{"id":30391,"date":"2020-10-08T16:16:27","date_gmt":"2020-10-08T20:16:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/?p=30391"},"modified":"2020-10-09T14:36:14","modified_gmt":"2020-10-09T18:36:14","slug":"protonmail-forced-to-add-iap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2020\/10\/08\/protonmail-forced-to-add-iap\/","title":{"rendered":"ProtonMail Forced to Add IAP"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sean Hollister<\/a>:<\/p>\n

But also, one app developer revealed to Congress that it — just like WordPress<\/a> — had been forced to monetize a largely free<\/em> app. That developer testified that Apple had demanded in-app purchases (IAP), even though Apple had approved its app without them two years earlier — and that when the dev dared send an email to customers notifying them of the change, Apple threatened to remove the app and blocked all updates. <\/p>

That developer was ProtonMail, makers of an encrypted email app, and CEO Andy Yen had some fiery words for Apple in an interview with The Verge <\/em>this week.<\/em><\/p>

[…]<\/p>

Yen tells me there was a month-long period where ProtonMail couldn’t update its app at all, even for security reasons, and Apple was threatening to remove the app if his company continued to delay. So ProtonMail decided to raise the cost of its entire service on iOS by roughly 26 percent to satisfy Apple’s needs, eating the rest itself.<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

Apple’s own head of app review from 2009 to 2016, spoke to Congress for its bombshell antitrust report, too. He testified that Apple’s senior executives would find pretexts to remove apps from the store[…]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

Recall that Tim Cook told Congress that Apple had only exempted<\/em> additional categories of apps from fees and that Apple does not retaliate or bully developers.<\/p>\n\n

Jason Snell<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

The more consistent the stories, the less Apple can claim this was all just a big misunderstanding.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Previously:<\/p>\n