Automated mistake by Apple kills all Mac developer’s apps

Despite the “fix”, it’s hard not to worry about the app ecosystem when:

- There exists a way outside user control to auto-kill software with no apparent recourse. (This time it was one set of apps but what prevents an automation bug from bricking a bunch of other software for at least a few hours?)

- The explanation to the user errs on the side of “developers bad, Apple good” (disabled software “may damage your computer”, not “Apple may have screwed this up for you”). That’s at least unhelpful for solving the problem, if not a lie.

- Like many things Apple ruins for developers, they’re perfectly happy to let users destroy your app rating and send all criticism to the developer and lean on the developer for all tech support.

There really needs to be a way for users to understand Apple’s role in all these things. App developers are not directly responsible for everything you experience.

Seems like a typical mistake for automated systems. Not sure of how to fix, not sure how Apple could manage 2+ million apps and hundreds of thousands of developers without them.

To Apples credit, they reversed their mistake in a few hours. That’s lightning quick for mistakes of this magnitude, and so maybe the answer is properly staffing with live support personnel to handle customer issues with your automated systems.

I feel as if this is something Google and Amazon could really do better. Their automation is excellent, but when you encounter an edge case it seems impossible to reach an actual human being. They have horror stories with infinitely worse outcomes than this one, actual developers or merchants out of business for weeks or months with no explanation or recourse.

Considering their argument of charging 30% is of course not a lock-in tax but to provide a quality service for both customers and developers, this is particularly harmful to that argument.

But life will go on as it does, and 30% will continue to be banked...