Matt Mullenweg says Automattic will add IAP for WordPress.com plans to WordPress iOS app after Apple froze app updates and demanded the addition
❗ Punctuation matters Paul Thurrott / Thurrott : Apple's At It Again, This Time With WordPress Joe Wituschek / iMore : WordPress says Apple has blocked it from updating its iOS app Surur / MSPoweruser : Apple is forcing WordPress to add in-app purchases so they can collect their 30% vig #BreakUpApple Matthew Watson / Neowin : Apple blocks WordPress iOS app updates until in-app purchases added [Update] Ruby-Version / GitHub : wordpress-mobile / WordPress-iOS … Build Instructions — Please refer to the sections below for more detailed information. Gary Ng / iPhone in Canada Blog : WordPress Says Apple ‘Locked’ iOS Updates Unless it Agreed to In-App Purchases Soumyarendra Barik / MediaNama : WordPress says Apple blocked its iOS updates for not supporting in-app purchases Rajesh Pandey / iPhone Hacks : Apple Blocked WordPress App Updates Until It Added IAP Support for .Com Plans J. Fergus / Input : Apple just forced WordPress to charge fees so it can take a cut Cohen Coberly / TechSpot : Apple allegedly halts updates for WordPress' iOS app due to its lack of in-app purchases Thomas Kika / International Business Times : WordPress Accuses Apple Of Preventing App Updates In Order To Extort In-App Purchases Meira Gebel / Digital Trends : WordPress claims Apple wants 30% of App Store profits even though its free Michael Tsai : WordPress Bug Fixes Blocked Over IAP Evan Selleck / iDownloadBlog.com : WordPress for iOS was blocked from updating for weeks for not including in-app purchase options Mike Peterson / AppleInsider : Apple blocked WordPress for iOS updates until it agreed to in-app purchases [u] Michael Potuck / 9to5Mac : Apple asks WordPress to support in-app purchases for iOS app before approving updates, even though it doesn't sell anything Tweets: Mark Gurman / @markgurman : Apple says the issue with WordPress has been resolved now that WP is removing in app references to buying https://wordpress.com/ plans. https://twitter.com/... Tim Bray / @timbray : Pay attention to this; the outcome will matter: https://www.theverge.com/... Matt Mullenweg / @photomatt : I am a big believer in the sanctity of licenses. (Open source relies on licenses and copyright.) We agreed to this license when we signed up for (and stayed in) the app store, so going to follow and abide by the rules. Not looking to skirt it, hence doing what they asked us to. Ben Thompson / @benthompson : WordPress (and the app) are GPL, and App Store TOS and DRM violate GPL. Thus only the copyright holder can submit an app for all of WordPress, both self-hosted and https://wordpress.com/. Apple is thus holding millions of websites hostage for 30% of Automattic domain sales 🤷♂️ Brian Whitmer / @whitmer : This exact thing happened with CoughDrop, but it's small enough that nobody cares. Free app for 4 years (they knew we had an external subscription), suddenly our bug fixes were held hostage until I scrambled to add iap. https://www.theverge.com/... @metasynthie : I know you've heard of forcefem, but do you know about forcemon? It's where Apple forces you to monetize a free open-source app, or be booted from the app store. What? No, it's not a fetish. Well, I mean it could be, but I don't recommend https://www.theverge.com/... Alasdair Allan / @aallan : The damage that Apple are doing to their developer community will depend on how many developers working on Macs are Mac and iOS developers, and how many are developers that own Macs because it's UNIX. I used to be in the first group, but I've been in the second for a decade now. https://twitter.com/... John Gruber / @gruber : How is WordPress's app different from Hey other than that WordPress's app already includes very useful free functionality? I really don't get how this free app that doesn't sell anything or require a paid account for a service violates any App Store guidelines. https://twitter.com/... Adam Markon / @amarkon88 : this is extortion. it's like a mob shakedown, holding revenue hostage because they refuse to give Apple 30%. “looks like a nice app ya got there. be a shame if something happened to it *cracks knuckles*” https://twitter.com/... @nash076 : I give no fucks for Epic or Fortnite, but this ... this is a problem. The best solution is to migrate away from the iPhone. It's a hindrance to actually doing things. https://twitter.com/... Nathan Lawrence / @nathanblawrence : This. It's very difficult to get excited about opening Xcode to work on my fun projects on my day off when I don't even know what the rules are anymore. https://twitter.com/... David / @jandavidhassel : Nice free app you got there. Would be shame if anything