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Top stories today:
- Apple allows alternative payment systems in App Store
- Vision Pro getting 180-degree 3D 8K Immersive Videos
- Chinaās GDP +5.2% in 2023, as population shrinks, deflation remains
- Bitcoin ETFs in U.S. attract $1B in assets in 1st week since approval
0. Data and calendar
All values as of 6 AM ET / 3 AM PT, other than S&P500 close (4 PM ET / 1 PM PT).
All times are ET.
1. Apple allows alternative payment systems in App Store (with 27% fee), after Supreme Court denies to hear appeal
27% fee (or 12% for selected small businesses) compares to the typical 30% (15%) and likely reflects the ~3% in average credit card fees.
U.S. only.
Collecting this fee may beĀ hard, especially for smaller app developers, as Apple admits itself.
Epic CEO Tim Sweeney called Appleās move ābad-faith complianceā
Unclear whether the courts will consider this fee to be in accordance with the outcome of Epic v. Apple.
2. Vision Pro getting 180-degree 3D 8K Immersive Videos
4 initial titles include Alicia Key: Rehearsal Room, Adventure, Wild Life, and Prehistoric Planet Immersive.
150 3D (non-Immersive) videos will also be available at launch, mostly from Disney.
Reviews have been positive video-wise, but many are complaining about the deviceās heavy weight, especially after 30+ minute of use.
The Vision Pro appears not to have Ultra Wideband, nor Wi-Fi 6E or 7.
International launch may happen before Juneās expected WWDC 2024, according to analyst Ming-Chi Kuo.
AR VC funding was down to $0.9B in 2023 in the U.S., from $3.1B in 2021
Real estate has outperformed the S&P500 over the past 20 years as an asset class, according to a 2019 Harvard study.
Arrived, the real estate platform funded by world-class investors like Bezos and Benioff, offers fractional real estate investing in expert-vetted (less than 0.2% make the cut) long-term rentals, vacation rentals, funds, and more coming soon.
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