Microsoft this week outlined a list of 10 principles for the Microsoft Store on Windows in a not-so subtle jab at Apple and Google. The overall message: Microsoft supports Epic Games in its war with Apple and Google over the 30% cut the companies take of every purchase on the iOS App Store and the Google Play store, respectively.
Last week, Google doubled down on its stance by saying that a) Android supports different app stores (unlike iOS) and that b) Google would enforce its 30% cut on digital items (like Apple does). Since there’s no way Apple is going allow third-party app stores on iOS, Google decided to present Android as the lesser of two evils to ensure it could keep printing cash. That gamble could very well pay off, but Google should have taken the “don’t be evil” route and adopted Microsoft’s stance first.
Epic kicked off this whole saga on August 13 by updating Fortnite for Android and iOS to use its own billing service, resulting in Apple and Google deleting the game from their mobile app stores. Epic then turned around and sued both tech giants. The lawsuits could define how all developers, from individuals to massive corporations, distribute apps and games not just on the world’s duopoly of mobile operating systems, but, as Microsoft has signaled, on computing devices in general.
Here are Microsoft’s app store principles:
The catch is, my Windows 10 profile is registered as the 'administrator'. I tried the 'trusted installer' thing and it didn't work. I did however go into my 'server32' file folder and changed permissions there to 'administrator' since many of those items I want to delete are 32 files. The first four principles are designed to preserve this freedom of choice, and the robust competition and innovation that it enables on Windows 10. Microsoft is obviously not happy with the rules for the App Store, which it has made clear in the past (especially with the public launch of its cloud-based game streaming service, xCloud). So I just updated to W10 earlier, and Talos seems to be having some major issues! 1) The game loading is EXTREMELY long! I even had to restart the game a few times. Currently, from World 2 back to World 2 Hub, there is an infinite white loading screen.:( 2) When the world 2 level loaded, everything is super low poly. It's like I am playing a game from the early to mid 2000's! There seem to be.
Developers will have the freedom to choose whether to distribute their apps for Windows through our app store. We will not block competing app stores on Windows.
We will not block an app from Windows based on a developer’s business model or how it delivers content and services, including whether content is installed on a device or streamed from the cloud.
We will not block an app from Windows based on a developer’s choice of which payment system to use for processing purchases made in its app.
We will give developers timely access to information about the interoperability interfaces we use on Windows, as set forth in our Interoperability Principles.
Every developer will have access to our app store as long as it meets objective standards and requirements, including those for security, privacy, quality, content and digital safety.
Our app store will charge reasonable fees that reflect the competition we face from other app stores on Windows and will not force a developer to sell within its app anything it doesn’t want to sell.
Our app store will not prevent developers from communicating directly with their users through their apps for legitimate business purposes.
Our app store will hold our own apps to the same standards to which it holds competing apps.
Microsoft will not use any non-public information or data from its app store about a developer’s app to compete with it.
Our app store will be transparent about its rules and policies and opportunities for promotion and marketing, apply these consistently and objectively, provide notice of changes and make available a fair process to resolve disputes.
Principle makes it easy to design animated and interactive user interfaces. Whether you're designing the flow of a multi-screen app, or new interactions and animations, Principle helps you create designs that look and feel amazing. The Talos Principle. Yes, I have Windows 10 and a 1080, works fine even in 4k;-) £30 is steep though, I've just had a look online and found it for £7.95 #4.
Principle For Windows
Google could have, and frankly should have, written its own version of these rules. The company already essentially does rule number one. Even more so for rule number two. But it’s that rule number three that Google couldn’t give up. Google could have written the rest of the rules, for Android, saving itself years of legal battles and antitrust issues. But you see, number three is too much of a cash cow.
I think it’s often lost on most people why the 30% tax is so massive. In addition to the sticker price of an app or game, the tax encompasses every single transaction that happens inside of every Android/iOS app and game, from subscription fees down to every digital coin and virtual item. Google, like Apple, wants to keep charging a 30% cut of all that. The companies do so by requiring that all apps use their respective billing systems.
Here is this week’s Microsoft rule, rewritten for Google:
We will not block an app from Android based on a developer’s choice of which payment system to use for processing purchases made in its app.
And here is what Google wrote instead last week:
We only collect a service fee if the developer charges users to download their app or they sell in-app digital items, and we think that is fair.
