We’ve spoken out about problems with Apple's App Stores before. Public pressure has led to change. Now, the EU has opened antitrust investigations against Apple, while Basecamp is publicly fighting back against shakedown tactics from Apple. #AppStoreAntitrust (Tweet 1/10)

After many issues early on, Rogue Amoeba has avoided Apple's App Stores. To save our sanity & revenue, we focused on direct distro via the Mac. Sadly, problems have persisted & worsened. It's time to speak up and share stories about #AppStoreAntitrust. We'll go first. (2/10)

2008, Radioshift Touch: Our first iOS App Store app was inadvertently removed by Apple twice. It then faced competitors who broke Apple's rules, yet were allowed in the Store. An uneven playing field doomed the app. It was retired a year later. #AppStoreAntitrust (3/10)

2009, Airfoil Speakers Touch: After an incident-free v1.0 launch, v1.0.1 bug fixes were held up for 3+ months, due to Apple's total misunderstanding of how IP law works at a basic level. After much public fighting, our updates were eventually allowed. #AppStoreAntitrust (4/10)

Early 2012, Piezo: Our first Mac App Store app also had updates held up, this time due to Apple's lack of understanding of fair use. Here, much private fighting finally allowed our updates to ship. #AppStoreAntitrust (5/10)

Mid 2012, Airfoil Speakers Touch Redux: Apple first approved, then removed, a major v3 update, seemingly because it competed with an Apple HARDWARE product. A huge feature, which violated no written rule, had to be pulled. Months of work were lost. #AppStoreAntitrust (6/10)

2016, Piezo: After rule changes made Piezo incompatible in the Mac App Store, we eventually removed it. In the next year, our profit increased, as the exposure from the Mac App Store is worth far less than their 30% cut. #AppStoreAntitrust (7/10)

Now in 2020, Fission is our lone Mac App Store product, and Airfoil Satellite is our lone iOS App Store product. As a direct result of Apple’s actions, as well as policies both written and unwritten, we have no plans for future App Store apps. #AppStoreAntitrust (8/10)

Unfortunately, shipping iOS software means being on the iOS App Store. Because of this, many developers are scared to speak out. The sad result of this continued silence is that Apple can abuse their position of power, and they are. (9/10)

We hope speaking up can bring about more open platforms, and a fairer, more robust ecosystem. This would be a boon to users, developers, and in the long run, even Apple. We urge more developers to speak up and share their stories. Use #AppStoreAntitrust to tell yours. (10/10)

I spoke on the phone w/someone on the Apple App Store team a few years ago - they were "helping" suggest how my @good_todo to-do list app, goodtodo.com , could boost user acquisition. (1/) #AppStoreAntitrust

"Why aren't you signed up for in-app payments?" they asked. "Because it's outrageous," I said, "you're asking for 30% of my revenue." (2/) #AppStoreAntitrust

"Well, if you mention signup or payment anywhere in the app, it has to go through in-app payments," they said. Eventually I caved and began sending 30% of my app revenue to Apple. But in order to afford that, I first raised prices on my users. (3/) #AppStoreAntitrust

I'm so glad that @dhh @jasonfried @RogueAmoeba and other developers are speaking out. Apple is acting unethically, exploiting small teams like mine to squeeze out every last cent - and those that manage to survive have to pass along the costs to users. /eot #AppStoreAntitrust

As you note, Apple’s actions mean either developers get hurt, users get hurt, or both. It’s shameful.

cc @davidcicilline @RepCicilline

Two serious issues for authorities to dig: 1) Why can’t a user download an app from a developer’s website and install it on his/her iOS device, like they can do on MacOS? 2) Why Apple blocks a company of creating a competitor App Store on iOS, that could provide competition?

Two serious issues for authorities to dig: 1) Why can’t a user download an app from a developer’s website and install it on his/her iOS device, like they can do on MacOS? 2) Why Apple blocks a company of creating a competitor App Store on iOS, that could provide competition?

Two serious issues for authorities to dig: 1) Why can’t a user download an app from a developer’s website and install it on his/her iOS device, like they can do on MacOS? 2) Why Apple blocks a company of creating a competitor App Store on iOS, that could provide competition?

