Apple apologizes to WordPress, won’t force the free app to add purchases
1–10 of 387 posts
Re: Apple apologizes to WordPress, won’t force the free app to add purchases
#2I was worried about this. I'm small potatoes but we make an open source app that can connect to self-hosted or paid-hosted services. So if they could have forced WP, they could have easily forced me too, now there is a baseline set.
To even get approved we had to make sure the App doesn't offer any sign-up or even billing info at all. And still went round and round for approval explaining how paid services, if any, are completely outside Apple realm.
Re: Apple apologizes to WordPress, won’t force the free app to add purchases
#3I'm glad that Apple backed down this time.
> What’s more, Mullenwag told us that he had previously offered to strip other mentions of the paid plans out of the app (even workarounds like when a user views a preview of their own WordPress webpage and then navigates to WordPress.com), only to have those suggestions rejected by Apple.
Having to remove those kinds of work-arounds is part of what bugs me about apples control over the app store.
Re: Apple apologizes to WordPress, won’t force the free app to add purchases
#4Makes me think that at some point showing a restaurant menu with prices is soon going to get the ire of Apple for suggesting an offline monetization that they aren’t a part of.
Re: Apple apologizes to WordPress, won’t force the free app to add purchases
#5Really at this point Apple control over app store is anti-competitive (and Google over play store), having to rely on community outrage to get stuff like this turned is ridiculous.
They should create legislation to control access to all app stores to prevent this rent seeking - force app stores to treat all apps equally according to store defined guidelines (including store owners apps) - any submissions have to be reviewed in a reasonable amount of time and if declined must receive specific violations of the guidelines on which the denial is based. Also make the "no outside payment inside of apps" illegal.
Suddenly the value add of the store streamlined experience has to be justified vs. other payment options - and you'll see the fees drop significantly closer to market level (and it will still be profitable for store owners and they will still invest money in developing/maintaining it).
Re: Apple apologizes to WordPress, won’t force the free app to add purchases
#6I was worried about this. I'm small potatoes but we make an open source app that can connect to self-hosted or paid-hosted services. So if they could have forced WP, they could have easily forced me too, now there is a baseline set. To even get approved we had to make sure the App doesn't offer any sign-up or even billing info at all. And still went round and round for approval explaining how paid services, if any, a…
Your post here exemplifies why apple's behaviour is so problematic - you're left trying to adhere to a set of rules that even Apple can't manage to enforce consistently and correctly, facing the risk of having to pay an unexpected 30% tax on sales (and effectively have to raise prices accordingly).
Hopefully this logic is enough to get Apple in bother during their antitrust suits and Investigations - it seems quite ironic they are getting into scuffles 2 days before the first hearing in the epic case is scheduled (iirc - for the restraining motion).
It would be nice if small businesses and innovators could get on with innovating, rather than ensuring they comply with arcane rent seeking behaviour by a giant that won't let you distribute your app without offering them their cut.
Google is little better though here - their old Android market terms even titled a clause "non-competition". Unsurprisingly this has disappeared - I assume this doesn't comply with their "avoiding antitrust" dictionary of banned phrases.
Re: Apple apologizes to WordPress, won’t force the free app to add purchases
#7I'm glad that Apple backed down this time. > What’s more, Mullenwag told us that he had previously offered to strip other mentions of the paid plans out of the app (even workarounds like when a user views a preview of their own WordPress webpage and then navigates to WordPress.com), only to have those suggestions rejected by Apple. Having to remove those kinds of work-arounds is part of what bugs me about apples cont…
Consider that they backed down only when it became a popular news story at exactly the worst time for them to have it (because of Epic).
Re: Apple apologizes to WordPress, won’t force the free app to add purchases
#8Really at this point Apple control over app store is anti-competitive (and Google over play store), having to rely on community outrage to get stuff like this turned is ridiculous. They should create legislation to control access to all app stores to prevent this rent seeking - force app stores to treat all apps equally according to store defined guidelines (including store owners apps) - any submissions have to be r…
One of the biggest issues with Google play store review is they won't actually tell developers which rule they're breaking, as you point out.
This is so incredibly developer-hostile that the fact developers keep using the play store pretty much helps make the case they're acting in an anticompetitive manner.
It certainly is interesting to note Google removed the title "Non-competition" from clause 4.5 of their developer agreement some time ago. It's still in the archived version on archive.org though, from back when it was called the Android market... Removing the title but leaving the clause intact doesn't mask the anti-competitive behaviour!
Re: Apple apologizes to WordPress, won’t force the free app to add purchases
#9I was worried about this. I'm small potatoes but we make an open source app that can connect to self-hosted or paid-hosted services. So if they could have forced WP, they could have easily forced me too, now there is a baseline set. To even get approved we had to make sure the App doesn't offer any sign-up or even billing info at all. And still went round and round for approval explaining how paid services, if any, a…
Your post here exemplifies why apple's behaviour is so problematic - you're left trying to adhere to a set of rules that even Apple can't manage to enforce consistently and correctly, facing the risk of having to pay an unexpected 30% tax on sales (and effectively have to raise prices accordingly). Hopefully this logic is enough to get Apple in bother during their antitrust suits and Investigations - it seems quite i…
It is not a tax on sales. It is the cost of using their channel to market.
If you host the app yourself on your website then how are people going to discover it. For most developers they would buy ads or invest in content or influencer marketing. Those marketing costs are your channel to market and obviously aren't a tax.
It's hilarious watching so many people on HN discuss this topic who are completely naive and ignorant to the realities of customer acquisition. Apple and Google hand you customers on a silver platter for the bargain, consistent price of 30%. Whereas as a startup I have to pay much higher to Facebook and Google for PPC ads.
Re: Apple apologizes to WordPress, won’t force the free app to add purchases
#10I'm glad that Apple backed down this time. > What’s more, Mullenwag told us that he had previously offered to strip other mentions of the paid plans out of the app (even workarounds like when a user views a preview of their own WordPress webpage and then navigates to WordPress.com), only to have those suggestions rejected by Apple. Having to remove those kinds of work-arounds is part of what bugs me about apples cont…
Consider that they backed down only when it became a popular news story at exactly the worst time for them to have it (because of Epic).
No evidence that it's tied to publicity.
We've seen dozens of situations like this over the years and often we find out that Apple and the developers were discussing behind the scenes way before it was public.