The App Store

The App Store opened on 10 July 2008, the day before the iPhone 3G went on sale, with 500 apps — 125 of them free. Ten million downloads in the first 72 hours; fifteen thousand apps six months later. And the split, seventy per cent to the developer and thirty to Apple, has held as the basic rate for nearly eighteen years. For the digital world, that is unusual stability. That thirty per cent is now being questioned all over the world. In the litigation with Epic Games, the Supreme Court granted review in June 2026 and argument begins this autumn — which is to say, it is not over. In the EU, alternative stores began operating under the Digital Markets Act (in force March 2024), and Japan's law promoting smartphone competition took effect in December 2025. This is the band where the business of renting out the place is being asked, right now, what its cut should be.