Having just left the Mac for a Linux PC I feel pretty good about not giving Apple any of my money.

Listening via AirFoil on the Mac as I type. Love your work have for over a decade. Stay strong 💪

Thanks for the kind words!

Speaking out about Apple’s policies is fine. Calling for government to step in, when your being subject to those policies by your presence in the store is completely voluntary, is outrageous. It overshadows any valid criticism you might have when you want to solve it with a gun.

I love your apps and appreciate you speaking out for indie devs! While, I know unlikely - if you developed your apps for Win10 or even Linux - I'd by the catalog (as I have done on Mac) in a heartbeat. Not sure I am sticking with Apple's platforms at this point.

Heh. Man, nothing I worked on had an easy ride!

These App Store stories are the worse of Apple. Need more developer voices for them to realise downside and course correct. There is much more to lose if developers are afraid to innovate. Apple already has the upper ground with early access to private APIs.

Thanks for speaking out. Who else is with us?

I can’t be the first to wonder if we could all have a documentary crew following @jasonfried @dhh as they poke bears and take the odd punch.

We are. crappstore.net

I’ve sent my story to @dhh by DM. It was 12 years and cost me a lot. Because of that I gave up on iOS Apps for good.

Wow, amazed that you all persisted through all that! Here's hoping that we can see some change from all this.

That thread is really just a taste, one simplified for brevity’s sake. The App Stores were an immense source of frustration, and for us, not helpful. The continued availability of direct distribution on the Mac is a must. It ought to be available on iOS too.

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Seriously apple owns the app store and should be able to do what they want with it like this is stupid

They should do what they want by changing terms to suit their needs and rejecting your app while it was first approved with the same so called "issue"? Lol, are you serious right now

Yes it's their service

You're right. What they shouldn't be allowed to do is block competing stores, though. On macOS you can host apps on your website. You can't do that on iOS.

don't feed the trolls

Agreed

In theory - completely correct. But making the environment overly developer-hostile can drive away developers and hurt the whole ecosystem

Working with Apple’s development tools is mostly a pretty good experience, they have a good platform and APIs, - and I can’t think of anything that sours the taste of this more than getting bogged down in administrative BS that’s inconsistent and severely punitive

Ok, then they can't be allowed to run the only app store.

They can it's their phone

Not after they sell it.

Still after they sell it. Their software their updates, they could make you pay after all. You can flash some other rom but it's their software

So because they provide OS updates, they're allowed to have a monopoly on selling third party software? Why, exactly? That they don't charge end users for software updates isn't even close to a good enough reason.

Because the developers have the choice to leave, apple owns the store. They spend money on it and fix shit, not the developers store it's apple's.

Leave for where? Apple owns the only app store and won't allow phone owners to use any alternative stores. Instead they're stuck using complicated workarounds. By comparison, Android has multiple successful app stores anyone can use, including one operated by Amazon.

Google, for all their monopolistic tendencies, allows direct competition on devices running their OS which they update for free. Is Apple so much less confident in their product?

Not a iOS dev, my friend's are, I know the pain and frustration with appstore and how Apple abuses it's power

Apple killed my friend's cross-platform app and kept it out of the AppStore years before it became part of OS X - they never gave an answer, just stiff-armed him:

I loved flux!

F.lux is great, and these stories are disturbingly common.

Mike was my roommate in college... the kind of guy who was upset at the noise driver in widows he needed for a particle tracking program for class, he wrote his own to me faster. Ended up being the CTO for Picasa before Google bought them... super smart guy.

Oddly, I still have my original emails with you guys back when you launched Nicecast and I was using it for Live365 broadcasting... from Quentin in October 2004... long road...

Now that is WAY back!

oh i love flux!

yea yea make sideloading official!!!! 🥸

I feel like the same incentive structures that plague the police plague Apple’s App Store. When you are tasked with finding something wrong, you *will* find something wrong. If you are evaluated on how quickly you get something off your plate, you *will* get it off your plate.

Two serious issues for authorities to dig: 1) Why can’t a user download an app from a developer’s website and install it on his/her iOS device, like they can do on MacOS? 2) Why Apple blocks a company of creating a competitor App Store on iOS, that could provide competition?