Apple is letting Tesla skip millions of dollars in App Store fees
William GallagherCredit: Twitter
Tesla's Elon Musk has previously said he'd go to war rather than pay App Store fees, but Apple appears to have long since surrendered one particularly significant charge.
Apple's App Store rules are many and complicated, and they have been criticized as a "de facto global tax" by Musk and others, chiefly firms who want to run their own stores. But Tesla is seemingly flouting one clear in-app payment rule, and Apple is allowing it.
According to Gizmodo, the issue centers on the Tesla iPhone app's "View Live Camera" feature. Tesla charges $10 per month for features such as a web browser, and that is legitimately excluded from Apple's fees because the browser runs in the cars, not on iPhones.
However, as part of that tier of premium features, it's possible to use the Tesla iPhone app to monitor cameras in the owner's car. A Tesla owner paying this monthly fee can access the camera from the app, and talk to its occupants directly from the iPhone.
So if thieves steal a Tesla, the owner can watch them drive away and verbally point out the error of their ways, all through the iPhone app — for free. Or at least, without Apple getting anything.
This is one feature in an app that otherwise does not appear to transgress Apple's App Store rules. Nonetheless, this one feature does appear to break those rules and it seems unlikely that it was missed by the App Store review team.
In November 2022, Elon Musk tweeted in his typical dramatic fashion that he would go to war rather than pay Apple 30%. He soon deleted the tweet, and two days later was given a tour of Apple Park by Tim Cook, after which he's not been criticizing the App Store.
Andrew Orr
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29 Comments
As the “store owner” surely Apple has a right to charge a fee, in this case 30%. Amazon and eBay (as do most other online storefronts) charge a fee to use their service, as does every single bricks and mortar store, when you purchase an item with markup. Supermarkets even charge manufacturers a fee to stock their goods in prominent places in their stores, as this results in higher sales. Apple built the store, developed the customer base, and continues to operate and improve the store. It all needs to be paid for with a percentage of the developer’s profits, which is still 70% more than they would be getting if they didn’t use the App Store. Not to mention that Tesla charges its customers an ongoing monthly fee to access features in the vehicle they have already bought.
It appears that people don’t think computer-type things, including app stores, should have to follow what “normal” stores have to follow.
So does Apple take 30% of the monthly fee for any webcam? If so, then it seems Tesla would have to pay, but how do you assess the value of the webcam feature within the monthly subscription fee for the Tesla package?
Musk really needs to cut corners, because, you know…………the richest man in the world nickeled and dimmed himself into that stratosphere. Piss and moan about others while you produce OVER PRICED, POORLY FINISHED vehicles that owners pay $10,000 - $XX,XXX over the sticker price for Autonomous driving that IS NOT AUTONOMOUS. Musk would have been a good partner for Barnum and Bailey!
Meanwhile Apple continues to be the largest advertiser on Musk owned, dying social media platform, Twitter. Time to stop play nice with the carnival barker.
People really need to stop having shit-fits over Apple’s mark-up. EVERY vendor does it (and the entire supply chain gets their pound), some in the hundreds or thousands of percent.
It’s as if folks don’t understand that’s how they get paid. And the ones that do, don’t think of it as graft.
PS - STOP SAYING TAX. Look up the meaning of the word before you abuse it. Apple is not a governmental organization, full stop.