Dear Google, you’ve confused fairness with greediness. And now it’s too late to save face. You drew a line in the sand separating yourself from Apple, but Microsoft drew a circle around the two of you and jumped in the water with Epic.
ProBeat is a column in which Emil rants about whatever crosses him that week.
Developers working at a monitor designing a mobile app.
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Microsoft's latest move in its war on Apple's App Store rules is a list of 10 principles outlining what the Redmond company will and won't do to developers who publish apps for Windows 10 and distribute them on the Microsoft Store.
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Microsoft says it will not block competing app stores on Windows and will not block apps because of a developer's business model, such as whether an app's content is installed on a device or streamed from the cloud.
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Microsoft published the 10 principles a day after Congress released a damning report into anticompetitive practices at Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google. The EU opened its investigation into Apple's App Store rules this June.
SEE: Top 10 iPad tips (free PDF) (TechRepublic)
'Apple's monopoly power over software distribution to iOS devices has resulted in harms to competitors and competition, reducing quality and innovation among app developers, and increasing prices and reducing choices for consumers,' the US House Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee wrote.
Setting out the new principles, Microsoft vice president and deputy general counsel Rima Alaily acknowledged the importance of app stores to software developers.
'We and others have raised questions and, at times, expressed concerns about app stores on other digital platforms. However, we recognize that we should practice what we preach,' she said.
Microsoft's second principle regarding content streaming is central to its complaints about Apple's rules for Microsoft's Xbox xCloud game-streaming service.
After banning streaming games, Apple last month tweaked its App Store rules to allow services such as Sony PlayStation, Google Stadia, and Nvidia GeForce Now. But Apple is requiring these services to submit an app for each game rather than only vetting the game-streaming service app. Microsoft has objected to that rule.
Microsoft also says it will 'not block an app from Windows based on a developer's choice of which payment system to use for processing purchases made in its app'.
Google is stepping up its enforcement of a Play Store policy requiring companies that sell digital goods, such as content subscriptions, to use its billing system. Google is giving companies like Netflix and Spotify until September 31, 2021 to switch to its in-app billing system but will also apply the same rules to its own apps.
While Google Android allows users to install apps from third-party app stores, iOS users don't have that choice. The highest profile fight over in-app payments is between Apple and Epic Games, which rolled out its own in-app payment system for Fortnite.
Microsoft also 'will not force a developer to sell within its app anything it doesn't want to sell'.
This point touches on some of the complaints that iOS developers told members of Congress for its report into whether Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google are violating antitrust law.
Andy Yen, CEO of encrypted email service ProtonMail, told The Verge that in 2018 Apple 'out of the blue' demanded ProtonMail add an in-app purchase option to stay in the App Store.
According to Yen, Apple discovered that ProtonMail offered paid plans on its own website and then demanded it implement in-app purchases. ProtonMail had not created its own in-app payment system as Epic had done for Fortnite. Apple also prevented ProtonMail from updating its app until it complied, he said.
'There's nothing you can say to that. They are judge, jury, and executioner on their platform, and you can take it or leave it,' said Yen.
'You can't get any sort of fair hearing to determine whether it's justifiable or not justifiable, anything they say goes. We simply complied to save our business.'
ProtonMail's case is similar to Apple's recent demand that WordPress implement in-app purchases to sell domains or be blocked from updating its app. Apple eventually backed down from its demand, admitting it was wrong.
Microsoft vows not to prevent developers from communicating directly with their users through the app for legitimate business purposes, to apply the same standards to its own apps as competing apps, and to be transparent about its policies.
Microsoft's 10 principles build on ideas from the recently launched Coalition for App Fairness, whose founding members include Epic Games, Spotify, ProtonMail, Tile, and Basecamp, the maker of the Hey email app. Basecamp got into a fight with Apple after it was blocked from updating its app until it added in-app purchases.
However, Microsoft won't be applying the same principles to the Xbox store.
'Game consoles are specialized devices optimized for a particular use. Though well-loved by their fans, they are vastly outnumbered in the marketplace by PCs and phones,' said Microsoft's Alaily.
'And the business model for game consoles is very different to the ecosystem around PCs or phones. Console makers such as Microsoft invest significantly in developing dedicated console hardware but sell them below cost or at very low margins to create a market that game developers and publishers can benefit from.'