to reach new customers -in addition to providing access to their tools for mobile users.

I also suspect that mobile apps could offer a stronger return of investment (ROI) going forward.

Growth potential of markets in other areas

Another thing I've been curious about is how this might impact the overall mobile market. In the present it appears that it appears that the Google Play and Apple marketplaces have the upper hand in global markets and have greater than 3 times the amount of apps in comparison to other markets.

Does the dominance of Google and Apple in the market for mobile phones begin to fall apart? If it does it could be that we begin to see smaller market places gain in prominence and importance.

We currently aren't being able to determine what the return on investment would be in making investments in smaller marketplaces but this could be something worth considering, based on your intended audience.

Recent Changes in Apple and Google Marketplaces

Before the Gonzalez Rogers ruling, we were seeing modifications in and the Apple and Google markets that favor small developers.

In the past, both tech giants took a 30percent cut from any revenue in their app marketplaces. But at the beginning of 2021 Apple has cut its share for any developer earning less than $1 million by 15 percent.

Google quickly reacted to this move by securing Apple's plan to lower its share from 30 percent to 15 percent for the initial $1M of app-store revenue.

This change occurred while both firms were subject to public scrutiny around their practices which included state and federal lawsuits within the U.S. and similar antitrust lawsuits that were pending in South Korea and the European Union.

Are There Opportunities for your company?

If you're already in the App Store You'll need to investigate the possibilities this new change offers. If you've avoided apps you're probably the right time to look at it again!

If the courts do, we may find ourselves in a place where you could avoid the 30% cut for app purchases. It's certainly an opportunity worth considering when you are planning your future development plans.

If and when Apple is forced to allow third-party processors to use its app, it will be prepared to aid.

Are In-App Payments Supported in Mobile Applications?

In short,"Yes!"

We'll have much more to say on this subject over the next few weeks.