I sympathise with the developers plight and this is a reason why I haven't wanted to get into App development. If your not battling people cloning your games, you have a constant axe swinging above your head that the app store may find fault with your App and remove it. You then have changing rules and requirements in the App Store..<p>The thing that bugs me a bit though is how the developer is asking for money. "Save my house." Its been 14 days since this revenue stream was compromised and the guy is apparently in financial trouble. This doesn't sound like Apples fault. This is a lack of financial planning.<p>I am by no means well off. I get by. My partner, my child and I were struck down by a bad virus last month. For 3 weeks I couldn't work, I could just about roll out of bed to get to the loo. I am a freelancer, I have no sick pay, no payment protection etc. For 3 weeks I earned nothing. My family is on a budget for the next month but we are fine. We have savings to get us through 3 months of joblessness.<p>If 14 days of near zero income pushes you over the edge and risks you loosing your house then you probably need a career change. That or its time to spend less and save more. For many profession's this isn't possible. Some people need several jobs to make ends meet. However, for a <i>I expect</i> fairly talented developer there are plenty of jobs and opportunites to get you on the right track.
This is the same Apple that plans for GateKeeper to check a certificate server for blacklisted apps and developers in OS X 10.8.<p>Imagine not even being in the App Store and your app's mainstream customers with default settings seeing a scary warning message because your certificate was accidentally blacklisted. Coming to the HN front page later this year..? :-)<p>Orienting your business around the ecosystem of a corporation with an itchy trigger finger is a tricky game of dice.
Sounds like really poor personal finances. An individual should have at least 6 months to a year of savings so a 2-4 week outage is really no dent at all to your well being.
Why isn't there a Developer Relations department at Apple to handle problems like this? Apple has made billions upon billions of dollars because developers have decided it was the best environment to make money and they put their weight behind iOS/Apple, yet somehow stuff like this drops through the cracks.<p>I mean am I really going to feel safe quitting my job to make iOS/Mac apps if Apple can just cut off my revenue stream without recourse? This is an easy problem for Apple to fix and it'll cost them somewhere down the line where someone with the next big app decides not to chance it because he's heard that Apple may just dump you and not give any reasons why.
Somewhat tangental, but this is the second post I've seen here recently that plays up the ".. and this happened on my birthday!" angle ( this being the first: <a href="http://lunduke.com/?p=2206" rel="nofollow">http://lunduke.com/?p=2206</a> ).<p>I'm extremely sympathetic to anyone who's struggling, but seriously, why should a birthday matter in this context? You can debate Apple's app store policy, but should they be expected to factor in stuff like birthdays when they enforce it? It just seems like a cheap pity play that, for me at least, undermines whatever point is being made.
AppStore is not the only way to sell the software. And I don't get why instead of asking for donation he didn't put a "buy button" right there, on the story page?<p>I'd rather buy his stuff than simply donate him money. This way it would be better for both of us.<p>Instead he asks for money "for free" and does not provide a direct link to buy his app. This looks really strange.
I donated some cash because I feel bad, but I hope you've learnt your lesson: Do not base your entire livelyhood at the mercy of anybody but yourself, and especially not a huge corporation.<p>This also goes for anybody who takes out a mortgage they can't afford. Don't ever get any debt or create any expenses you will no longer be able to pay if you got fired tomorrow.
I know the job market sucks but I've been to many countries and if there's one industry with tons of demand and limited supply; it's software development.<p>it's hard for me to accept that an iPhone developer is down to live on donations in the current job climate.
Apple provides a free storefront for Mac apps. It is by no means the only way to purchase Mac apps. A glitch occurs that removes a piece of software from the free Apple-provided storefront.<p>...<p>I'm having a really hard time figuring out the part here where Apple is some evil entity depriving a developer of their livelihood. Sure, this sucks, but it's not like nobody can buy your software. There's plenty of Mac software out there that isn't even on the Mac app store to begin with, so I'm having a hard time figuring out why this developer is having such a huge problem that he needs to resort to begging for donations.
