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WordPressiOS Locked by App Store

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Re: WordPressiOS Locked by App Store

#291

Post by scarface74 »

ameen wrote: post #144
GeneralTspoon wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If I were in a position where Apple is forcing me to pay a 30% tax, I would literally add "30% Apple Tax" to the check out screen on top of the regular fees to make consumers aware. Course I'm sure Apple wouldn't like this at all either. They straight up won't allow you to do this.... I've tried before, and got a call from the Apple Reviewer to say that they won't allow anything like this to be published.

Twitch does this blatantly. I think they’re able to skirt the rules because of being an Amazon company. A subscription on the web is 4.99 and the same subscription via the official twitch iOS app is 5.99.

This is not “skirting the rules”. There is nothing in the rules that says you aren’t allowed to charge a higher price on the App Store. Spotify did this for years and the NYT does this now.

Re: WordPressiOS Locked by App Store

#292

Post by scarface74 »

gsich wrote: post #133
LeonB wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have more information about this?

https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/guidelines 3.1.3b >your general communications about other purchasing methods must not discourage use of in-app purchase It's vague (probably intentionally) but having a higher price in the app is certainly discouraging compared to the "normal" way.

There is a difference between you can’t advertise a higher price than you can’t have a higher price. There are plenty of existence proofs that companies have been having different prices for years.

I’m sure Best Buy wouldn’t want you to advertise in Best Buy that you can find the product cheaper on Amazon.

Re: WordPressiOS Locked by App Store

#293

Post by scarface74 »

donatzsky wrote: post #229
DaiPlusPlus wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder if Apple did start requiring the IAP price to be the same as the price everyone else pays - would that definitely be illegal? I have a B2B app in the app-store which only has a login-screen on the app - so hopefully that won't attract Apple's attention, but if they do I was thinking about making our service-fee an Apple Pay ("real-life") purchase with lower fees where we'd mail the customer a brick with an a…

I'm pretty sure they used to require uniform pricing. I remember Spotify getting in trouble for having different prices in the app. But that was several years ago. B2B apps are exempt from the the IAP requirements.

Spotify didn’t get “into trouble” for doing this. They did that for years.

Re: WordPressiOS Locked by App Store

#294

Post by tenryuu »

bdcravens wrote: post #31
strombofulous wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Twitch charges $5.99 for a subscription to a streamer in their app but $5 on their website. Are they breaking this rule too? How are they getting away with it?

Are the subscriptions portable between the web and mobile apps? Or only valid one place or the other?

kind of? They have a special category for mobile subscriptions, and the sub system on mobile uses a token system. So while they all do the same thing, they are actually very diverse in how they are operated. A sub on a phone still gives you the benefits on any platform though, but it will continue to use the payment gateway for the life of the subscription

Re: WordPressiOS Locked by App Store

#295

Post by naveen99 »

DaiPlusPlus wrote: post #164
naveen99 wrote: post #120

I wonder if corporations would be more efficient long term if each layer in the hierarchy simply collected 30% tax from the layer below like capitalism, instead of being run like a dictatorship / communism that they currently run as... I mean if 30% ownership of everything via taxes is good for capitalist governments, maybe it’s good for corporations also ?

So the Apple store 30% tax would be more like a 30% VAT on the value created by the app - excluding the value already present in prewritten libraries etc the app builds on. The problem there is that it's impossible to quantify that. VAT works in-practice in retail sales because the value added is trivial to calculate - but you can't do that with open-source libraries or internal components - or the value created by a…

think franchising (or commission based sales or performance based bonuses) taken to an extreme. I understand there are inefficiencies in implementing. And you may lose the govt. tax free intra organization transactions. Just a not really serious thought.

