Apple breaks its principles to promote its digital services

Apple has violated its own principles to increase the number of subscribers to its digital services and, for the fourth time in four months, has been promoting its content of prohibited methods to Apple developers.

Apple has issued unwanted promotional notices three times to promote Apple Music and Carpool Karaoke, as well as Apple Music on Amazon Echo.

Apple News Plus, a subscription service for magazines and news, is the latest rapist.

Apple News Plus is being offered as a free trial with a monthly subscription fee of $ 9.99, mentioned in a small font.

External developers stated that the coordination of this line was normally subject to control during the audit process and could lead to a rejection of the application in the normal case.

Apple also did not include the print package that third-party developers are required to use in connection with Apple's in-app subscriptions, including mandatory links to the Privacy and Support Policy page, and information on the unsubscription procedure and the time of billing.

The company's actions violate the guidelines of the App Store to promote its paid services such as Apple Music and Apple News Plus. As the company is increasingly moving towards service business turnover, iPhone sales growth is slowing.

The change also takes place as competitors such as Sputivay have started talking about Apple using its own platforms to harm competitors who distribute their software via the App Store.

A group of developers complained that Apple was able to design a subscription screen to maximize participation in the same way as other developers.

For example, they indicated where the price of the monthly subscription, the size and content of the print, could have a considerable impact on the fact that users pay for digital subscriptions.

Other developers have noticed that Apple News Plus had stopped working shortly after unsubscription, although the user was still in the free evaluation period.

Apple's rules require developers to continue to provide their services until the end of the billing period or if there is time left in the free trial.

In recent months, Apple has sent promotional ads to encourage iPhone owners to subscribe to some of their services, such as the family package for Apple Music, announced Apple.

The instructions from the Apple Store strongly oppose the sending of alerts regarding advertisements, promotions or direct marketing goals.

"As the owner of the platform, it has many advantages, but it is frustrating to attract more customers in a way that violates our principles and does not allow it," said one developer.

Apple says that every shipment on the App Store is reviewed before users can download applications, as confirmed by Tim Cook, general manager of the company, last year. "We believe that what the user wants, is someone who reviews these applications,.

Some developers complain that the company's approach has led to inconsistent policies, and there is a complaint about the Apple News Plus subscription because Apple has not charged $ 9.99 on the subscription button.

Many developers think that the company should do this because this has slowed the approval of some applications because the price of the subscription is not clear.

Apple hopes to generate $ 50 billion in revenue through its services by 2020, including fees from the App Store, subscriptions such as iCloud and Apple Music, the AppleCare warranty and service fees. Google license to make it the default search engine of Safari.

Several groups have started accusing Apple of abusing its authority on the App Store for its own third-party applications.

Spotify recently filed a lawsuit against the monopoly against the iPhone manufacturer at the European Commission.

"In recent years, Apple has introduced rules in the App Store, which deliberately limit the selection and smother the innovation at the expense of the user experience, and deliberately harm the developers of others applications, "said Daniel Ek, general manager of Spotivay.

The Sputivay app was trying to use the App Store without paying the cost, the company said in response to SpotPay on its website.