You can now subscribe to services on your iPhone, outside of the App Store.

But was this change that was forced in the courtroom actually good for the consumer?

Many lawsuits in recent years have accused Apple of wrongdoing. Possibly none bigger than Epic Games, yes the creators of Fortnite, years long legal battle against Apple.

Apple charges a 30% processing fee on all transactions within the App Store.

They built it.

Their Terms.

Want to be on iPhone? Pay up, or get lost.

Apple has always claimed this is about privacy and consumer protection from scams and malware. A noble cause, but they happen to make a boatload of money off the App Store as well.

As far as the Epic Games issue goes, Fortnite has plenty of in-game purchases. Epic did not disable this payment system in-game, violating Apple’s App Store payment policy, which resulted in Fortnite being removed from the App Store.

Arguably, one of the biggest potential areas for Epic to earn money was on Apple devices.

Ultimately, Apple lost this case and this forced them to allow payments on their devices from third-parties, and not charge a fee.

Most consumers online would argue this is a good thing. You can go get a deal! Developers can make more money! This is not the good news.

The good news is, no one is forcing you to subscribe outside of the app store, but since it is now an option, I’ve eventually gone seeking these “deals”.

The result?

My subscription list is more fragmented than ever.

One of the main benefits of subscriptions inside the app store is how easy it is to cancel.

They are all in one place.

You can see your renewal date easily.

You can unsubscribe or cancel and see when your existing subscription will end.

No guessing.

No going to a third-party site, forgetting your renewal date and getting surprised when the charge shows up on your credit card statement and you have to question if someone stole your information yet again, or if you just have a stupid monkey brain like me that can’t remember jack shit.

At the core of my frustration is subscription fatigue.

I see this term everywhere, there are masses of people joining together to cancel Disney+, Xbox Game Pass, and pretty much any other streaming service after years of price hikes.

The value proposition has effectively eroded for all of these services. You used to be able to legally get all of the things you needed to watch for a reasonable price.

It was a great alternative to the piracy culture that was rampant when I was in college, offering a cheaper-than-cable alternative, with no ads and unlimited viewing.

Subscription fatigue has risen on the consumer end, describing the feeling of overwhelm due to the fact that everything is now a subscription.

You will own nothing and you will like it.

According to MarketWatch, the average subscriber spends about $60/month, and Bango reports that, on average, each US person is subscribed to just over 5 things.

This seems drastically low to me. As someone in the tech space, 5 doesn’t even cut it for things I’m subscribed to within the Apple App Store. Forget all of the other streaming services, cloud providers, AI apps and random things I keep forgetting to cancel.

For this reason, I love the Apple App Store payment policy. Sure, there are arguments for wanting to get paid for the work you do, be it an app, services, or games.

But the simplicity for the consumer is now lost.

I’ve launched digital products, and the exchange for giving up 30% of revenue is that I don't have to set up a payment processor or deal with any of the infrastructure required to make it all work.

Could I do it myself? Probably.

Would it be worth the effort? Probably not.

So while we didn’t lose the magic of the Apple App Store subscription management, the Apple Ecosystem is now weaker because of this forced change and I am actually worse off as a consumer because of it.

Great job legal system, you’ve done it again!