https://www.himalaya.com/personal-journals-podcasts/hua-voice-radio-2767379/untectled-review-the-app-store-review-128334769
You've probably heard of the Epic/Fortnight vs. Apple law suit:
https://twitter.com/saurik/status/1295024384596312064
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euiSHuaw6Q4
But what do developers really want? At least for @Apollo Zhu, it's not about the 30% "Apple tax" that developers must pay to Apple for all user's purchases made. Apple can decide to use whatever rule they want, as long as it's legal. The lack of consistency when enforcing those rules, however, is more concerning.
Recently a friend of @Apollo Zhu received a rejection citing guideline 2.2 for including a beta feature preview in the app. However, GitHub iOS client also has feature previews (which are “explore” and “rich markdown input” at time of writing). More traditionally, users don’t have control over which features they get access to (IMO is violating 2.3.1):
Firebase Tutorial: iOS A/B Testing
While these guidelines are understandable, the inconsistency when enforcing them is the real issue. (Same with the Hey app). However, Apple says other app violating ≠ you can violate too, which is again reasonable, but doesn’t do anything to the other apps violated the guideline, which is unfair. Let's see some examples (of indie developers):
maybe should have done better review the first time (which usually take the longest)
https://twitter.com/a_shell_ios/status/1325526061099196416?s=21
https://twitter.com/marcoarment/status/1307340546663419904?s=21
https://twitter.com/cyanapps/status/1309790668420648962?s=21
https://twitter.com/cyanapps/status/1329327168967503878?s=21
Private iPad Camera Multitasking Entitlement
Not happy? You can suggest Apple to change their review guidelines:
App Review process updates - News - Apple Developer
But again, who is reviewing those suggestions? Apple. So, Apple came up with guidelines, Apple enforce guidelines, Apple review board decides if those enforcement are fair upon appeals, Apple decides if a suggested rule is fair and shall be adopted... Do you see the problem here?
Guideline 4.3 -- made from templat... | Apple Developer Forums
https://twitter.com/mhafez/status/1295500154951229441?s=21
Recent years App Store review got faster, but the quality of review... is a little concerning. Sometimes you are not even sure what they are trying to filter out.
https://twitter.com/timsweeneyepic/status/1309187747962290176?s=21
Oh, and the 30% Apple tax! Now if you earned less than 1 million in the previous year, you only have to pay 15% of your revenue this year (that's under 1 million if you apply):
Apple announces App Store Small Business Program
But do note that Apple is not a charity. In this press release, they said: