Apple opens iPhone to alternative app stores in Japan

Apple AAPL.O on Wednesday said it has opened iPhones to alternative app stores in Japan to comply with new laws aimed at stoking competition in that country's smartphone market.

Under Apple's new rules, Japanese developers can launch their own app marketplaces on iPhones and pay Apple as little as 5% of sales made through those marketplaces and apps.

Developers will also be able to offer their own in-app payments for apps distributed through Apple's App Store, though Apple said the option will be offered alongside its own in-app payment system and that developers will still pay commissions.

Japan is the latest jurisdiction to pry apart Apple's App Store business model, where developers long paid commissions of up to 30% on in-app purchases of digital goods and services. While Apple is stilllitigating over what it can charge developers in the United States, in Europe the U.S. technology company has been required to open the iPhone to alternative marketplaces.

Japan's framework is fundamentally different than the European one.

Under it, Apple has the authority to approve alternative app marketplaces. It also requires age ratings, as it does in its own App Store, for apps sold on alternative marketplaces.

Apple also said it will run a basic security check called a notarization on all apps distributed through alternative marketplaces.

Japanese developers using Apple's App Store can provide links to pay outside their apps, for which Apple will charge a 15% commission. Standard App Store purchases will be charged a 26% fee.

Japan's law also requires Apple to open up its iPhone hardware to third-party device makers, but does so differently than European law. Apple set up a system in Japan for taking interoperability requests but said it can reject them if they would expose sensitive user data.

"Across these changes, Apple has worked to reduce new privacy and security risks the law creates to provide users in Japan the best and safest experience possible," Apple said in a blog.

-Stephen Nellis/Reuters