> One way that Hey could have gone, Schiller says, is to offer a free or paid version of the app with basic email reading features on the App Store then separately offered an upgraded email service that worked with the Hey app on iOS on its own website. Schiller gives one more example: an RSS app that reads any feed, but also reads an upgraded feed that could be charged for on a separate site. In both cases, the apps would have functionality when downloaded on the store.
Comments by Apple executive, Phil Schiller[1].
Is this not an agreeable solution?
It's a separate debate that Apple may be charging exorbitant fees for App Store distribution when there is no competition and one that needs to be addressed, but I think this is a decent workaround, Apple is saying you can put stuff on the App Store and if it has a free version with functionality then we don't charge you for it. Otherwise, we do.
No, it's not. Let's ignore Apple's behavior on other platforms, and look at a whole class of apps this excludes. If I have an app for a college that requires a student to have paid tuition before using then I am in the same boat as Hey if I don't have some way to allow them to pay tuition over the app. That's just nuts. Apps that enhance services that are already being delivered by other means should be allowed without Apple trying to get a cut. Frankly, the only reason these apps are even going through the App Store because direct downloads are disallowed. Apple's workaround doesn't benefit anyone but Apple.
But they aren't getting an actual experience. They are getting some crapfest the company has put together to satisfy some idea Apple had about how they should run their business. The app is a distraction and won't really be anything more than that since the company's priority is the actual paid service. It lessens the platform and creates a bunch of advertising-ware as opposed to function apps.
I don't see how this is a decent or agreeable workaround. Hey is a paid email service that comes with an @hey.com email address. Either they have to start giving those addresses out for free (a significant change in Hey's business model), or they need to support connecting to an IMAP provider in the app (presumably they don't currently support this, so it would be a significant amount of extra engineering to support non-paying users). Perhaps if they could just throw in a calculator or something as the free version.
I'd go even further: "unrelated third party web services that just happen to supply an app for the phone."
I'm pretty sure people independently buy Netflix to use, without even considering their phone. They have a laptop or a set top box or whatever. But because people might want to use it on their phone, Apple thinks they deserve 1/3 of Netflix's revenue?
So, in order to provide a (paid) advertising & tracking-free email service, they also have to provide a generic email app for advertising & tracking-based email services like Google?
Comments by Apple executive, Phil Schiller[1].
Is this not an agreeable solution?
It's a separate debate that Apple may be charging exorbitant fees for App Store distribution when there is no competition and one that needs to be addressed, but I think this is a decent workaround, Apple is saying you can put stuff on the App Store and if it has a free version with functionality then we don't charge you for it. Otherwise, we do.
[1] https://9to5mac.com/2020/06/18/schiller-hey-app-store-policy...