Apple made an announcement on Monday, stating out that Aple’s new App Store appeal process is now live and developers can challenge Apple over whether their app is violating one of its guidelines. Plus, Apple also mentioned that developers can also suggest changes to the App Store guidelines through a form submission on its online developer portal.
A note posted on Apple’s developers’ website reads that “For apps that are already on the App Store, bug fixes will no longer be delayed over guidelines violations except for those related to legal issues. You will instead be able to address guidelines violations in your, next submission. And, now, in addition to appealing decisions about whether an app violates guidelines, you can suggest changes to the guidelines.”
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At WWDC of a rather public feud with software maker Basecamp; that is the creator of a new email service called Hey, these changes were introduced. Apple was openly challenged by Basecamp over whether it could distribute; an iOS companion app to its email service without including in-app sign-up options. Hey costs $99 a year and Basecamp felt it unnecessary to give Apple its standard 30% cut of that revenue.
In response to this, Apple held up the company’s bug fixes and update capability. But, eventually, both companies reached to the point of a compromise. Basecamp added dummy accounts to its iOS app, allowing consumers to sign up and then transition to a paid account later on the web. Apple, in return allowed the company to follow the model of enterprise apps – Hey said it would also start supporting businesses; in addition to consumers – and not require in-app purchase options.
Now, when an app is found violating the guidelines by Apple the developers can appeal. And, the company is not going to do the same to any other developers in; the future what it did to Basecamp. And, talking about its position in the market then, of course, Apple is in much more higher position; than it was back in June. Around that time the European Union launched two antitrust investigations into Apple and the app store; including one specifically around the company’s 30% cut. Apple got two high-profile fights with Facebook and Microsoft over cloud gaming service.
Epic Games challenged Apple earlier this month over in-app payments in Fortnite. And, that led to a massive legal battle that is in its early stages. For now, it is unclear how the developers’ appeals process will work with Apple. The only company that contacted Apple about an appeal is Facebook but it said that; the company didn’t respond to its request about its Facebook Gaming app.
