Developers optimistic despite antitrust storm clouds

While Apple's CEO, Tim Cook, was on the scene in San Jose, California on Monday, dark clouds were forming on society in Washington, DC.

The Justice Department has been entrusted with the jurisdiction of a possible antitrust investigation on Apple, according to a Reuters report released Monday, and CEO Tim Cook said returned to national television to defend society a day later. The main antitrust arguments against Apple involve its control over the developers who sell on the App Store, which is the only way for most people to install apps on an iPhone.

But you can not say that much about the festive atmosphere at Apple's annual developer conference, WWDC. The 5,000+ participants were mostly programmers who created applications for Apple platforms. They were there to meet colleagues, get tutorials from Apple employees and party with like-minded people.

Antitrust was the furthest thing from the minds of most people.

Seen from WWDC, Apple's developer ecosystem is still thriving, with a large number of talented programmers clamoring for software for Apple's platforms, including iPhones, iPads, and Mac computers. Apple's ecosystem of developers is essential for the company, as one of the iPhone's key selling points is its access to high-quality, often proprietary applications and games.

Apple also takes 30% of the price of any app sold through its App Store platforms, which converts this ecosystem of thriving developers into a growing business figure for the company by drawing the attention of investors to the increasing stability of its online services.

Apple developers are generally excited about Apple software. They claim that Apple's tools are the best in their class, that its iPhone App Store provides easy access to billions of paying customers and that they prefer to personally use Apple products, as you must do to create applications. for iPhone.

WWDC was a hard ticket to get.

Some developers have won the lottery to buy tickets worth $ 1,599 to attend the Celebration Week of Apple products and software. Others were sent by their companies, who paid their share. Some high school students and talented students attended the lecture at Apple's motto, with the idea of ​​working for Apple or creating a killer app someday.

All participants received a personalized reversible jacket upon arrival.

Many programmers in San Jose this week have expressed their enthusiasm for several new Apple ads. One of the most used features is the connection with Apple, which replaces the Google and Facebook login systems to apps, but putting more emphasis on privacy.

SwiftUI is another popular ad, a new programming framework that dramatically reduces the amount of standard code required to write a new application.

SwiftUI is still in its infancy, as many developers have said they have not intended to use it for years, but a programmer has already released an online tutorial on this two-day old technology.

Many developers believe that Apple's development tools and devices allow them to create iOS apps that are not possible on other platforms.

"When it comes to new user experiences, especially creative experiences requiring user innovation, we always start with iOS, the main reason being that the platform is much more organized and you're dealing with a more refined package. Prior to starting the show, Georg Petschnigg, Director of Innovation at WeTransfer, told CNBC he has developed many iOS apps, but recently launched a new app to tap into the database. # 39; wider users of Android.

Apple platforms target a much smaller number of devices and use fewer versions than Google Android, which facilitates their development.

Even Apple CEO Tim Cook mentioned this advantage in a speech on Monday, while "other actors" – Google – had only 10% of users of the most recent version of Android.

"In the end, I had the feeling that iOS had fewer form factors.Orange, you have a huge amount of hardware, and even with the minimal version of the operating system it's like, what do you choose "This is the kind of compromise you need to think about," said Jesse Chor, the head of mobile telephony for Splunk. He recently led the development of a set of Splunk Connected Experiences applications available for iPhone and Apple Watch, but not for Android.

"When you use an iPhone and launch a new application, 97% of your user base uses the latest version within 48 hours," said Benoit Vatere, founder of Mammoth Media. His company develops two main applications, Wishbone and Yarn, for Android and iOS.

In response, Google announced the release of new cross-platform development tools at the developer conference held earlier this year. Improving Android, it is now easier for developers to target more versions of Android without doing extra work.

One of the reasons why the Apple platform remains popular among developers is that its audience is willing to pay.

Users of the Apple App Store have spent $ 46.6 billion worldwide in 2018, according to the app analysis company App Sensor Tower. That's 1.9 times what Google Play did last year. In the United States in particular, iPhone users spent $ 79 per device compared to the average Android user who purchased $ 56 worth of apps, in-app purchases and online services through Google Play.

"According to our estimates, users of the App Store worldwide have spent nearly twice as much money in apps as Google Play, despite the much larger market share of the latter in the market. world, "Alex Malafeev, co-founder of Sensor Tower, told CNBC.

On a website launched the week before WWDC, Apple said it has paid more than $ 120 billion to developers over the last 10 years. On this website, it was stated that "although other stores have more users and more app downloads, the App Store brings more money to developers".

"Per-user revenue remains much higher on Apple compared to Android," Vatere said.

Despite the positive atmosphere in San Jose, some developers have expressed concerns about Apple's dominance at the conference or at unofficial side events in adjacent hotels.

Governments are paying more attention than ever to Apple's control over its platforms and how it might compete with its own developers. The European Union is investigating a complaint from Spotify that Apple has put it at a disadvantage in favor of its own Apple Music service. Some developers who created parental control apps felt targeted by the review process of the Apple App Store called "Review Apps" when Apple released a competing feature called Screen Time.

Several developers have said that the fact that Apple creates apps competing with its own so old developers has earned it its name: Sherlocking, after an outdated software from the early 2000s Apple software competing with an app called Watson. The Verge has compiled a list of 9 apps that have been Sherlocked at WWDC this year.

A developer who saw Apple announce a competitive feature at WWDC said he had not been notified of the move despite an existing relationship with Apple's developer relations group. He said he asked his contact at Apple several times if Apple wanted to compete with him and that he had no answer.

He still stated that he wanted to continue creating apps for Apple's platforms, but that he might be considering expanding into areas where he is. technology companies are unlikely to compete with it. He did not want to be named because he has an ongoing relationship with Apple.

The developers have also expressed confusion with the application review process, which can be time consuming and often provides unnecessary background information when applications are rejected.

"We are an important publisher, so we have an account manager we can talk to, they're responsive and we can talk to the review team, Apple does not share everything, but they keep communicating," he said. Vatere.

"Do not get me wrong, it's frustrating from time to time because you're rejected and you do not know why, but that does not bother me, because there is communication," he said.

Apple declined to comment beyond its publications and public statements.

In the end, the main complaint of the developers is probably the price charged by Apple to access its platform App Store – 30%, the same price as that proposed by the Google Play Store.

The frustration of developers related to the 30% reduction of Apple broke unexpectedly. During a roundtable at a conference held at a Marriott hotel near WWDC, a man stood up at a roundtable to allow software makers to discuss the subscription price on the App Store.

"As a developer, I hate the subscription model because Apple's cut is so rigid that it's worse than organized crime," he said.