ProBeat: Google should have chosen Microsoft’s app store principles over Apple’s

Microsoft this week outlined a list of 10 principles for the Microsoft Store on Windows in a not-so-subtle blow to Apple and Google. The general message: Microsoft supports Epic Games in its war with Apple and Google by over the 30% cut that companies take from each purchase in the iOS App Store and the Google Play store, respectively.

Last week, Google doubled down on its stance by saying that a) Android supports different app stores (as opposed to iOS) and that b) Google would impose its 30% cut on digital items (as Apple does). Since there is no way for Apple to allow third-party app stores on iOS, Google decided to present Android as the lesser of two evils to make sure it could keep printing cash. That gamble might well be worth it, but Google should have taken the “don’t be evil” route and taken Microsoft’s position first.

Epic kicked off this entire saga on August 13 by updating Fortnite for Android and iOS to use their own billing service, prompting Apple and Google to remove the game from their mobile app stores. Epic then turned around and sued both tech giants. The lawsuits could define how all developers, from individuals to massive corporations, distribute applications and games not only in the global duopoly of mobile operating systems, but as Microsoft has pointed out, on computing devices in general.

These are the principles of the Microsoft App Store:

1. Developers will have the freedom to choose whether to distribute their Windows applications through our application store. We will not block competing app stores on Windows.
2. We will not block a Windows application based on a developer’s business model or the way it offers content and services, including whether the content is installed on a device or streamed from the cloud.
3. We will not block a Windows application based on the developer’s choice of which payment system to use to process purchases made in their application.
4. We will give developers timely access to information about the interoperability interfaces that we use in Windows, as set out in our Interoperability Principles.
5. Each developer will have access to our app store as long as it meets objective standards and requirements, including security, privacy, quality, content, and digital security.
6. Our app store will charge reasonable fees that reflect the competition we face from other Windows app stores and will not force a developer to sell anything they don’t want to sell within their app.
7. Our app store will not prevent developers from communicating directly with their users through their apps for legitimate business purposes.
8. Our application store will maintain our own applications with the same standards with which it maintains the applications of the competition.
9. Microsoft will not use any non-public information or data from its app store about a developer’s app to compete with it.
10. Our app store will be transparent about its rules, policies, and promotional and marketing opportunities, will apply them consistently and objectively, will notify you of changes, and will provide a fair process to resolve disputes.

Google could and frankly should have written its own version of these rules. Basically, the company already has rule number one. Even more so for rule number two. But it’s that rule number three that Google couldn’t give up. Google could have written the rest of the rules, for Android, saving years of legal battles and antitrust problems. But you see, number three is too profitable.

I think most people get overlooked why the 30% tax is so huge. In addition to the tag price of an app or game, the tax covers every transaction that occurs within every Android / iOS app and game, from subscription fees to every digital currency and virtual item. Google, like Apple, wants to continue charging a 30% cut from everything that. Businesses do this by requiring that all applications use their respective billing systems.

Here’s Microsoft’s rule from this week, rewritten for Google:

We will not block an Android application based on the developer’s choice of which payment system to use to process purchases made in their application.

And this is what Google wrote last week:

We only charge a service fee if the developer charges users to download their app or if they sell in-app digital items, and we think that’s fair.

Dear Google, you have confused justice with greed. And now, it’s too late to save face. You drew a line in the sand that separated you from Apple, but Microsoft drew a circle around the two of you and jumped into the water with Epic.

ProBeat is a column in which Emil rants about everything that comes his way that week.