A nick to Apple’s profits could be a windfall for app developers

Apple has taken to calling its iPhone App Store an “economic miracle,, and it has pointed to developers like Zach Shakked as proof.

Shakked created an iPhone app that helps companies find trending hashtags on social media. Over the past 12 months, his sales have topped $5 million.

But one of Shakked’s largest expenses is paying a cut to the world’s richest company. In his case, Apple took nearly $1.5 million – its fee for letting him run his app on its devices.

Now, Shakked has hope that he could soon keep at least some of that money. On Friday, a federal judge ordered Apple to allow developers to steer their customers off their iPhone apps to pay for their goods or services, which Apple had banned.