Apple Grants Developers Another Six Months to Make Apps Native to iOS

Global tech giant, Apple, has extended the deadline for developers to adhere to their latest policy changes regarding app architecture for another six months. Developers everywhere will now be able to give themselves some breathing space until March 3rd 2020 to come up with apps that are fully compliant (native) to iOS.

This comes after the company announced it will no longer be accepting HTML5 products hosted within the native wrapper. After March 3rd next year, all apps that have not been updated will be removed from the App Store.

A Welcome Extension

When this change was originally announced…

…numerous developers have had a hard time coming to with the very short deadline given to them by Apple, so this move is already being greeted by most of them. The original deadline ed on September 3rd and was only announced in June.

Then, App Store guidelines were altered so that “any product not built purposefully for this platform and operating system may not provide access to real money gaming, lotteries or donations.” It may not even digital commerce.

In the iGaming industry, a large portion of these apps are made as container apps, meaning iOS frame is built around an HTML5 product. This is a very common practice among developers because it costs less money and is less time-consuming.

Original Plan Was Not Realistic

In fact, Degree 53, digital marketing specialist which is employed by the likes of Betfred, issued a warning that fully native iOS apps in just three months is not only unrealistic but can turn out to be a massive undertaking.

They’ve said that it would require a skilled native development team to make sure all the functionalities are compliant.

Those who fail to create apps that adhere to these new rules by the new deadline are in the risk of not only having their apps removed from the Store…

…but also to be denied future updates to non-compliant apps.

Playtech Already on It

Although, some big providers have managed to meet such a short deadline with success. Playtech, for instance, which in early August announced that they successfully updated their apps to include all the back-end functionality usually offered to operators.

Peter Mares, Playtech’s Games Innovation Labs CTO, says:

“Luckily, we have been in the game for a very long time and understand that in order to succeed, we need to provide a solution that is guaranteed to help our licensees continue operating as usual. To this end, we’re pleased to be able to our customers in their preparation with a core, native-first product line, including a selection of fully native gaming content and natively compiled games.”

Apple Card Banned

The new Apple Card that is due to arrive on market will be not be able for usage in gambling purposes as well as crypto transactions.

This was disclosed by Goldman Sachs investment bank in their Customer Agreement (they have worked on the development with Apple). There, it clearly states:

“You may use your to make Transactions. You may not use or permit your to be used for:

• Any illegal purpose, including in connection with unlawful domestic or international gambling websites or to purchase illegal goods or services;
• Cash Advances and Cash Equivalents”

Source:

“Apple extends native app deadline by six months”, igamingbusiness.com, September 12, 2019.