“ You can no longer help the customer who’s buying your product with the following requests: Refunds, credit card changes, discounts, trial extensions, hardship exceptions, comps, partial payments, non-profit discounts, educational discounts, downtime credits, tax exceptions, etc. You can’t control any of this when you charge your customers through Apple’s platform. So now you’re forced to sell a product - with your name and reputation on it - to your customers, yet you are helpless and unable to help them if they need a hand with any of the above.”
From the post:<p><i>When someone signs up for your product in the App Store, they aren’t technically your customer anymore - they are essentially Apple’s customer. They pay Apple, and Apple then pays you. So that customer you’ve spent years of time, treasure, and reputation earning, is handed over to Apple. And you have to pay Apple 30% for the privilege of doing so!</i><p>Very true. I think people tend to associate in-app purchases with Apple unless they're very sharp or very motivated to do otherwise.<p>Does anyone think Apple will address this in any form at WWDC next week?
All their criticisms seem sound!<p>There's a (good) theme in this: control. They don't want Apple to control the relationship between Hey and its customers. Which is <i>super cool</i>. I like it. It's bold, it's correct, it's an easy position to hold.<p>Which is why it's weird they don't have domain support. Why should I cede control of the relationship between my contacts and myself to them? I get the feeling domain support will be part of the coming business plan mentioned in the welcome emails when you sign up. So you can spend the $99/year, or more with the "premium" names, and still depend on Hey to control that relationship. I was soured on it a bit by not being able to get kye@. That's my name. I don't have almost $400/year to claim it. Someone more fortunate will be able to. I already have a domain for the name that's easy to remember.<p>Everyone loved Gmail when it came out. Having a Gmail address was a point of pride for at least as long as invites were scarce. Who thinks that now? Controlling the domain is a hedge against the risk that Hey will go down the same road. It should have been there at launch, and it should be available on <i>all</i> plans. I would have signed up the moment I got in and saw how well everything is put together.<p>I like it a lot, but I can't possibly use it if I can't point it at a domain I control at the plan level that's right for my needs.
Initially It was the selective enforcement that got me, how Fastmail and other mail client didn't get IAP treatment. Turns out they did [1]. Although it is not clear how "recent" that treatment was, if it was before or after the Hey drama.<p>[1] <a href="https://twitter.com/Fastmail/status/1273800222989324288" rel="nofollow">https://twitter.com/Fastmail/status/1273800222989324288</a>
It is about the money for Apple. That is all it is about.<p>What's next? Are they going to want a 30% cut of any transactions I make through the Vanguard or E-Trade apps?
I'm q bit tired of this HEY marketing spin by now. And it's the same old story, over and over.<p>If you build on a platform, be prepared to get fucked over anytime, period. Otherwise build on a protocol, that is open, and will prevail.
Something you'll notice during every WWDC is that Apple will repeatedly say that iOS updates are "always free." I always found that odd till I realized it both a throwback to the days when upgrades weren't free - but also as a nod to "We don't get paid by charging for our operating system." Once you're entering the Apple ecosystem - Apple is making itself the de-facto middleman between the user and everyone else.<p>I think that's what this comes down to - you're paying Apple the premium as a developer to access Apple's customers.<p>They aren't your customers. They are Apples. So this argument calls this out but is asking them to change that? Seems like they are asking Apple to completely change their business model.<p>Edit to add from the TC interview with Schiller, he even gives a way to get around the app store process, which I have used in a previous app that we did on iOS:<p>"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"