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Amazon takes on India rivals with low-cost fashion store | TechCrunch

April 16, 2024 2:22 AM0


Amazon has quietly introduced a “special store” called Bazaar in India, featuring affordable and trendy fashion and lifestyle products, as it ramps up efforts against Walmart-owned Flipkart and Reliance’s Ajio, which have made deeper inroads in the Indian fast-fashion market.

The world’s largest e-commerce firm has rolled out the new store on its India Android app. Amazon began recruiting sellers for the new store in February, TechCrunch previously reported, promising them “hassle-free” delivery, zero referral fees, and access to a vast customer base.

“You can find items from clothing, accessories, and jewelry to handbags, shoes, traditional and western wear, and a wide array of home goods including kitchenware, towels, bed linens, and décor items,” the company wrote on a support page.

The growing popularity of affordable fast-fashion is increasingly driving purchases on many Indian shopping apps, making it crucial for Amazon to have a strong play in a category where it has traditionally struggled in the country, according to brokerage firm Bernstein.

“India e-commerce category mix is changing; Mobiles and Consumer electronics share is declining. Fashion has seen the strongest growth since FY19, and now holds the highest category share,” Bernstein analysts wrote in a note last month.

Bazaar’s offerings include “trendy” T-shirts starting at 129 Indian rupees ($1.55) and sneakers priced under $3.

India is a key overseas market for Amazon, which has invested more than $11 billion in the country to date. Despite the company’s cloud unit, AWS, maintaining its market-leading position in India, Amazon’s e-commerce arm holds the second spot behind Flipkart.

Last year, chief executive Andy Jassy announced plans to invest $12.7 billion in AWS in India by 2030, while also committing over $2 billion to the e-commerce division during the same period.

Screenshot of Amazon India Android app. Image Credits: TechCrunch

The fast-fashion e-commerce market has gained significant traction in India in recent years, with local startups drawing inspiration from global pioneers like Zara, H&M, and Uniqlo. While Flipkart (which owns fashion e-commerce platform Myntra) currently leads the category, it faces increasing competition from Reliance’s Ajio, which has captured approximately 30% market share in about a year, according to Bernstein.

Ajio launched its own fast-fashion platform, Ajio Street, last year, offering a wide selection of clothing and accessories at prices as low as 199 Indian rupees ($2.4). The platform guarantees the “lowest price” for its products, waives delivery charges, and offers a straightforward returns process.

Shein, a global pioneer in the category that was earlier banned by India, said last year it was prepping a return to the country through a joint venture with Reliance, the nation’s most valuable company. The oil-to-telecom giant also operates Reliance Retail, which is the nation’s largest retail chain.


Software Development in Sri Lanka

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Apple pulls a Game Boy emulator for App Store violations, but says game emulators are allowed | TechCrunch

April 15, 2024 11:07 PM0


Apple has removed iGBA, a Game Boy emulator app for the iPhone, after approving its launch over the weekend. The app was among the first to capitalize on Apple’s newly relaxed rules around retro game emulators, a move the tech giant made after EU regulators forced Apple to open up to App Store competitors, like AltStore, which aims to offer game emulators and other Patreon-backed apps to iPhone users.

First launched on Sunday, iGBA was an ad-supported copy of the open-source project GBA4iOS that offered a Game Boy game emulator for iOS. The new app worked as described, allowing users to download both Game Boy Advance and Game Boy Color ROMs from the web and then open them in the app to play.

However, the app was submitted to the App Store without the permission of GBA4iOS developer, Riley Testut, who also developed the AltStore and Delta, a Nintendo emulator and popular successor to GBA4iOS.

Testut said in a post on Threads on Sunday that he was angry at Apple for approving iGBA while his own app Delta, currently on Apple’s TestFlight, has been ready to launch since March 5. He was also not thrilled at his work being knocked off and monetized this way.

 

Post by @rileytestut
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“I did not give anyone permission to do this, yet it’s now sitting at the top of the charts (despite being filled with ads + tracking),” Testut said on Threads. “I’ve bit my tongue a bunch in the past month…but this really frustrates me. So glad App Review exists to protect consumers from scams and rip-offs like this,” he added, sarcastically.