Re: WordPressiOS Locked by App Store

#296

Post by rattray »

dielll wrote: post #265
kuzimoto wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I am very privacy, open-source, freedom orientated I like to think I am as well. How do you balance this when moving from Apple to Android, where Apple (seems) to be much more privacy-focused and basically at zero for open-source/freedom, where Android is basically the reverse? I think there are ways to make it better (custom ROM, alternative app stores), but you give up a lot of functionality (Play Store, Google P…

Apple is only beholden to Wallstreet. Not privacy, not developers, not customers.

Apple has Wall Street by the bulls, if you'll pardon the pun.

Its cash and profitability relative to the market give it a ton of negotiating power with investors who might see things differently when it comes to business decisions.

Apple makes money by focusing on its customers and brand. Investors have learned to let it do that.

Re: WordPressiOS Locked by App Store

#297

Post by rattray »

kuzimoto wrote: post #12
turblety wrote: post #5

I know I really don't matter to Apple, but this walled garden and app store dictatorship is what finally made me move away from iOS to Android last year. I had used Android in the past, but it was with Samsung Galaxy's which where very bloated and awful when compared to Apple. But when a friend told me that Samsung just ruin Android [1] and I should try an actual Google phone, I bought a Pixel and it's honestly great…

> I am very privacy, open-source, freedom orientated I like to think I am as well. How do you balance this when moving from Apple to Android, where Apple (seems) to be much more privacy-focused and basically at zero for open-source/freedom, where Android is basically the reverse? I think there are ways to make it better (custom ROM, alternative app stores), but you give up a lot of functionality (Play Store, Google P…

Worth noting that Google now allows you to request that it not store any web, app, or location data from any of its services, including Android.

https://myactivity.google.com/activitycontrols

You can configure it to delete after a certain period of time (eg 3 mo) or to never store it. You can also view and delete specific bits of data.

Of course, I am sure there are loopholes and bugs that result in some information remaining on Google services, but for privacy conscious users who rely on some Google services, it's worth experimenting with and spreading.

Re: WordPressiOS Locked by App Store

#298

Post by detaro »

saagarjha wrote: post #70
detaro wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Short version of the usual argument: GPL says you can't add restrictions on what a user can do when you distribute an app. App Store terms of service do add restrictions, so distributing an GPL app through the app store is a license violation.

You may opt out of the usual App Store restrictions for your application.

Oh, did they add that? Interesting, do you happen to have a link with more details handy?

I remember some GPL projects having license exceptions to allow app store usage.

Re: WordPressiOS Locked by App Store

#299

Post by innagadadavida »

giancarlostoro wrote: post #3
mmastrac wrote: post #2

Tweet thread - it looks like Apple is requiring in-app purchases to sign-up for wordpress.com accounts, despite it being an open-source app for any WordPress site: > Heads up on why @WordPressiOS updates have been absent... we were locked by App Store. To be able to ship updates and bug fixes again we had to commit to support in-app purchases for .com plans. I know why this is problematic, open to suggestions. Allow…

This is really sad. On the one hand, sure Apple should be able to make a cut on their app store, on the other hand, they shouldn't be allowed to force apps to do this sort of thing. This will only drive domain prices higher on iOS in order to compensate (in the case of Automattic). If I were in a position where Apple is forcing me to pay a 30% tax, I would literally add "30% Apple Tax" to the check out screen on top…

This is not just about money to Apple. If it was just about money, then Apple would've accommodated Epic somehow - they generated 100s of millions in revenue per year.

This is about control of the platform and Apple is fighting to set and enforce the rules on their platform as they see fit - just like how Wordpress controls how you can distribute changes to their code (to enforce the GPL).

Re: WordPressiOS Locked by App Store

#300

Post by rubber_duck »

Hamuko wrote: post #287
rubber_duck wrote: post #269

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes they can, it was ruled anti competitive a long time ago - this is why you can often find cash only discount. The only place CC won is that you usually can't surcharge the price, instead you must call it a discount for cash, etc.

Is cash even cheaper? I don't think a single store here would prefer you to pay in cash and that sentiment has only grown stronger this year.

Depends on the kind of business, arround here it's quite common (cash/debit vs CC)
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