Apple Updates U.S. App Review Guidelines Following Epic Games Ruling

In the wake of yesterday’s court ruling in the dispute between Apple and Epic Games over Apple’s policies restricting developers’ ability to inform users about alternatives to making purchases through Apple’s in-app purchasing system, Apple has updated its App Review Guidelines to comply with the ruling.



Apple summarized the changes in an email to developers today:

3.1.1: Apps on the United States storefront are not prohibited from including buttons, external links, or other calls to action when allowing users to browse NFT collections owned by others.

3.1.1(a): On the United States storefront, there is no prohibition on an app including buttons, external links, or other calls to action, and no entitlement is required to do so.

3.1.3: The prohibition on encouraging users to use a purchasing method other than in-app purchase does not apply on the United States storefront.

3.1.3(a): The External Link Account entitlement is not required for apps on the United States storefront to include buttons, external links, or other calls to action.

Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers ruled that Apple must immediately comply with the ruling even as the company moves to appeal.

The changes are currently limited to the United States given the scope of the court case, but Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney offered a “peace proposal” pledging to drop all remaining litigation against Apple over the issue if Apple were to implement the required U.S. changes on a worldwide basis. Apple has so far given no indication that it is interested in accepting that proposal.

Following the court ruling and with Apple’s policy changes, major app developers are already moving to make it easier for users to purchase or subscribe to content outside of the App Store, with Spotify already submitting an app update, Patreon indicating that it will do so, and ‌Epic Games‌ saying that it will bring Fortnite back to the U.S. ‌App Store‌.

Tags: App Store, App Store Review Guidelines, Epic Games, Epic Games vs. Apple

This article, "Apple Updates U.S. App Review Guidelines Following Epic Games Ruling" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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Sony Xperia 1 VII runs Geekbench, confirming its chipset, RAM amount, and Android version

Sony’s Xperia 1 VII is coming soon – that’s pretty much a given considering the fact that its predecessor launched in May 2024, but it’s also obvious from the fact that we’ve seen it in CAD renders and then live certification images already in April. And a prototype Xperia 1 VII also seems to have run Geekbench. Thus, its chipset, RAM amount, and Android version have been revealed in the benchmark’s online database. It’s not surprising at all to see it being powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite, as Sony always went with the latest top of the line Snapdragon. The SoC is paired with 12GB…

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Apple’s Q2 2025 Earnings Call Takeaways

Apple held its earnings call for the second fiscal quarter of 2025 today (second calendar quarter), announcing revenue of $95.4 billion and net quarterly profit of $28.4 billion. During the call, Apple CEO Tim Cook spoke about tariffs, the App Store changes Apple is facing, device sales, and more.

We’ve rounded up the most interesting tidbits from the Q2 2025 earnings call below.

U.S. App Store Changes

Cook was asked about some of the high-profile legal cases that Apple is facing right now, including the U.S. ‌App Store‌ changes that Apple was ordered to make yesterday, and how those legal cases might impact Apple’s services business.

Cook repeated Apple’s statement about complying and appealing, and didn’t add much more beyond saying that the outcome is unclear.

The case yesterday, we strongly disagree with it. We’ve complied with the court’s order, and we’re going to appeal. In the DoJ case you referenced with Google, that case is ongoing, and I don’t really have anything to add beyond that.

We’re monitoring these closely. But as you point out, there’s risk associated with them. And the outcome is unclear.

Tariffs

Cook said that tariffs had a limited impact on the March quarter because Apple was able to optimize its supply chain and inventory. Apple is unable to entirely estimate the impact of tariffs on the June quarter because policies could change, but if everything stays as it is now, the tariffs will add $900 million to Apple’s costs.

Cook declined to speak on pricing or whether elevated costs will be passed along to consumers.

US Investment

Cook said that Apple is sourcing glass and Face ID modules from the United States, along with purchasing 19 billion chips from 12 states.

Apple Intelligence Siri Features

Cook said that Apple is “making progress” on the personal Siri features that the company announced at WWDC 2024. “We are making progress, and we look forward to getting these features into customers’ hands,” said Cook.

