Small Business Trends has reported that Apple is cutting App Store affiliate commissions May 1 onward. The new commission will be 2.5% instead of 7%. According to David Williams, Apple informed abou tthe commission change by sending an email to its affiliates. Read more abou the commisio change. Apple Affiliate Program  [...]

Greg Sterling says, “Apple launched app-store Search Ads in October 2016. Since that time they’ve received praise from developers as a high-converting, high-value app discovery tool. Today the company is announcing that Search Ads will become available in the UK, Australia and NZ. The booking UI opens today and ad serving begins on April 25. Developers running campaigns in the US will be able to clone their ads for the new markets. AppsFlyer issued the following assessment about Search Ads’ performance in a report issued earlier this year: [Apple had] the best retention in iOS North... [...]

Greg Sterling says, “According to a report yesterday, fingerprint-enabled Apple Pay is coming to mobile websites. One popular angle on this news is that the move will potentially cut into PayPal’s leadership position; however, the more important potential impact is the acceleration of mobile commerce more broadly. Re/code reported that Apple Pay for mobile sites will be available later this year, before holiday 2016: The service will be available to shoppers using the Safari browser on models of iPhones and iPads that possess Apple’s TouchID fingerprint technology, these people said.... [...]

Ginny Marvin says, “That did not last long. Apple has pulled ad-blocking apps like Been Choice that we wrote about earlier in the week over privacy concerns. As other have said, it was curious that Apple allowed these kinds of apps to get into the App Store in the first place. IMore reported last night that apps that install root certificates and use a VPN to block ads in apps — including native ads on Pinterest and publisher links on Facebook — were removed from the store. The concern is that root certificates also give these apps access to the user’s private internet behavior,... [...]

Ariel Bogle says, “Apple Pay, Apple’s first foray into mobile payments, was announced by the technology heavyweight in September last year, but its global roll out hasn’t been all smooth sailing. It ran into multiple problems on the London Tube after its UK introduction, while take up in the U.S. seems to be a little slow, and now the company is reportedly in a stand-off with the major Australian banks. Apple Pay enables contactless purchases via an iPhone or Apple Watch at supported merchants. It launched in the U.S. in October 2014 with support from credit card companies Visa,... [...]

Cory Munchbach says, “The Apple Watch has been making a splash with consumers since its launch this spring, bringing tasks, messages, and other pieces of information closer to consumers than ever before. Alerts, messages, to-do lists, sports scores, activity goals, and more are now quite literally a part of the fabric of each consumer’s daily life. For brands, this is a key opportunity to make a very personal connection with customers. However, wearables also present a significant challenge for brands. As the devices that people use to consume content become more immediate—worn constantly... [...]

Lara O’Reilly says, “Gobble, gobble. YouTube’s dominance of the worldwide video market is under threat as Facebook continues to ramp up its charge to increase its share of the lucrative online video market. In recent months Facebook began seeding autoplay videos into the News Feed, shortly followed by premium autoplay video ads; the company has increased its mentions of the importance of video in its quarterly earnings and investor calls; and it is reportedly actively trying to poach YouTube stars to create content made specifically for its platform. The results of energized... [...]

Jay Yarow says, “Apple’s shares are up 1.64% today to $113.45. This is a new all-time high for the stock. More importantly, its pushing Apple’s market cap to its highest ever value at $663.2 billion. Apple’s previous market cap high was $658 billion in September of 2012. After that, things got ugly. It crashed to $373.65 billion in June of 2013 before resurging. When Apple was crashing many people thought Apple was doomed. They thought the iPhone business had run its course. They thought growth was over for Apple”. Apple Has Rocketed To A New All-Time High Market... [...]

Lara O’reilly says, “Apple is transforming itself into a huge e-commerce company. Look at these recent moves the company has made: Apple is expanding its in-app mobile ad platform iAd to 70 new countries,. It is rolling out its own mobile payment service, Apple Pay. It is installing advertising iBeacons into retail stores. Its iTunes credit card database is growing toward 1 billion accounts on file. It’s something Business Insider predicted earlier this year, but recent advances show how quickly Apple is growing its e-commerce empire. And this is fantastic news for advertisers”. Apple... [...]

Denée Carrington says, “Well, it’s finally here! After weeks of anticipation, Apple Pay launched on Monday. Apple also unveiled the iPad Air 2 and iPad mini 3, both with Touch ID sensors and an embedded secure element, which means Apple Pay can be used for in-app payments on those devices as well as the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus. Apple Pay launches at a time when the US payments marketplace is in turmoil: The frequency and scale of security breaches are on the rise, issuers are beginning their migration to chip-enabled cards, and mobile payments are still quite nascent — even after significant... [...]