Apple had an internal debate if it should bring ads to the App Store.
The internal emails were released as part of the Epic v. Apple trial.
Apple struggled over the idea to bring ads to the App Store.
As reported by 9to5Mac, internal emails released as part of the Epic v. Apple trial show that the company struggled with the idea of bringing advertisements to the App Store as far back as 2015.
Apple s internal discussion about adding Search Ads to the App Store appear to have began around February 2015, when Apple s David Neumann emailed Eric Friedman a link to Google s announcement about allowing ads in Google Play. Neumann is 15-year veteran engineer at Apple, while Friedman serves as head of the company s Fraud Engineering Algorithms and Risk unit.
Apple Originally Feared App Store Ads Would Damage Its Image May 5, 2021 12:47 GMT
Apple eventually brought ads to the App Store in 2016
Nobody likes ads, and every time they’re implemented in a product that has until that point been offered free of charge, clean, and with zero restrictions, the decision is rather controversial and always received with mixed reactions by the community.
This was Apple’s main concern when the company started looking into bringing ads to the App Store, with emails exchanged by several executives confirming the big honchos feared this approach would damage Apple’s image.
Disclosed as part of the legal war between Apple and Epic, the emails reveal that company executives wanted the App Store to highlight high-quality apps, not necessarily random items based on ads.
There has been a long-running battle between Epic Games (Fortnite makers) and Apple over Apple’s policy of 30% commission. This means that apps on the Apple App store will pay a 30% commission for every revenue-generating transaction. The 30% commission will be payable if the total sale of the seller exceeds $1 million. However, if it is less than $1 million, then the commission rate will be 15%. Since Epic Games sale is well over a million dollars, it will have to pay 30% commission. For this reason, the company went to court.
According to Epic Games’ previous report, the fight is not for itself alone. The company’s statement reads
Apple has always had the go big or go home type of scenario for each of its things, no matter how small they are. The company released its financial results for the first quarter of 2021 and the tech giant is seemingly doing even better than it did last year with its earnings. The launch of the iPhone 12 was a big hit for the company, and even with them postponing the supply of iPads all across the stores due to a global chip shortage. It didn’t seem to affect the company’s business as with only the sales of iPhone 12, the tech giant was able to earn even more in the first quarter of 2021 than it did in the first quarter of 2020.