“It’s just taking a bit longer than we thought,” Cook added.

Apple Intelligence Impacting iPhone Sales

Cook said that during the March quarter, Apple saw year over year performance in countries with Apple Intelligence that was stronger than those countries where ‌Apple Intelligence‌ was not available.

Mac

Mac revenue grew 6.7 percent year over year, thanks to the new M4 MacBook Air and Mac Studio that came out during the quarter. The Mac install base grew to an all-time high, and Apple saw growth for upgraders and customers new to the Mac.

iPad

iPad revenue grew 15.2 percent year over year, with growth in every geographic segment. More than half of customers who purchased an ‌iPad‌ were new to the product. Apple debuted the M3 iPad Air and the ‌iPad‌ 11 during the quarter.

Wearables, Home and Accessories

Wearables revenue dropped 4.9 percent year over year due to a difficult compare against the launch of the Apple Vision Pro in the year-ago quarter.

Services

Apple’s services revenue was up 11.6 percent year over year, an all-time revenue record, with strong performance across all categories. Apple TV+ set a new record for viewership during the quarter, and paid accounts and paid subscriptions grew double digits year over year. Apple now has more than 1 billion total paid subscriptions.

Tags: AAPL, Earnings

This article, "Apple's Q2 2025 Earnings Call Takeaways" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra outsold the S25 and S25+ combined

According to a new report from Korea-based Hana Securities, Samsung’s Galaxy S25 Ultra is by far the most popular member of the family. So much so, in fact, that it’s outsold both of its siblings combined. In the first two months of availability, Samsung allegedly sold 9.16 million Galaxy S25 units across all three models. Of those, a whopping 5.08 million units are Galaxy S25 Ultra devices, more than half. The Galaxy S25 follows with 2.41 million units and the S25+ is in third with 1.67 million. Combined, the S25 and S25+ sold 1 million fewer units than the S25 Ultra. So maybe it’s…

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Tim Cook Explains How Tariffs Are Impacting Apple’s Business

Apple CEO Tim Cook today provided some insight into how the tariffs levied by U.S. president Donald Trump have affected its business, and the future impacts that Apple is expecting should tariffs continue.



Cook said that tariffs had a limited impact on the March quarter as Apple was able to optimize its supply chain and inventory. Apple can’t entirely estimate the impact of tariffs on the June quarter due to uncertainties, but with no changes, the tariffs will add $900 million to Apple’s costs. From Apple’s earnings call:

Now let me walk you through the impacts of tariffs in the March quarter, and give you some color on what we expect for the June quarter. For the March quarter, we had a limited impact from tariffs as we were able to optimize our supply chain and inventory.

For the June quarter, currently, we are not able to precisely estimate the impact of tariffs, as we are uncertain of potential future actions prior to the end of the quarter. However, for some color, assuming the current global tariff rates, policies and applications do not change for the balance of the quarter, and no new tariffs are added, we estimate the impact to add $900 million to our costs. This estimate should not be used to make projections for future quarters, as there are certain unique factors that benefit the June quarter.

Apple is already sourcing more than half of iPhones sold in the United States from India, while Macs, iPads, AirPods, and the Apple Watch come from Vietnam. For the June quarter, Cook said that Apple expects the majority of iPhones sold in the U.S. to have India as a country of origin, while Apple will continue sourcing other products from Vietnam. Apple will source devices from China for the rest of the world.

Cook said that Apple’s operational team has “done an incredible job around optimizing the supply chain and the inventory,” and that Apple plans to continue to do those things to the degree that it is able to.

The 20 percent tariffs that Trump put in place earlier this year are the tariffs that are primarily impacting Apple, as many Apple products have been exempted from the 125 percent reciprocal tariffs. Some products, though, such as accessories, are subject to the total 145 percent tariffs.

Cook said that he doesn’t know what will happen with the Section 232 investigation that will eventually see tariffs applied to semiconductors, a change that will impact Apple.
This article, "Tim Cook Explains How Tariffs Are Impacting Apple's Business" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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