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Well…here we are — in the third week of the Attribution Apocalypse. I think it’s fair to say this is still the biggest story in mobile, simply because it’s so fundamentally disruptive to so many parts of of the ecosystem.

Let’s recap what we know so far:

Apple

After all the [pre-recorded, carefully-scripted] WWDC bombshells, Apple has been playing it pretty close to the vest. Even the Developer Forums (which Apple promised would be “a central place to engage with the community and over 1,000 Apple engineers [during WWDC2020]”) have been nothing but crickets when it comes to this change.

This is par for the course with Apple though.

Developers

From what we’re hearing here at Branch, most are still confused, overall (this is something Apple is doing TO the industry, after all). And that’s a fair reaction, because the next steps really need to filter down from various industry vendors.

Industry

Everyone is waiting for the official update to Apple’s Developer Program License Agreement — until that drops, some things are simply impossible to know.

But in the meantime, three fairly distinct strategies are starting to emerge:

  1. All-in on Apple. For some, Apple’s initial marketing message was enough to set the pace. While this might be the ‘safest’ option (as in, ‘you are a mouse, and you probably won’t get stepped on by the elephant in the room’), it’s also the approach that unquestioningly toes a line set by the second-largest corporation in the world, without allowance for checks or balances.
  2. Making the best of a bad situation. Others (Branch among them, for full disclosure) remain skeptical of Apple’s party line, and are working on solutions that honor the letter and spirit of the policy, but without throwing the rest of the ecosystem under the bus to make it happen.
  3. *Silence*. Perhaps most notably, a number of players still haven’t articulated a strategy. But this is one problem that isn’t going to just slide under the rug where it can be ignored — such reticence can only last so long.

Either way, the fireworks are coming in somewhere around 60 days…

Alex Bauer

Spotlight

Attribution Apocalypse resources

For companies trying to make sense of all this, some of the most useful resources so far are coming in the form of FAQ articles published by MMPs. Here’s a selection:

As reactions have piled up across the ecosystem, it can be hard to keep track of all the perspectives. Fortunately, we have this roundup from App Growth Summit:



Interesting Reads


Industry Buzz



Walled Gardens


Privacy & Security

Tips & Techniques

UX

Spotted this week on a London storefront.

Not shown: another QR code also printed on takeaway bags, in case you want to scan after you get back home again.


Data

People are still ordering groceries online, finding new recipes has lost a bit of its charm, and no one wants to go to restaurants quite yet. But to-go coffee orders are back in style!


The Encore

PodcastPodcast

Medium: Michael Sippey

How Product Professionals Are Changing the World Through Creativity and Optimism

Tech professionals, especially those who work in product, are not necessarily the folks who first come to mind when discussing the topic of creativity. However, there is a shifting viewpoint that argues a healthy level of creativity and optimism is essential to these functions due to the responsibility of bringing technological advancements and game-changing content to a global audience.

Michael Sippey, Chief Product Officer at Medium, joins the podcast to discuss his ideas regarding the inherent optimism required when creating something to share with the world, whether it’s a new app, a blog article and beyond.

More on Michael’s story including his early experience running product at Twitter, the mistake he’s repeatedly made in his career that finally changed his perspective, and why he says product managers should never write an unordered list, on this episode of How I Grew This.

Listen Now

Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts | SoundCloud | Stitcher

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