happened to it. https://twitter.com/... Lachlan / @thetacticalbrit : I really hope epic games clatter apple. https://twitter.com/... Jay Britton / @voicejaybritton : Never been so happy to not be an Apple user, this is gross beyond compare. A company has been forced to monetise its app simply so that one of the richest companies in the world can take its 30% Can capitalism die already? https://twitter.com/... Craig Grannell / @craiggrannell : Where is this coming from? Cook? Schiller? Shareholders? This is a baffling stance. I was impartial about the Epic spat, but this demand is beyond the pale. Apple urgently needs to rethink on this. The logical ramifications are a rabbithole from hell. https://twitter.com/... Aral Balkan / @aral : Wow, Apple reportedly blocked updates to the Wordpress app - which wasn't selling anything - to force @photomatt to monetise it so Apple could take a 30% cut. A $2 trillion monopoly is as a $2 trillion monopoly does. You proud of yourself, @tim_cook? https://www.theverge.com/... Rand Hindi / @randhindi : No comment: “In other words, Apple won: the richest company in the world just successfully forced an app developer to monetize an app so it could make more money.” https://www.theverge.com/... Martin Sfp Bryant / @martinsfp : This might be worse behaviour than blocking cloud gaming apps. ‘Add a feature so we can get a cut of it’: https://www.theverge.com/... Ben Thompson / @benthompson : I am admittedly puzzled as to why Apple is denying me updates to the open source app for my open source web site because one user of that app happens to sell domains. Also, I thought Apple wasn't going to hold bug updates hostage anymore? https://twitter.com/... Sean Hollister / @starfire2258 : Update: WordPress has already caved to Apple's demand. *The richest company in the world* successfully forced a developer to monetize a free app so it can make even more money https://twitter.com/... @ia : The rules are the rules, and it's good that there are not more exceptions like Amazon, but given who WordPress is, what they do, what the main function and audience of the app is, this again shines a light on rules that clearly need to be redefined. https://www.macrumors.com/... @ia : WordPress update and bug fix was held back because there was a way they could sell hosting without Apple getting a share: https://www.macrumors.com/... Michael Gartenberg / @gartenberg : Apple is starting to make Microsoft of the 90s a kitten by comparison. Good reminder that Apple isn't just a benevolent force of good in the world but a two trillion dollar behemoth that holds companies livelihoods in its hands. https://twitter.com/... Bruno Dias / @notbrunoagain : Apple's view is clearly that the only software that should be allowed to run on their hardware is software that makes them money. https://twitter.com/... Simon Willison / @simonw : This 30% thing is so gross. It's genuinely putting me off the entire Apple ecosystem. https://twitter.com/... @glitchtvbot : Apple is fucking awful and greedy. Anti trust hearings against this kind of nonsense can not come soon enough. https://twitter.com/... Rami Ismail / @tha_rami : I feel Apple has been outed as evil often enough that they have decided to just embrace it. https://www.theverge.com/... Anil Dash / @anildash : It's wild to see Apple screwing up so badly; they just keep ruining developer goodwill. The more devs find out about how they play favorites & shake down app creators, the more permanent damage they will do. This trend is far worse than antennagate or the butterfly keyboards. https://twitter.com/... @grummz : Another one. Wordpress is free. https://twitter.com/... Soona / @soonaorlater : This will only get worse over time. https://twitter.com/... Thomas Baekdal / @baekdal : Also, don't forget at Apple forces this ‘warning’ open the WordPress admin app because some websites host bad content (but which has nothing to do with the Wordpress app itself). Apple is just being an absolute dick! https://twitter.com/... Jane Manchun Wong / @wongmjane : The wholesale price for a .com domain is $7.85 With the IAP in place, Automattic's earning per .com sale (priced at $18) will drop from $10.15 to $4.75 (-53%) https://twitter.com/... Brian Roemmele / @brianroemmele : Apple is losing the compass heading that got it to this point. These type of actions do not look good on a scrappy company from the 1970s and they look worse from a $2 trillion dollar company. I love Apple, they have valid arguments, but lead by your heart and not by lawyers. https://twitter.com/... Ed Bott / @edbott : Epic has a pretty powerful witness here. https://twitter.com/... Katie Curran / @katiecurran_cre : This is how you go from 1 trillion to 2 trillion in two years https://twitter.com/... Npx