Changes in the Apple Developer Guideline - what are they?
Most recently, just a couple of weeks ago, many iOS developers began reporting changes to the Apple Developer Guideline. These changes, rather related to the marketing strategy, which developers may not be interested in, sowed fear and doubts in the ecosystem of Apple's mobile development as a whole. The following is the exact quote that affects the above changes:
Transfer:
2.25 Applications that display other applications (other than their own) for the purpose of selling or advertising, which can be confused with advertising on the App Store, will be rejected.
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To understand this question, let's divide it into 4 parts and try to analyze who is likely to win, who will lose from these changes, and who they simply will not touch.
Because of the comments you hear, you might get the impression that things are bad, but none of them represent Apple’s point of view. So let's try to fill this gap and walk in the shoes of Apple for a couple of minutes. It is probably wonderful to feel like the most expensive company in the world. We can say that you are the creator of the concept of a mobile ecosystem with the App Store as its key component, which owes its success to the iPhone and iPad. If mediocre apps flood in the App Store (in terms of innovation and quality), the store’s value will instantly drop, causing the iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch as a product to lose its value. It is quite clear what happens when your product starts to look less and less valuable in the eyes of your customers. Suddenly you can find yourself in a place well known to companies like RIM - a trash can ... very unprofitable and irrelevant for the industry.
Obviously, Apple does not want to allow anyone to play with its ratings. The company wants developers with large budgets to not take advantage of their position and “buy” a place in the ranking. Apple wants to keep the game fair. They understand that developers want to get to the top of the App Store and earn more. However, if you observe Apple's WWDC format events, you will see the leaders of these companies name the amounts the App Store brings to the developers. This is a gold mine. And if developers abandon the App Store - the entire ecosystem will collapse, everything is pretty simple.
But, like in any other big market, even Apple cannot make every developer happy; The company relies on the best applications that come from the most innovative developers.
The iOS platform is unique in many ways, but there is an obvious fact that combines it with any other platform - developers come there to earn money. Now, when Apple’s intention to improve its platform with each innovation in order to bring more profit to both parties, it became clear that we finally see the other side of the coin. To put it mildly, not every iOS developer liked the latest changes and, obviously, they see a threat to the usual choice of advertising methods for their applications.
To be honest, a number of marketing tools to achieve optimal visibility of applications on the App Store are quite limited, and promotion through sites such as FAAD was one of the main tools that allowed an application to jump from nowhere to the top of the App Store. Quite often, the team advertising the application is expected to take the App Stor`a fortress by attack. Marketers are trying to use all sorts of approaches to achieve these (frankly, often unrealistic) goals, and the newly introduced changes will not exactly surprise them. In fact, in many cases they may be a relief. In the end, customers can not demand prohibited actions from advertisers.
Obviously, this part of the equation is affected more than the rest. Since the changes in Apple’s policy were quite recent, they have not been touched on yet. It is also not clear (as is always the case with Apple) when the new rules actually take effect.
Tapjoy has previously confronted Apple because of the nature of their services. However, they managed to reconcile their differences, and Tapjoy changed their business model to ensure that the interaction remains mutually beneficial not to the detriment of the company. The lesson to learn is that you cannot rely on one inert business model when it comes to providing marketing services in Apple’s mobile application ecosystem. You must have a backup plan to support your business, or you must be prepared to adapt your current services to match what the digital giant finds acceptable.
Tightening the rules and instructions for companies that provide programs with advertising and cross-promo solutions does not mean that all mobile marketing methods will be affected. This means that services such as App Store Optimization for your application, promotion through social media, media procurement and video demo (like many others) will remain not only effective, but also acceptable by Apple. They may close the service providers of FreeAppADay format, but any “white” marketing methods that rely on objectively constructive actions will not feel the effect of Apple’s changes.
What about the consumer? How does this affect his experience finding and finding new applications on the App Store? Let's assume that starting tomorrow, cross-promo services from companies like FAAD will become history - how will this affect the average user of the application? The problem with cross-promo as a way to promote FAAD is that sometimes applications appear on top of the App Store that do not deserve it, regardless of whether they were there due to manipulations with user comments, reviews or the number of downloads. This means that the consumer here only wins.
