Apple has been under a meticulous dissection since Tim Sweeney lashed out at them. The CEO of Epic Games voiced his opinion against its thumping tax on in-app purchases.
Yet another episode has further strained Apple’s relationship with developers. WordPress founding developer Matt Mullenweg has accused Apple of cutting off updates for the app or ‘locking the app up’. This will continue until WordPress includes in-app purchases so that the biggest company in the world can milk a 30 percent cut of the money.
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Apple: Yet Another Episode
Matt Mullenweg took to Twitter to post his concerns over the app not getting an update.
The WordPress app on iOS allows users to set up domain names, build websites, and even access domain-based emails. However, it sells nothing through its app. And neither does it give you a ‘unique dot com’. All it does is, it provides you with is a WordPress domain name and 3GB of space.
However, Apple has blocked updates for the app until it includes in-app purchases.
Heads up on why @WordPressiOS updates have been absent… we were locked by App Store. To be able to ship updates and bug fixes again we had to commit to support in-app purchases for .com plans. I know why this is problematic, open to suggestions. Allow others IAP? New name?
— Matt Mullenweg (@photomatt) August 21, 2020
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://t.co/WHTtnmKYAZ.
Apple is thus holding millions of websites hostage for 30% of Automattic domain sales 🤷♂️
— Ben Thompson (@benthompson) August 21, 2020
WordPress not going to fight it anymore
Matt Mullenweg said that he will add in-app purchases that would include paid domain names within the next 3 days. Apple has agreed to update the app once WordPress implements the changes, after having ‘locked’ it for 3 weeks.
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But we are not sure of how the users will feel about this. One, the app did not see an update for 3 weeks, which surely must have enraged them. Two, Matt Mullenweg’s tweet makes it seem like the changes have been coerced.
Did Apple just Win Again?
WordPress has promised its users to deliver an update within the next 30 days. And that will include IAP support. It just points to the fact that Apple won again.
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Apple ‘locked’ an app and forced the company to change its practices to monetize its features. This might not sit well with the developers of other companies.
Understandably, WordPress caved to get updates for the app on Apple’s App Store. But Apple is already facing a fight with Epic Games over something similar. And there has been an increasing concern over its control of other devs via its App Store.
