[HN Gopher] Apple apologizes to WordPress, won't force the free ...
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Apple apologizes to WordPress, won't force the free app to add
purchases
Author : pier25
Score : 28 points
Date : 2020-08-22 22:26 UTC (34 minutes ago)
(HTM) web link (www.theverge.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.theverge.com)
| edoceo wrote:
| I 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.
| g_p wrote:
| 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.
| bostonvaulter2 wrote:
| I'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.
| social_quotient wrote:
| 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.
| rubber_duck wrote:
| 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 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).
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(page generated 2020-08-22 23:00 UTC)