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Apple apologizes to WordPress, won’t force the free app to add purchases

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Re: Apple apologizes to WordPress, won’t force the free app to add purchases

#41

Makes 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.

They will require you to only accept Apple Pay in your restaurant, or you will have to remove your app from the app store. :)

Well, at least Apple doesn't take a cut from restaurants for Apple Pay.

Re: Apple apologizes to WordPress, won’t force the free app to add purchases

#42

Really 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…

Im not really into congress defining how apps get reviewed. I’d rather see it just get broken up in some way. Either you can’t have a phone and an app store (like the studio/movie model) or they at least have to support other app stores. Side note: my iPhone autocorrected app store to App Store, which I think is another example of overreach.

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Re: Apple apologizes to WordPress, won’t force the free app to add purchases

#43
"The App Store guidelines ensure a high-quality, reliable, and secure user experience. They are transparent and applied equally to developers of all sizes and in all categories." - tim cook

i can envision a scenario where apple legal, in preparation for their battle with epic, gave that statement a critical look. after realizing the myriad of exceptions and omissions they have in app store enforcement, they decided they need to run a clean up campaign immediately and the WP app simply ended up a casualty of this process.

Re: Apple apologizes to WordPress, won’t force the free app to add purchases

#44

As an app developer myself, with apps on both the Google Play Store and the App Store with over 250K monthly active users, I have become so frustrated with Apple's arbitrary and capricious enforcement of its App Store regulations, its bullying and coercion of developers, its extortionate fees, and its monopolistic anti-competitive practices, that I have stopped updating my apps on the App Store. I wonder how many oth…

I'd like to see regulation that forces Apple and Google to allow any and all app stores on their devices, and the process of installing apps through those stores must be, by law, equally easy and straightforward as through their own stores (i.e., no security warnings or other jank).

I'm pretty sure that will have massive opposition, because they are deathly scared of opening their devices back to the general-purpose computers they actually are. However, I remain hopeful that people may finally wake up to the "security" excuse and stop sacrificing their freedom.

Re: Apple apologizes to WordPress, won’t force the free app to add purchases

#45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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).

Well, we’ll never know if it would have turned out differently at another time. They can be stubborn, but they can also recognise mistakes and correct them. That said, there is no comparison: forcing a developer to add features to an app is nothing like enforcing the TOS the developer agreed with and is trying to subvert.

Yes, we know. Ask any iOS developer friend of yours and you'll know that Apple never backs down, until the incident gets publicity.

And the non-malicious explanation for that is simple. The majority of the million apps in the app store are small fry to them, and they can't scale support to that level in any empathetic rational manner.

My wishlist for legislation is:

1/ Apple has to allow side loading of apps (make it an advanced developer setting, with plenty of warnings and periodic reminders, that's fine).

2/ Apple cannot force usage of Apple pay and apple sign in.

3/ Apple cannot force developers to hide any options or even information about alternative mechanisms to pay for content, or sign up to a service.

Re: Apple apologizes to WordPress, won’t force the free app to add purchases

#46
This should be an unpopular opinion but I kind of respected Apple's previous stance, and I'm in a way a bit disappointed they've backed down, but I think they've needed to because they are moving too quickly.

5 years from now we'll likely see Apple Silicon powering Apple's entire new product lineup, and Swift developers will be deploying software across the entire product lineup with minimal effort. Swift is both quick and safe, so we can hope these new softwares will be both fast, secure and free of critical bugs.

This to me is a really interesting and appealing alternative to the frustrating world of slow web apps that invade your privacy and fill your computer with bloat. I don't see Apple's previous stance as being greedy about obtaining a 30% cut, rather it is about trying to bring to fruition a vision of the future where users can perform their computing needs with fast and secure native apps. I hope we don't legislate away such a reasonable opportunity for people to be freed from Google and Facebook invasion.

Re: Apple apologizes to WordPress, won’t force the free app to add purchases

#47

Really 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…

The problem I have is that you make it sound like you have a right to release software for their platform. They opened their platform for devs to make apps. You accepted that offer, read their terms, agreed to those terms, and are now complaining about those terms? I get it that you want to make 100% of the price made from each sell, but that's not realistic. If you sell your product at a brick&mortar store, you don't get full amount of the sell. They buy it at wholesale. Rarely is that wholesale price only %30 of the retail price. Nothing about the App Store seems pretty reasonable.

Re: Apple apologizes to WordPress, won’t force the free app to add purchases

#48

Calling that an apology is a bit rich. It wasn't "confusion" that was the problem, it was forcing monetization that was the problem. They basically say it was all WordPress's fault.

Apple tends to use that sort of language (corporate doublespeak?) a lot.

Re: Apple apologizes to WordPress, won’t force the free app to add purchases

#49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They will require you to only accept Apple Pay in your restaurant, or you will have to remove your app from the app store. :)

Well, at least Apple doesn't take a cut from restaurants for Apple Pay.

Apple collects 0.15% of all credit card transactions made through Apple Pay for US-based cards. The percentage is higher for the Apple Card, of course.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/google-loses-key-mobile-payment...

https://venturebeat.com/2018/05/10/apple-pay-credit-card-is-...

Re: Apple apologizes to WordPress, won’t force the free app to add purchases

#50

Apple is being too ridiculous at this point. Devs need App Store but Apple also need devs. Being so hostile is going to hurt them pretty bad, both for Apple and for Google.

Google already allows apps outside the Play Store, and third party app stores as well
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