Welcome back to This Week in Apps, the weekly TechCrunch series that recaps the latest in mobile OS news, mobile applications and the overall app economy. The app industry is as hot as ever, with a record 218 billion downloads and $143 billion in global consumer spend in 2020. Consumers last year also spent 3.5 trillion minutes using apps on Android […]

Welcome back to This Week in Apps, the weekly TechCrunch series that recaps the latest in mobile OS news, mobile applications and the overall app economy.

The app industry is as hot as ever, with a record 218 billion downloads and $143 billion in global consumer spend in 2020.

Consumers last year also spent 3.5 trillion minutes using apps on Android devices alone. And in the U.S., app usage surged ahead of the time spent watching live TV. Currently, the average American watches 3.7 hours of live TV per day, but now spends four hours per day on their mobile devices.

Apps aren’t just a way to pass idle hours — they’re also a big business. In 2019, mobile-first companies had a combined  $544 billion valuation, 6.5x higher than those without a mobile focus. In 2020, investors poured $73 billion in capital into mobile companies — a figure that’s up 27% year-over-year.

This week, the news is heavily Apple-centric. The company is hosting an event next week, where we may get some new devices and form factors, as well as AirTags (maybe!). Plus, Apple’s App Tracking Transparency is still top of mind for many developers. So this week, we’re looking at some initial ATT data that has some surprises, among other things.

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Top Stories

Apple’s Spring Loaded event arrives next week

Apple this week announced its plans to host a “Spring Loaded” event on April 20th, where it’s expected to make a handful of updates. While nothing is for certain — this is Apple, after all — rumors are pointing toward an updated iPad Pro lineup, perhaps with Apple’s Mini LED displays. A new iPad Mini could also be on the way, as it’s not been refreshed for two years.

Bloomberg had earlier reported new iPads were coming this spring, with a refreshed iPad Pro line sporting a faster processor and better cameras, in 11 and 12.9-inch sizes, as well as an iPad mini will a larger screen size.

But there are also hints that we might finally see Apple’s AirTags’ unveiling at long last. This not-so-secretive initiative was already found referenced in iOS code and in one of Apple’s own YouTube videos. And it’s been the subject of congressional hearings, as competitor Tile argued that Apple was leveraging the power of its ecosystem to give its own products an advantage. As a concession, Apple opened up access to the “Find My” app, which AirTags will also use, to third-party manufacturers. But Tile was not among the partners Apple introduced as the program and updated Find My app officially rolled out. We understand that’s because Tile wants to continue to own the relationship between its customers via its own iOS app, not have a third-party in between — and especially not Apple. There’s still a lot that’s not confirmed about Apple’s AirTags — like price point, or even what final design Apple may have settled on, so this could be a fun unveiling.

Apple may use the time to add on more surprises, too, like a third-generation version of AirPods or refreshed Apple TV. We expect Apple will also officially launch iOS 14.5, the big update with App Tracking Transparency, which has been a longer beta cycle.

A surprising report on ATT consent rates

A new report on App Tracking Transparency (ATT) has yielded some interesting results. The new iOS 14 privacy feature will pop up a permissions request on users’ devices, asking them if they’d allow the app to track their activity. Most expected that users would almost universally say “No” to this request, which is why the mobile adtech industry is in chaos, with some companies even trying to figure out if they could work around the change that makes the existing ad identifier, the IDFA, obsolete.

But an AppsFlyer study found that opt-in rates for being tracked were much higher than anyone would have expected. The industry was forecasting opt-in rates anywhere from 2% to 20%, but were figuring things would more likely be in the single digits. So imagine everyone’s surprise when AppsFlyer found that opt-in rates were at a 28% average per app and a median of 32% (meaning about half the apps were exceeding 32%!).

The study was not a small sampling, either. The company counted 13,260,824 times when a prompt was shown to the end-user and found that 5,495,084 times (or 41%) the user tapped the “Allow” button. This took place in March 2021 across over 300 apps in multiple categories, including both apps and games.

Of the 7,765,740 cases when tracking was denied, AppsFlyer said it was actually counting implicit “No’s” from users who previously enabled Limit Ad Tracking (LAT) on their devices in previous iOS versions. Since they had already said they wanted to limit ads, they don’t see the ATT prompt and are classified as denied.

The report found the opt-in rates were very different between apps and games, at 42% and 30%, respectively. This is due to lower brand affinity in gaming, it said. Larger apps also had higher opt-in rates. The top 10% (by device count) had a 50% higher rate than the bottom 10%.

Of course, we should caution that this initial data is preliminary and based off data collected from early adopters. This may not represent the industry at large. In other words, opt-in rates could certainly still change when Apple begins to officially enforce ATT with the release of iOS 14.5.

However, what could be working here is the use of something known as the pre-ATT prompt, which basically means gating Apple’s dialogue between the developer’s own prompt, that they can show at an appropriate time with their own messaging. By explaining to users that by opting in they may see more relevant content or help to keep the app free, users may be more likely to opt in, AppsFlyer suggested.

Weekly News

Apple

Apple device rumors! Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo says 2022 iPhones will feature a 48-megapixel camera, 8K video and come in only 6.1″ and 6.7″ sizes (no more 5.4″ Mini). Also predicted is an AR headset with 15 cameras.

Apple’s legal battle with Epic Games in Australian courts was temporarily put on pause while the U.S. case proceeds. Apple argued that the matter should be settled in the original jurisdiction in the U.S., while Epic says Apple’s anti-competitive behavior should be tried under Australian law as well. A judge ordered the case to be temporarily suspended for three months while the U.S. suit is underway.

Senate Judiciary Committee leaders Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Mike Lee (R-UT) put pressure on Apple to provide a witness for an upcoming hearing on app store competition after it looked like Apple might bow out. But this week, the company committed to sending a representative to the Senate antitrust hearing, which Google will also attend. The hearing will focus on the tech giants’ control over “the cost, distribution, and availability of mobile applications on consumers, app developers, and competition.”

Apple filed an expert witness report for its U.S. legal battle with Epic Games where the witness stated that Apple would have to redesign its hardware and software in order to make the iPhone interoperable with alternative app stores outside of its own. Epic Games founder Tim Sweeney tweeted the statement was “baloney” and noted that Apple already has a program that allows users to install apps from the web, the Apple Enterprise Program. Only contractual obligations prevent such a mechanism from being used for consumer apps.