Story
WordPress founder says that Apple has cut off updates to its fully free software because it needs 30 percent
WordPress, the iOS app, lets you create and run your website right from your iPhone or iPad.
Separately, WordPress.com also offers domain names.
Now, WordPress founding creator Matt Mullenweg accuses Apple of cutting off the right to upgrade the app — until or until it implements in-app purchases so that the world's most profitable business can gain its 30 % share of cash.
Heads up on why @WordPressiOS updates have been absent... we were locked by App Store. To be able to ship updates and bug fixes again we had to commit to support in-app purchases for .com plans. I know why this is problematic, open to suggestions. Allow others IAP? New name?
— Matt Mullenweg (@photomatt) August 21, 2020
Here's the thing: IOS's WordPress app doesn't sell anything. I just tried it out, and so did Stratechery 's Ben Thompson. The software literally lets you make a free website. There's no option to buy a specific dot-com or even dot-blog domain name from the iPhone and iPad app — it just assigns you a free WordPress domain name and 3 GB of space.
I am admittedly puzzled as to why Apple is denying me updates to the open source app for my open source web site because one user of that app happens to sell domains.
— Ben Thompson (@benthompson) August 21, 2020
Also, I thought Apple wasn’t going to hold bug updates hostage anymore? https://t.co/e1lCw2VSUP
Is Apple seriously asking the owner of WordPress Automatic to take a cut in all its domain name revenue? Why can you even know which customers used the app? And was it just a mistake? Apple, Automatic, and Mullenweg did not respond immediately to requests for comments.
Mistake or no, it's just the latest example of Apple's fervent effort to preserve its cash cow culminating in a decision that doesn't make any sense and doesn't live up to Apple's (real or imagined) ethic of putting customer service ahead of all else.
Mullenweg, of course, is only one of many who talks openly about the Apple tax and the inconsistent implementation of its laws by the corporation. Yesterday, a coalition of major news publishers joined forces to ask why Amazon, and not them, should get a sweetheart offer that allows the giant e-tailer to pay 15 per cent instead of 30 per cent for Prime Video. And all of this, of course, is happening in the shadow of the enormous battle of Epic Games against Apple, one that Apple responded to this very afternoon, along with a cache of emails from Epic's own Tim Sweeney. You may want to take a look at these links:
