Wow. That is shocking to me - is that typical of Apple? I know they're very much about having people their ecosystem, but I didn't realize that there was this kind of animosity towards people who stepped out of bounds.
Yes it is. We have a pretty successful app in the iTunes store and as a consequence, we have privileged access to the entire team, including engineers and executives who advise us how to word the description of our app and telling us all kinds of tricks to increase downloads.
A few months ago, we released an Android app and since then, we have fallen into a complete Apple black hole. The Apple people we used to exchange daily emails with are not even responding to us any more.
Apple is very, very serious about exclusivity.
And probably feeling very, very threatened too.
I'm not sure that I was in danger of developing iOS apps any time soon, but these kinds of tales make me want to run screaming.
Also as someone who has worked on some of the most popular apps there is always the problem of feature equality. Companies don't want to annoy their customers by only offering features on one platform. So they don't. In which case you end up with a lowest common denominator of features.
"If I don't get what I want, I'm going to take my ball and go home" is the epitome of childish reaction.
The mobile ecosystem is not zero-sum. Publishing on Android doesn't diminish the app's benefit to the iOS ecosystem. If anything, it only benefits their ecosystem, since it will improve the app's popularity, and result in more downloads of that app on iOS, by iPhone owners who hear about it from their Android-using friends.
It's similar to Nintendo. They don't really benefit from having the next generic COD game on their platform. They benefit from having a game that makes the most innovative use of the touch screen control.
What is out of the ordinary is this way of doing it. Simply not responding to emails any longer, without explaining why, is very unprofessional indeed.
"Nice app you have there. It would be a shame if you stopped getting support on it" is not.
The problem with this approach is that it only works if you're #1 with a comfortable lead. Apple is #2 and fast losing mind share, and this kind of policy is only going to accelerate that trend.
That sounds like bad business to me. You should nurture and support your best customers/clients. There are 1 million apps on the App Store. Apple just figured some of the others deserve their support. It's harsh but understandable.
I think the policy of only catering to shops that are 100% developing on the Apple platforms is a terrible strategic mistake, especially since they are now #2 in this market and fast losing market share.
Also, catering to exclusives doesn't guarantee that you only get great apps in your store. Actually, it guarantees nothing except for acrimony from developers and the feeling that Apple is a fickle partner that can slam the door on them at any time.
The best way to regain market share is not to accelerate insulation but to woo companies developing on Android back by convincing them that iOS is a superior platform to develop for. As it is, all they are doing is convincing more and more developers that in doubt, they should develop for Android first and iOS second.
They are basically repeating the same mistakes Jobs made two decades ago which led to the almost bankruptcy of Apple. Granted, they have enough money in the bank to be safe from this, but this kind of behavior is simply accelerating the decay of their market share, and as a consequence of that, of their profits.
That sounds like hubris and arrogance to me. Are you so sure that won't be changing anytime soon?
Q2 2013: Apple +230%
Q3 2013: Apple +210%
Q4 2013: Apple +110%
Q1 2014: Apple +85%
Apple's definitely on top right now, but the gap is narrowing very, very quickly.
This behavior is not just childish, it's even damaging to the brand.
That they do this on scale (not just certain small teams) lets me believe that the persons who created this policy have some type of psychological issue.
They should definitely see a doctor, if they aren't already doing it.
The two are not mutually exclusive.
It's funny you say that. In many companies you can hear people saying "it's nothing personal, just business" (you also hear the same from movie villains, oh well).
At Apple, for as long as I remember, it's exactly the opposite: it's not just business, it's always personal.
If you hurt Apple, Apple will hurt you back.
You can think of Apple as a smart, powerful, spoiled prince/princess. If you have something the prince(ss) wants, they'll try to be friends with you and shower you with gifts. But if you go this path you better never end up on their bad side.
It may seem childish to some, but as far as game theory goes, this kind if behavior makes one's choices and outcomes very clear when you interact with Apple.
Alienating developers, on the other hand, seems like a losing play. Publishing on Android doesn't mean you stop publishing on iOS, but giving them the cold shoulder might drive them to do so.
Users who switch to an Android phone aren't any more "lost" to Apple than developers who publish on Android. They often still have iPads, iPods and/or Macs. Some might still buy music and/or video from iTunes. And so on.
In both cases, Apple is choosing to risk losing X as well in order to increase their chances of holding onto Y. And since we see other companies making both choices, it isn't an obviously winning or losing play in either case.
I'm not a fanboy for either camp...but I also do want to feel like a vendor is actively trying to lock me in to their hardware forever.
Which will make me less likely to choose an iOS device next time I buy one.
She has since stop using the iPad I think largely because her initial interactions with it were so poor. This is actually hurting Apple's goals.
° I assume this means she entered her phone number as a contact address - but frankly the experience is so horrible that she's unwilling to talk about it.
Also serves as a reminder what we, both as devs and users, gave up when we put ourselves at the mercy of approximately 2.5 app store operators. There's no need to remind me what we gained, I'm aware. The question is rather if we can get a system that combines the best of both worlds.
[1] http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-10-20/jobs-regretted-not-...
Steve Jobs' ghost is going to be haunting these walls for a very long time (well, at least until the new campus comes).
Those friends don't talk about it publicly for fear of further retaliation, but given their experiences, what OP wrote doesn't surprise me in the least.
But what is surprising, especially given the prevalence of these anecdotes, is that OP wrote about it. I have the feeling he made the calculation that there isn't much left that Apple can do to them (other than kick them out of their app store, which would probably backfire spectacularly, of course).
We didn't experience a cold shoulder at all from Apple after putting out the app for other platforms. But then again, that was just us.