This is not a new complaint wearing a new headline. As far back as 2016, Daring Fireball flagged that Apple's new App Store subscription policies were unclear about which apps even qualified — the same vagueness The Verge's Dieter Bohn now pins down in the HEY case.
What changed by June 2020 is that the ambiguity acquired a famous defendant and a public fight: Apple rejected Basecamp's HEY email app for not using in-app purchases, defended the rejection with what Daring Fireball called a flimsy business-vs-consumer distinction, and drew Jason Fried's response that the issue was never the money but Apple forcibly inserting itself between developers and their customers.
First-order effects
Developers shipping apps on iOS face rejection criteria that are not written down anywhere they can read them — HEY's fate turns on an interpretation Apple applied retroactively, not a rule published in advance.
Jason Fried's public framing moves the dispute onto Apple's turf: if the objection is forced intermediation rather than the 15-30% fee, every developer watching can now argue the same case against IAP requirements.
Second-order effects
Other developers gain both a template and evidence: when startups like Replit and Anything later complain that Apple applies App Store rules erratically to vibe coding apps, they are citing the same enforcement-arbitrariness pattern HEY exposed.
Regulators get a cleaner target — the EU's standoff over Apple's IAP warnings on non-IAP listings shows enforcement discretion becoming the specific thing policymakers probe, not just commission rates.
Third-order effects
If vague-text-plus-discretionary-enforcement keeps generating public developer revolts, the durable fix pressure shifts from appealing individual rejections to forcing Apple to publish binding, testable rules — turning App Store governance into a regulated activity rather than a private judgment call.
The trend: App Store control is migrating from Apple's unpublished reviewer discretion toward externally imposed, auditable platform rules as developer disputes compound and regulators take note.
There is no chance in bloody hell that we're going to pay Apple's ransom. I will burn this house down myself, before I let gangsters like that spin it for spoils. This is profoundly, perversely abusive and unfair.
A hill I would die on: curated app stores have been hugely, unambiguously good for users and software developers, and especially for user security and privacy. 1/
We keep trying to find logic, consistency in Apple's App Store decisions. What's different about Fastmail? Why not Gmail? Outlook? But it's looking at the question the wrong way. The answer is much more basic: power. Apple can do what they want, when they want, so they do.
Maybe I'm too pessimistic but seeing Apple get a lot of props about this and wondering what the implications are. Feels weird given that a feature like this can normalize perpetual surveillance via a virtual assistant that is always listening to you https://twitter.com/...
@_shatzer @Gabrielducharme @DanGrover @nytopinion Well they do not have big market share there so not the right line of attack. Should be Google on search; Apple on App Store; Amazon on third party; FB on social
@film_girl @TimothyBuckSF I have no position on anecdotes of inconsistency. However, prior methods of distribution of software were fraught w/ inconsistency, opacity, and essentially bribery. So no matter what one thinks of today's Stores they are a vast improvement over Retail, …
@sorcery_markw Nothing sudden about that. Market definition is a basic part of competition law. The EU is quite capable of saying Apple has a monopoly on iPhones.
Re: the App Store stuff. Even if you completely think Apple is in the right (and I haven't seen many people willingly carrying water for the $1.5T company), from an optics perspective alone, how is this not an utter shit show?
4/ third, even if some of the rules are judged illegal or unfair, I personally value Apple's tight control of third party app distribution as a guard against most malware and a protection of privacy. I favor curation.
Look closely and you will definitely find a notable portion of the developer / tech community who think Apple's handling of the App Store is both fair and correct. Their voices don't generally get amplified as much as the outrage and critical but that's social media for you.
Otherwise, I think @gruber nails it: “the distinction is not so much between what is and isn't a “reader” app or what is or isn't a “business” app, but between companies which are too big for Apple to push around and those they can.” https://daringfireball.net/...
I understand where Apple is coming from with regard to Hey. I disagree with it, but I understand it. I don't understand why they chose that hill to die on a week before WWDC & the day the EU opened an investigation. I wonder just how high up it escalated.
Oh, great to find out that the DOJ has also been following the case. Speaking with their antitrust division tomorrow. Hopefully they're getting a proper case ready to match what @vestager and crew is doing in the EU 🙏
I don't particularly like many of @dhh's tweets either but you're nuts if you think Basecamp is deliberately putting a multi-million investment at risk just so they can get free publicity. No one saw this block coming given what seemed to be settled law in the App Store.
The funny thing is Apple issued a press release on Monday emphasizing how it only forces it take rate on so-called digital content and services -> https://www.apple.com/... https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...
The Basecamp/Hey thing has driven a conversation about iOS being opened up and Apple's control of the App Store being loosened. That's totally overthinking it. Apple should just charge a lower fee and be consistent about applying clear, transparent rules.
It remains astonishing to me that Apple's App Store hasn't been the subject of a serious antitrust challenge. A testament to how unwilling the rest of the tech industry is to cooperate with regulators and risk being seen as crossing AAPL. If you come for the king... https://twitt…