That sucks, and I hope you get things sorted out. My apps are just for extra cash, but I'd still be pretty upset if I were in your situation.<p>Unfortunately, this highlights the drawbacks of relying on a third-party for all of your income, especially when the relationship is one-sided. Apple's App Store is an incredible opportunity for a lot of developers, but for the vast majority, Apple has very little accountability to you.<p>This is no different than the people who build a business around AdSense, only to be terminated and receive the silent treatment at some point - which itself is nothing new, as this has been going on with affiliate programs since I got involved with them in the mid-90's. If I've learned one thing, it's this: Don't ever build your company around another company unless you have a really good personal relationship with them or a strong, fair contract.
What bothers me is the apparent lack of accountability. Apple pulls an app off the app store any time under rules so complicated and vague this power becomes completely discretionary. Or does it by mistake. I'd like to see the process Apple uses to ensure a rogue censor will not remove an app from the store because they don't like it, its publisher or got paid by a competitor.<p>The worst part is that Apple isn't even the worst offender around.
I'm amazed anyone decides to develop for the Apple app stores. This is not the first time this sort of thing has happened, by a long shot. Due diligence means not putting all your eggs in the Apple basket.
You are using Paypal for donations. There have been many horror stories on HN about people doing a donation drive and getting accounts closed by Paypal citing ToS.
I think stuff like this is one of the reasons that there aren't many serious big ticket apps on the store (at ones that aren't also available elsewhere).<p>If I were to develop for iPhone there is no way I would invest serious R&D time and money into something with the risk that this could happen. More likely I'd just build a bunch of $1-5 apps and have them suddenly flatlining either because of this or user apathy factored into my plans.<p>I wouldn't trust the arbitrary mercies of any large corporation to put food on my (hypothetical) kid's table.
I wonder if he's planning on figuring out how to make money from software sales in a way that doesn't involve Apple. They're total asshats when it comes to things like this.
And this is why app-stores with single-sided and super-rigid rules are a BAD thing. They operate as a black box, with you having NO way of knowing why, how, if, when or what is going to happen. This is why Chrome store, Windows Store and the App store and all the others are just bad for business (in general). If they decide they don't like it, then you're fucked!<p>You just DON'T trust a single entity to handle all your sales and finances while they have ABSOLUTE power to terminate their service any time they want. Have a backup, sell it on your own web site.. oh no you can't because this is Apple...
I have two Macs, two iPhones, an iPad and some Apple Software and I enjoyed them. Also I told my Father to buy Apple products (since I'm the one who tells him how his computer works). I saw Apple getting more and more ridiculous over the last few years (there are hundreds of stories), so here is my conclusion:<p>Getting more money makes them more evil. That's it for me. I'm not going to buy any Apple products again. I was using a lot of OSS tools, so switching to Linux should be easy.<p>My Advice to software developers is:<p>Try to make cross-platform software. You are giving such companies much less power this way.
A typical example of putting all your eggs in the same basket. When you are an app developper, distributing your software in different platforms/means would probably reduce the risk of that happening.
I wish I could blame my own impoverishment (and consequently my family's) on anything other than my own foolishness but I can't, so I donated. The money's probably safer with him anyway.
I feel sorry for his family, but rely exclusively in apple store, or whatever store, is insane. Actually, the all idea of stores is, IMHO, a bad idea, because who control the app's relevance is not the user, and this is very wrong in a market. My 2 cents.
Done mate!! I do agree with the pains one has to undergo developing for the itunes store and more so when the glitch on their part directly affects you.
That's the thing I don't understand. Why some developers are so prone to the naive following the latest fashion... I mean really.<p>Look, why to spend any time writing software that might be just killed overnight by a big faceless corporation? The same Apple Fan Boys who hate Adobe Flash because it is "closed" and not html5 "standard" as were told by their guru are at the very same time so heavily invested in Apple Corp closed eco-system that is just so much worse than anything that Adobe does.<p>I just don't get it.