Technology | Apple is making a huge change to its app store – but only in the EU

World the largest smartphone manufacturer Apple announced on Thursday agreeing to change the European Union's demand for downloading applications to, for example, iPhones.

Regarding major online platforms EU digital market regulation specifies that consumers must have the opportunity to change service providers and use the services directly. According to the EU, consumer prices are then determined more fairly.

According to the legislation, Apple and other large companies must enable downloading of applications past their official marketplaces.

The regulation therefore, for the first time in the EU, Apple offers the possibility to download applications to mobile devices from other than its own App Store. The change will take effect in the IOS 17.4 operating system update in March.

In practice, the user must first download the new store's program to their phone from the web, after which applications and their add-ons can be purchased from within the respective program. However, Apple still has the right to check in advance that the store does not violate its privacy rules.

The change only applies to the European Union, so in the US, for example, only the App Store will continue to be available.

Apple is justified its previous method of operation with, among other things, data protection. It is easier to monitor the reliability of programs offered in the App Store than programs freely downloaded from the Internet.

It's also about money: Apple has received a sales commission of up to 30 percent for the applications sold on its own marketplace.

In the future, Apple plans to charge companies in the EU a commission of 10-17 percent if the application is sold in the App Store using its own payment system. Apple also charges 50 cents for very popular commercial apps.

Among other things, the music service Spotify and the popular Fortnite-online game developer Epic Games have criticized the size of the sales commissions taken by Apple.

In addition to the app store, Apple also plans to make changes to the Safari web browser on its mobile devices, among other things. Since March, the web browser also offers the user to download web browsers from other manufacturers.

At issue is the second time in a short period of time that Apple has to make changes to its products due to EU requirements.

In autumn Apple replaced in its new iPhones Lightning connections with usb-c connections. Other big smartphone manufacturers such as Samsung also use the usb-c connection for power and data input in their devices.

According to the EU, usb-c chargers must be suitable for all mobile phones, tablets, headphones and digital cameras in the future.