Joselito / @breakzplatform : a apple quer cobrar os 30% do app do wordpress mesmo ele não vendendo nada https://twitter.com/... Shen Ye / @shen : Imagine being an Apple employee on the team whose job it is to dig through perfectly compliant apps to try extort the developers to help Apple make money. https://twitter.com/... Benedict Evans / @benedictevans : Waiting to see if this is another case of Apple's app store review team being arbitrary/capricious/inconsistent, or an actual shift in policy. Benedict Evans / @benedictevans : This makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. https://twitter.com/... Max Lynch / @maxlynch : 🤦♂️ Apple is getting brazen https://twitter.com/... @newsycombinator : WordPressiOS Locked by App Store https://twitter.com/... Daniel Jalkut / @danielpunkass : Just when you thought Apple was done with ridiculous rejections. I would hate to give them any ideas but if the same standard were applied to @MarsEdit I'd have to make IAP deals with all the countless for-pay services I happen to support. https://twitter.com/... Brendan Irvine-Broque / @irvinebroque : Forcing companies to jump through hoops takes time away from companies that could be used to improve their product for customers. To me, that falls under the “consumer harm” part of antitrust law, given that Wordpress has no other recourse. https://twitter.com/... Chakie / @jan_ekholm : Apple is doing everything it can to really look like villains here. I for one would be happy to see Apple smacked and the App Store tax go down to, say, 2.5% for us small developers and 1% after you've earned 100€. Most developers never reach that limit anyway. https://twitter.com/... Catalin Cimpanu / @campuscodi : I have a ultra major scoop: Next week, Apple will formally announce that they now own the left kidney of every person who has ever bought an iPhone. Drink lots of water, mah friends! Keep the other kidney healthy. Access to phones with semi-reliable batteries has its price https://twitter.com/... Steve Troughton-Smith / @stroughtonsmith : Unchallenged, Apple is going to start taking a cut of more and more businesses that have nothing to do with it. They'll be emboldened to be even nastier than they are today https://twitter.com/... Dieter Bohn / @backlon : If somewhere in the back of your mind you're thinking “maybe web apps can solve these app store restrictions,” remember that for reasonable security and privacy concerns, web apps on the iPhone are limited in some capabilities you'd want. https://twitter.com/... Jared White / @jaredcwhite : Apple: for the love of all that is holy, get your f%*^*$%ing iOS App Store act together! I love your products, but your business policies regarding this wing of the company are batshit crazy. https://twitter.com/... Thomas Baekdal / @baekdal : Demanding that people can't update their wordpress app until Apple get's a 30% cut domain sale is completely and totally unacceptable. Wordpress and domains are two completely separate things. https://twitter.com/... Joost de Valk / @jdevalk : Ugh this is so annoying. https://twitter.com/... @nitotv : something interesting about apple: every time they get called out their beavior gets worse https://twitter.com/... Dare Obasanjo / @carnage4life : The floodgates are beginning to open. Apple wants a 30% cut from everyone who signs up for hosting of their Wordpress blog on an iPhone. Their app has been blocked from making updates until they make the change. Apple is strong arming the entire app ecosystem like Tony Soprano. https://twitter.com/... Stephen Hackett / @ismh : Yet another app caught up by ... whatever the heck is happening at Apple right now. https://twitter.com/... @tprstly : Interesting, now that Epic has gone head on with Apple everyone is starting to question the App Store monopoly. https://twitter.com/... Bryan Irace / @irace : Apple is seemingly doing everything they can to tank their credibility amongst as wide a swath of developers as possible. https://twitter.com/... Tom Warren / @tomwarren : more Apple abuse for @vestager and team to investigate https://twitter.com/... Alex Hern / @alexhern : Speak of the devil. Apple wants a cut of the cost of buying a domain name if you do it on an iPhone. https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/... @ow : “You see, subscribing on WordPress' website without us getting a cut for no reason at all, is just like robbing Best Buy” https://twitter.com/... Casey Newton / @caseynewton : So now Apple would like a cut of revenue for every site hosted by WordPress on the open web. Just some more pro-competition, throwing-the-gates-wide-open behavior from a $2 trillion company https://twitter.com/... Matt Mullenweg / @photomatt : [empty] See also Mediagazer