Apple Highlights App Store's Role in Discovery, Privacy, and Safety: 'More Than Just a Storefront'

Apple has overhauled its About the App Store and Developing for the App Store web pages to focus on several key areas, including discovery, privacy and security, trust and safety, hardware and software, and downloading with confidence.

apple app store page

The new pages highlight a range of relevant statistics and emphasize the importance of trust and security on the App Store.

For over a decade, the App Store has proved to be a safe and trusted place to discover and download apps. But the App Store is more than just a storefront — it's an innovative destination focused on bringing you amazing experiences. And a big part of those experiences is ensuring that the apps we offer are held to the highest standards for privacy, security, and content. Because we offer nearly two million apps — and we want you to feel good about using every single one of them.

Apple boasts that every week over 100,000 apps or updates are submitted and reviewed by an App Review team, which now consists of over 500 experts from around the world. 10,000 accepted apps use Apple's HealthKit, CareKit, and ResearchKit health technologies.

Interestingly, Apple also states that in 2019, the App Review team rejected over 150,000 apps for violating the company's privacy guidelines. This year, the company has removed over 60 million user reviews believed to be spam. Apple says that it has rejected over one million app submissions over an unspecified time period for illegal, unsafe, harmful, or objectionable content. Over two million apps have been removed because they were devoid of needed updates.

Apple is committed to helping developers turn their brightest ideas into apps that change the world. That’s why the App Store helps you from start to finish — to build, test, market, and distribute your products and grow your business. Our marketplace is secure, trusted, and accessible — connecting you to over 1.5 billion devices in 175 regions. The App Store and you. Together every step of the way.

The new developers' page says that 92 percent of iPhones issued in the last four years run iOS 13 and almost 90 percent of apps are reviewed within 24 hours. The page also declares that Apple has paid out over $155 billion to developers since 2008, and over 500 million people visit the ‌App Store‌ each week. 85 percent of apps are reportedly free, and these developers pay nothing to Apple. Over 50% of app downloads come from outside the developer's home country.

Apple notes that a 2019 study found the ‌App Store‌ facilitated over $519 billion in commerce globally, and it supports over 2.1 million U.S. jobs across all 50 states, making it one of the fastest-growing sectors of the U.S. economy.

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Top Rated Comments

GeoStructural Avatar
60 months ago
More than just a storefront: Also a Monopoly.

- We are the only authorized vendor.

- We will take 30 % of your sales.

- You own the device but I still have the power to dictate what you install on it.

- Privacy is a human right, except in China and any other place where we would do anything to not upset the local government and hurt our business.

- We have redefined the words “courage” and “Pro”. Isn’t that fascinating?

- We will negotiate preferential rates with some companies, like Amazon, regardless of the fact that you paid the same developer fee and signed the same agreement.

- We have the power to remove your hard work app from or store without consulting you... and only until a few weeks ago there wasn’t even a formal appeal process.

I do NOT intend to install software outside of the Apple Store, but I do consider their policies and the fact that they are the only channel to do so monopolistic behavior.

Repeat after me: the Google Store does NOT constitute an option, that is an entirely different OS.
Score: 14 Votes (Like | Disagree)
topgunn Avatar
60 months ago

Why hasn't MacRumors ran an article on the Coalition for App Fairness, yet? Here's that page:
https://appfairness.org
Just because you don't like your options, doesn't mean you don't have a choice. There are blatant mistruths on the App Fairness page.

For example, "For most purchases made within the App Store, Apple takes 30% of the purchase price. No other transaction fee — in any industry — comes close."

Let's list other companies that charge a similar fee for similar overhead: Google, Steam, Amazon, UberEats, Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo, GrubHub, eBay+PayPal, and the list goes on, I am sure.

Another example, "If consumers want to use a modern mobile device, Apple levies a tax that no one can avoid. No competition, no options, no recourse."

Unless the Apple tax now extends to the billions of Android phones out there, this is ridiculous on its face. While I content that Apple and it's ecosystem are superior (in large part due to the App Store and it's walled garden), to say that Android-based phones are not a modern mobile device and that Apple has no competition is being willfully ignorant, at best.
Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)
topgunn Avatar
60 months ago

Basic math. It's embarrassing you can't do it.

The amount Apple paid out (the number they like to tout) is 70%. The amount Apple collected is 30%. 0.3 / 0.7 = 0.43
So, I buy an app for $10. The developer gets $7.00 (70%) and Apple keeps $4.30 (based on your basic math). I now see how Apple is worth two trillion dollars. They are literally creating money.
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
jgassens Avatar
60 months ago
>85 percent of apps are reportedly free, and these developers pay nothing to Apple.

Don't you have to pay $99 a year to have a developer account to post these free apps?
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
timborama Avatar
60 months ago
App store search sucks. You can search for a literal app title, and the app store gives you something else. Apple shows you only what Apple wants you to see. Completely useless.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
doobydoooby Avatar
60 months ago
Yes, its much more than a storefront: Its the only storefront. Its a monopoly, and for monopolies to be permitted to exist in the free world there needs to be a very strong social case for it (e.g. train lines that just wouldn't be built where the payback period is too long for the private sector, or high speed internet infrastructure installation in a sparsely populated area). Apple is to some extent simply a victim of its own success but nonetheless such massive power encourages abuses of power, that's why we break up monopolies. Apple's marketing blitz is just propaganda but until legislators around the global realise that our world no longer respects national borders, global tech can continue to skirt around the edge. The sad thing is when a company such as apple tries to pull the moral high ground, that's really uncomfortable. Let apple keep its store front but if it's as superior as they say then they shouldn't have any problem whatsoever in allowing other store fronts to compete or for app developers to deal directly with their clients.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)