Our battle with Apple over their gangster attempt to extort 30% of our HEY revenues was one of the defining moments of my career. It was the kind of test that calls you to account for what you believe and asks what you're willing to risk to see it through. Well, we risked everything, but also secured a four-year truce, and now near-total victory is at hand: HEY is finally for sale on the iPhone in the US!
Credit for this amazing turn of events goes to Epic Games founders Tim Sweeney and Mark Rein, who did what no small developer like us could ever dream of doing: they spent over $100 million to sue Apple in court. And while the first round yielded very little progress, Apple's (possibly criminal) contempt of court is what ultimately delivered the resolution. Thanks to their fight for Fortnite, app developers everywhere are now allowed to link out of apps to their own web-based payment system in the US store (but, sadly, nowhere else yet).
This is all we ever wanted from Apple: to have a way to distribute our iPhone apps and keep the customer relationship by billing directly. The 30% toll gets all the attention, and it is ludicrously egregious, but to us, it's just as much about retaining that direct customer relationship, so we can help folks with refunds, so they don't tie their billing for a multi-platform email system to a single manufacturer.
Apple always claims to put the needs of the users first, and that whatever hardship developers have to carry is justified by their customer-focused obsession. But in this case, it's clear that the obsession was with collecting the easiest billions Apple has ever made, by taking an obscene cut of all software and subscription sales on the platform.
This obsession with squeezing every last dollar from developers has produced countless customer-hostile experiences on the iPhone. Like how you couldn't buy a book in the Kindle app before this (now you can!). Or sign up for a Netflix subscription (now you can!). Before, users would hunt in vain for an explanation inside these apps, and thanks to Apple's gag orders, developers were not even allowed to explain the confusing situation.
It's been the same deal with HEY. While we successfully fought off Apple's attempt to extort us into using their in-app payment system (IAP), we've been stuck with an awkward user experience ever since. One that prevented new customers from signing up for a real email address in the application, and instead sent them down this bizarre burner-account setup. All so the app would "do something", in order to please an argument that App Store chief Phil Schiller made up on the fly in an interview.
That's what we can now get rid of. No more weird burner accounts. Now you can sign up directly for a real email address in HEY, and if you like what we have to offer (and I think you will!), you'll be able to pay the $99/year for a subscription via a web-based flow that it's now kosher to link to from the app itself.
What a journey, and what a needless torching of the developer relationship from Apple's side. We've always been happy to pay Apple for hosting our application on the App Store, as all developers have always needed to do via the $99/year developer fee. But being forced to hand over 30% of the business, as well as the direct customer relationship, was always an unacceptable overreach.
Now that's been arrested by Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers from the United States District Court of Northern California, who has delivered app developers the only real relief that we've seen in this whole sordid monopoly affair that's been boiling since 2020. It's a beautiful thing.
It also offers Apple an opportunity to bury the hatchet with developers. They can choose to accept the court's decision in full and worldwide. Allow developers everywhere the right to link to their own billing flow, so they can retain their own customer relationship, and so business models that can't carry a 30% toll can flourish.
Besides, Apple's own offering will likely still have plenty of pull. I'm sure many small developers would continue to consider IAP to avoid having to worry about international taxes or even direct customer service. Nobody is taking that away from Apple or those developers. All Judge Rogers is demanding is that Apple compete fairly with alternative arrangements.
In case Apple doesn't accept the court's decision — and there's sadly some evidence to that — I hope the European antitrust regulators watch the simple yet powerful mechanism that Judge Rogers has imposed on Apple. While I'd love side loading as much as the next sovereign techie who wants to own the hardware I buy, I think we can get the lion's share of independence by simply being allowed to link out of the apps, just like has been so ordered by this District Court.
I do hope, though, that Apple does accept the court's decision. Both because it would be a stain on their reputation to get convicted of criminal contempt of court, but also because I really want Apple to return to being a shining city on the hill. To show that you can win in the market merely by making better products. Something Apple never used to be afraid of doing. That they don't need these gangster extortion techniques to make the numbers that Cook has promised Wall Street.
Despite moving on to Linux and Android, I have a real soft spot for Apple's taste, aesthetics, and engineering prowess. They've lost their way and moral compass over the last half decade or so, but that's only one leadership pivot away from being found again. That won't win back all the trust and good faith that was squandered right away, but they'll at least be on the long road to recovery.
Who knows, maybe developers would even be inclined to assist Apple next time they need help launching a new device in need of third-party software to succeed.
