Tag: App Store Connect

On May 31st Apple will update proceedings for several territories:

• Ghana: Increase of the VAT rate from 12.5% to 15%.
• Lithuania: Reduction of the VAT rate from 21% to 9% for eligible e‑books and audiobooks.
• Moldova: Reduction of the VAT rate from 20% to 0% for eligible e‑books and periodicals.
• Spain: Digital services tax of 3%.

Apple Developer

Also Apple will now withhold taxes for App Store sales in Brazil. This will affect developers outside Brazil.

Apple Developer: Upcoming tax changes for apps, in-app purchases, and subscriptions

Apple announces enhanced global pricing to take effect on May 9, 2023.

Developers could select base country to fix prices to. Prices in other regions could be adjusted according to publicly available exchange rates. Base region could be changed at anytime via App Store Connect and via API.

Also developers could lock prices and no prices will not be equalized.

As reminder, on May 9, 2023, pricing for existing apps and one-time in-app purchases will be updated across App Store storefronts using your current price in the United States as the basis—unless you’ve made relevant updates after March 8, 2023.

Apple Developer

Apple Developer:

• Preparing for the enhanced global pricing update on May 9
• Manage app pricing – Set a price
• Manage app pricing – Schedule price changes

Apple will now require developers to use Xcode 14.1 or newer to submit apps to App Store. Requirements will be enforced starting April 25, 2023.

This update might affect existing CI/CD pipelines or apps being built with previous Xcode releases. Development teams now have a month to verify that codebases are compatible with modern SDKs and Xcode.

Apple Developer: App Store submission requirement starts April 25

Apple is continuously implementing pricing tier updates announced in December. Now these update are applicable to app prices, all in-app purchase types.

On May 9, 2023, pricing for existing apps and one‑time in‑app purchases will be updated across all 175 App Store storefronts to take advantage of new enhanced global pricing. Unless developers explicitly update their price tiers for all storefronts, updates will be applied automatically based on US storefront prices. Developers are encouraged to update prices themselves.

Apple Developer: App Store pricing upgrades have expanded to all purchase types

App Store Connect: App Store Connect API 2.3

Developers now could compare their app performance with similar apps on App Store. App Store Connect is updated to provide these metrics.

Similar apps are determined by category, business model, and number of downloads.

Metrics include conversion rate, retention rate on various durations, crash rate, and app proceedings.

Apple Developer:

• Peer group benchmarks now available in App Analytics
• View peer group benchmarks
• Take action on insights from benchmarks

References:

• Apple Introduces New Peer Group Benchmarks for Developers
• App Store Connect now lets developers use peer group benchmarks for metrics
• New App Store benchmarks let devs compare app performance to peers

Fastlane maintainers released critical update 2.212.1. This update fixes potential Apple ID lockout if you're not using App Store Connect API keys.

Fastlane supports login to App Store Connect via regular Apple ID credentials and this update addresses issue which might result in Apple ID being locked out.

Maintainers still recommend migration to App Store Connect API keys.

Fastlane: website (GitHub)

Reference: Twitter

Apple announces another series of sessions with App Store team from February 28 til April 13. Sessions include topics on app marketing, product pages, user acquisition, design, subscriptions, in-app events.

Apple to host sessions in multiple languages and different time zones to allow more users to participate.

Apple Developer: Meet with App Store experts

Apple Developer Events: Meet with App Store experts (schedule)

Apple updated approach it provides for subscription grace periods. Duration of grace period is not could be set manually (previously it was hardcoded for each subscription duration).

Billing grace period could be existing paid renewals or all subscription renewals (existing paid renewals and free offers transitioning to paid renewals).

Apple Developer: App Store Connect Update

Apple announces changes to pricing and tax rules for several countries. On February 13, 2023 prices of apps and in-app purchases excluding auto-renewable subscriptions will be adjusted. In some countries prices will remain the same but developer proceeds will be adjusted to accommodate tax changes.

On February 13, 2023, prices of apps and in-app purchases (excluding auto-renewable subscriptions) on the App Store will increase in Colombia, Egypt, Hungary, Nigeria, Norway, South Africa, and the United Kingdom. Prices in Uzbekistan will decrease to reflect a reduction of the value-added tax rate from 15% to 12%. Your proceeds will be adjusted accordingly and will be calculated based on the tax-exclusive price.

While prices on the App Store in Ireland, Luxembourg, Singapore, and Zimbabwe won't change, your proceeds will be adjusted to reflect the following tax changes:

• Ireland: Reduction of value-added tax rate on electronic newspapers and periodicals from 9% to 0%
• Luxembourg: Reduction of value-added tax rate from 17% to 16%
• Singapore: Increase of goods and services tax rate from 7% to 8%
• Zimbabwe: Increase of value-added tax rate from 14.5% to 15%

Additionally, by the end of January proceeds will increase for local developers selling in Cambodia, Kyrgyzstan, Indonesia, Singapore, South Korea, Tajikistan, Thailand, and Uzbekistan.

Apple Developer

Apple Developer: Upcoming tax and price changes for apps and in‑app purchases

It's almost 2023. This good reads list come a little early, so you'll have time to celebrate New Year :)

• ChatGPT makes another appearance in our good reads – Static vs Dynamic Frameworks on iOS — a discussion with ChatGPT by Trevor Elkins and Max Topolsky;
  
  
• Improving your publication automation scripts – Authorizing App Store Connect API requests by Natascha Fadeeva;
  
  
• Majid Jabrayilov shares his review of 2022 – iOS development trends in review;
  
  
• Enum explained in-depth with code examples in Swift by Antoine van der Lee covers multiple enum use cases in Swift;
  
  
• RevenueCat shares upcoming updates for App Store receipt validation – App Store receipt signing certificate changes in 2023;
  
  
• Another great hint on accessibility in SwiftUI by Natalia Panferova – Image accessibility labels from Localizable.strings files;
  
  
• And an interesting article on macOS Gatekeeper – Gatekeeper’s Achilles heel: Unearthing a macOS vulnerability by Jonathan Bar Or.

We'd like to finish this issue with our Holiday Special podcast episode.

Happy New Year!