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Its not a list of "exceptions".

Part of the whole point is the relation to the quote at the start.

In every one of those apps signing up "doesn't work" which goes against the stated goal of ensuring that users can download the app and expect it work. How can it work if you can't even sign into it because you can't sign up for it and they can't even tell you how to.

Except the app was not rejected for failing to meet the standards of the quote. It was rejected for failing to meet the App Store review guidelines.

This whole website is a strawman built against the false claim that you're not allowed to require a login to access your app, which has never actually been true.

He is arguing that the rule does not match the intent.

Except its not about rather or not the app was rejected

It's about the policy creating the trend of apps that don't work in that you can't sign up on them.

Except the policy doesn't create the trend. The Tesla app won't work if you don't own a Tesla. The Wells Fargo app won't work if you don't have a Wells Fargo account. These apps have external requirements by their very nature, the App Store policy does not change that.

Having a wells fargo bank account is not the same as having a wells fargo online user account.

You get the first, then sign up on the website or android app.

Try again.

You can't sign up for a Wells Fargo online user account without first having a Wells Fargo bank account. Therefore there is an external requirement.

Update: I just double checked. The Wells Fargo Android app and Wells Fargo iOS apps behave identically. You are immediately presented with a login screen upon launch. There is no signup flow inside either app but you can click a link that opens a web browser with a link to the registration page.

Your claim that the App Store policy is responsible for this trend does not hold up, considering the Android version is not subject to the same policy but behaves the exact same way anyway.

Update 2: Checked a few more apps. The Android versions of Github and Fastmail don't allow you to sign up in the app either. You are only presented with a login screen just like the iOS versions.

They're likely all webview apps with a single codebase though. If they remove it for Apple, it would likely be gone for Android as well.

Don't remember if they had a link for signups before though, just pointing out that you can't deduce that point from given facts.

(Nor is there proof for the original thesis, it's all speculation at this point)

Fair enough, but it's not like they couldn't provide a more direct signup option in the Android version if they wanted to. The fact that they didn't is telling, IMO.

To circle back to the original point, blaming Apple for the "trend" of not being able to sign up inside of apps is clearly nonsensical.

>While I agree that Apple should probably relax their rules, this list of "exceptions" is not particularly compelling.

Yeah, the first few items on the list were relatively convincing, but the convincing-ness takes a nosedive further down the list. I mean, who in their right mind would compare hey to a companion app for a car?

It's not about that. It's about the VP's explanation being disingenuous. Apple's issue isn't that the app doesn't work, despite their claim. It's that they can't collect money. They should just be honest.

I agree that's a crappy explanation by the VP but that's not the actual reason for the rejection.

I too think it’s a poor response from the head of the App Store but we shouldn’t pretend to think we know the “actual” reason that much better because we are given a link to the ever-changing App Store regulations webpage.

The actual reason is the app does not follow the rules for in-app purchases. This hasn't really been in question. Anyone who has been an iOS dev for more than a year or two will be familiar with the App Store review guidelines.

Are the rules overly restrictive? Yes. Due they place an unfair burden on third party developers? Probably. But let's not pretend they are a mystery.

You can purchase upgrades for your car via the tesla app.

HEY is a digital content app too. Rich e-mails contain content, and are digital.

Everything I look at on my smartphone is digital content.

Not by the definition given in section 3.1.3(a) of the App Store review guidelines.

Apple's trashy guidelines need to go to the dustbin of history.

Wow it's almost like Apple designed their rules so that most of the key businesses in this world don't pay an insane 30% of their revenue to Apple. Almost like Apple say...doesn't want to discourage important institutions from providing services Apple's customers might expect from iOS. Crazy coincidence. /s

I mean, 1) why is anyone surprised by this? 2) If you make an app that sells cat videos you would also qualify for the digital content exemption, "key business" or not.

What makes you think anyone is surprised? Do you think anger or frustration requires surprise?

Why would anyone be angry or frustrated that "Apple designed their rules so most of the key businesses in this world don't pay an insane 30% of their revenue to Apple"?

Maybe because of the word "insane"?

Re-read the quote and note the word "don't" which flips the meaning of the entire sentence.

Because the reality is that smaller players are getting fleeced in this scheme. By design. And bigger players don't have to play the same ball game. By design. Not surprising, just more of the same seen everywhere, and very frustrating.

Why is Netflix different?

Sending email is distribution of “digital content”.

This old game of wobbly semantics to describe “organizing electrons in silicon” is pretty much done isn’t it?

Society has hit an information entropy. Where the masses get one message “austerity” while the elites tirelessly bike shed the rules, struggling to maintain their old epistemology as they die off from natural causes, which is extinguishing their norms instead.

Varoufakis is right: leadership of the old generation is out of net new ideas and has us nickle and diming old ones to keep up the ruse.

Their only endgame, which isn’t driven by more than an intuition, is keep the hierarchy story looking like it did decades ago.

This is just biological survival instinct. There’s absolutely no real reason to carve up “digital content” into more than electrons zipping through silicon, except for financial Machiavellianism.

what a difficult comment to read

Releasing an app that does not follow the rules and then publicly complaining when it is inevitably rejected is starting to seem more like a guerrilla marketing tactic more than anything else.

And be sure to do it right before WWDC. We've seen this play before.