As some noted, the knock-off version used the same code as GBA4iOS. But, as others pointed out, the GBA4iOS emulator was distributed under a GNU GPL v2 license, which should have otherwise permitted copies — except for the fact that Testut added a custom restriction to it that prohibited App Store distribution for any work containing the code. They argued that such a restriction was not technically allowed under GPL v2.

Nevertheless, Apple determined that the knock-off app should be removed for violating its App Store guidelines around spam and copyright (rules 4.3 and 5.2, respectively), essentially siding with Testut on the matter, despite its earlier mistake.

 

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Apple told TechCrunch the functionality in the app was approved, but when the company learned that the app was copying another developer’s submission and passing it off as its own, it took action in accordance with its guidelines.

The Cupertino-based tech giant has been pushed to make the App Store more open thanks to the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA). Following an update to its App Store rules to comply with the new regulation, Apple had announced it would also allow streaming game stores globally. But the additional support for retro game emulators wasn’t added until this month, with the caveat that the games must use in-app purchases if they offer downloads of digital items. While that would potentially open another stream of revenue for Apple, the iGBA app was free and ad-supported, so it wasn’t a loss to Apple’s bottom line to remove it.


Software Development in Sri Lanka

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Tesla drops prices, Meta confirms Llama 3 release, and Apple allows emulators in the App Store | TechCrunch

April 14, 2024 1:53 AM0


Heya, folks, welcome to Week in Review (WiR), TechCrunch’s regular newsletter that recaps the past few days in tech.

Google’s annual enterprise-focused dev conference, Google Cloud Next, dominated the headlines — and we had plenty of coverage from the event. But it wasn’t the only thing afoot (see: the spectacular eclipse).

Lorenzo wrote about how hackers stole over ~340,000 Social Security numbers from government consulting firm Greylock McKinnon Associates (GMA). It took GMA nine months to determine the extent of the breach and notify victims; as of yet, it’s unclear why.

Elsewhere, Sarah had the story on Spotify’s personalized AI playlists, which lets users create a playlist based on written prompts.

And Connie reported on the death of entrepreneur Mahbod Moghadam, who rose to fame as the co-founder of Genius, the online music encyclopedia. Moghadam passed away at the age of 41 owing to complications from a recurring brain tumor.

Lots else happened. We recap it all in this edition of WiR — but first, a reminder to sign up to receive the WiR newsletter in your inbox every Saturday.

News

Tesla price drop: Tesla dropped prices of unsold Model Y SUVs in the U.S. by thousands of dollars in an attempt to clear out an unprecedented inventory backlog.

Snapchat turns off its solar system: Snapchat adjusted a feature in its app that visualizes how “close” you are to your friends after reporting revealed that it was adding to teens’ anxiety.

Noninvasive anxiety treatment: Neurovalens, a startup developing tech to deliver noninvasive electrical stimulation of the brain and nervous system, achieved FDA clearance thanks to a 2019 agency rule change aimed at encouraging innovations targeting insomnia and anxiety.

Llama 3: At an event in London, Meta confirmed that it plans an initial release of Llama 3 — the next generation of its AI model used to power chatbots and other apps — within the month.

Emulators in the store: Apple updated its App Store rules to globally allow emulators for retro console games an option for downloading titles.

AT&T breach: AT&T began notifying U.S. state authorities and regulators of a security incident after confirming that millions of customer records posted online last month were authentic.

Funding

Web3 and beauty: Kiki World, a beauty brand that uses web3 for customer co-creation and ownership, has closed a $7 million round led by Andreessen Horowitz.

Analysis

Magnets in keyboards: Frederic writes about an intriguing development in mechanical keyboard design: magnetic switches, which can quickly change the actuation point — the point during the keypress where the switch registers a downstroke.

WFH, here to stay: Working from home isn’t going away — even if some CEOs wish it would. Ron writes that most workers crave flexibility and work-life balance — who knew?

Podcasts

On Equity’s startup-focused Wednesday show, the crew dug into the Multiverse’s acquisition of Searchlight, the latest Guesty round, the Monad Labs transaction and a new venture capital fund targeting growth rounds in Africa.

Meanwhile, Found featured Ben Christensen, the founder and CEO of Cambium, a startup that’s reimagining the wood supply chain and reallocating previously wasted materials to be used in new building projects.