Just in case, we recall that we have highlighted the possible consequences of the changes. Like many other things in our digital age, they can quickly change diametrically. Then we forget about our suspicions, as if nothing had happened.
Transfer:
2.25 Applications that display other applications (other than their own) for the purpose of selling or advertising, which can be confused with advertising on the App Store, will be rejected.
')
To understand this question, let's divide it into 4 parts and try to analyze who is likely to win, who will lose from these changes, and who they simply will not touch.
Apple
Because of the comments you hear, you might get the impression that things are bad, but none of them represent Apple’s point of view. So let's try to fill this gap and walk in the shoes of Apple for a couple of minutes. It is probably wonderful to feel like the most expensive company in the world. We can say that you are the creator of the concept of a mobile ecosystem with the App Store as its key component, which owes its success to the iPhone and iPad. If mediocre apps flood in the App Store (in terms of innovation and quality), the store’s value will instantly drop, causing the iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch as a product to lose its value. It is quite clear what happens when your product starts to look less and less valuable in the eyes of your customers. Suddenly you can find yourself in a place well known to companies like RIM - a trash can ... very unprofitable and irrelevant for the industry.
Obviously, Apple does not want to allow anyone to play with its ratings. The company wants developers with large budgets to not take advantage of their position and “buy” a place in the ranking. Apple wants to keep the game fair. They understand that developers want to get to the top of the App Store and earn more. However, if you observe Apple's WWDC format events, you will see the leaders of these companies name the amounts the App Store brings to the developers. This is a gold mine. And if developers abandon the App Store - the entire ecosystem will collapse, everything is pretty simple.
But, like in any other big market, even Apple cannot make every developer happy; The company relies on the best applications that come from the most innovative developers.
Developers
The iOS platform is unique in many ways, but there is an obvious fact that combines it with any other platform - developers come there to earn money. Now, when Apple’s intention to improve its platform with each innovation in order to bring more profit to both parties, it became clear that we finally see the other side of the coin. To put it mildly, not every iOS developer liked the latest changes and, obviously, they see a threat to the usual choice of advertising methods for their applications.
To be honest, a number of marketing tools to achieve optimal visibility of applications on the App Store are quite limited, and promotion through sites such as FAAD was one of the main tools that allowed an application to jump from nowhere to the top of the App Store. Quite often, the team advertising the application is expected to take the App Stor`a fortress by attack. Marketers are trying to use all sorts of approaches to achieve these (frankly, often unrealistic) goals, and the newly introduced changes will not exactly surprise them. In fact, in many cases they may be a relief. In the end, customers can not demand prohibited actions from advertisers.
Marketers
Obviously, this part of the equation is affected more than the rest. Since the changes in Apple’s policy were quite recent, they have not been touched on yet. It is also not clear (as is always the case with Apple) when the new rules actually take effect.
Tapjoy has previously confronted Apple because of the nature of their services. However, they managed to reconcile their differences, and Tapjoy changed their business model to ensure that the interaction remains mutually beneficial not to the detriment of the company. The lesson to learn is that you cannot rely on one inert business model when it comes to providing marketing services in Apple’s mobile application ecosystem. You must have a backup plan to support your business, or you must be prepared to adapt your current services to match what the digital giant finds acceptable.
Tightening the rules and instructions for companies that provide programs with advertising and cross-promo solutions does not mean that all mobile marketing methods will be affected. This means that services such as App Store Optimization for your application, promotion through social media, media procurement and video demo (like many others) will remain not only effective, but also acceptable by Apple. They may close the service providers of FreeAppADay format, but any “white” marketing methods that rely on objectively constructive actions will not feel the effect of Apple’s changes.
Consumer
What about the consumer? How does this affect his experience finding and finding new applications on the App Store? Let's assume that starting tomorrow, cross-promo services from companies like FAAD will become history - how will this affect the average user of the application? The problem with cross-promo as a way to promote FAAD is that sometimes applications appear on top of the App Store that do not deserve it, regardless of whether they were there due to manipulations with user comments, reviews or the number of downloads. This means that the consumer here only wins.
Just in case, we recall that we have highlighted the possible consequences of the changes. Like many other things in our digital age, they can quickly change diametrically. Then we forget about our suspicions, as if nothing had happened.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/155665/
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