Bonus round

Microsoft passwords exposed: Security researchers discovered an open and public database hosted on Microsoft’s Azure cloud service that was storing internal information relating to Microsoft’s Bing search engine. Microsoft says that it has resolved the lapse.


Software Development in Sri Lanka

Robotic Automations

The AltStore, an alternative app store coming to the EU, will offer Patreon-backed apps | TechCrunch

April 12, 2024 3:45 PM0


Apple’s chokehold on the App Store ecosystem for iPhone apps stifles competition, according to the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA), so it’s now forcing the tech giant to open up to new rivals. As a result, we’re beginning to see what an app store ecosystem could look like when other developers are allowed to compete with the default iPhone App Store.

One notable case in point is the AltStore, an alternative app store that’s preparing to take advantage of the DMA to launch an updated version of its app marketplace in the EU, with plans to support Patreon-backed apps.

To comply with the new European law, Apple is introducing APIs and frameworks that allow developers to distribute apps independently of the App Store. The AltStore was quick to capitalize on this possibility, and last week, AltStore developer Riley Testut shared screenshots of the up-and-coming version of his app store that will be offered in the EU.

Instead of relying only on ads, paid downloads or in-app purchases to monetize, the AltStore will allow developers to use its custom Patreon integration to market their apps directly to consumers.

 

Post by @rileytestut
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The store — which has offered sideloading apps like the video game emulator Delta, also from Testut — will initially launch in the EU with just two apps, the developer says. Delta will be available for free and the AltStore’s own clipboard manager Clip will require a pledge of $1 or more on the crowdfunding platform Patreon. The AltStore plans to add the beta versions of both Delta and Clip soon after, which will require a $3 per month Patreon pledge to use.

This unique business model for monetizing apps is similar in some ways to Apple’s in-app subscriptions but comes without the traditional 15% to 30% commission on sales that the tech giant currently takes. With Apple’s DMA rules, alternative app stores can opt to pay €0.50 for each first annual install per year over a 1 million threshold — a new scheme to tap into the revenue of larger apps, which Apple calls its Core Technology Fee. (Whether Apple’s fee will remain is uncertain, as the EU is investigating the tech giant for non-compliance with its competition law.)

As Testut explains, after the AltStore launches and is working properly, the plan is to then allow other developers to also distribute their apps through the storefront by establishing their own sources.

“They’ll also be able to use the same Patreon integration we use to distribute ‘paid’ apps,” Testut told TechCrunch. This integration will create a new business model for apps that wouldn’t be permitted without the DMA coming into effect.

“One thing @altstore does that should really get you thinking about alternative payment systems that Apple never would have considered: it has Patreon integration, and can tie access to apps to your Patreon pledge — which gives you an entirely different, personal relationship with your users, and lets you use the same reward system you use for videos, blog posts, merch, etc,” wrote iOS developer Steve Troughton-Smith in a post on Mastodon. “Alternative app stores don’t just have to recreate Apple’s model,” he added.

Plus, he pointed out how the AltStore will provide users with a “granular view” of the entitlements — or extra permissions — that an app has, before you install it.

Beyond offering developers a new way to make money, Testus claims that the EU version of the AltStore will be “dramatically simpler” to use compared with the current version.

Today, users who want to sideload apps via the AltStore without jailbreaking their iPhone have to use a Mac or PC, provide the AltStore with their Apple ID and password, and then refresh the apps every seven days. That process not only raises security concerns, but is also complex. However, the EU version of AltStore won’t require these steps.

“It all works virtually the same as the App Store now,” Testut says.

In the screenshots he shared, the AltStore looks much like a modern-day app store, with categories like Games, Lifestyle and Utilities, as well as buttons to download its free apps, as on Apple’s App Store. However, the user interface will be slightly different, as Apple requires developers to insert an additional confirmation screen after the user clicks to install an app. This screen warns consumers that updates and purchases will be managed by the AltStore, as opposed to Apple.

Testut also notes that the AltStore apps have to be notarized by Apple in order to be installed, so it won’t be able to install just any sideloaded app available as an .ipa file.

The new AltStore is ready to launch now, but Testut says he’s waiting on final approval from Apple.


Software Development in Sri Lanka

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