Apple Announces App Store Small Business Program

Looks nice but it doesn't solve my fundamental problem:

1. I invest loads of time and effort developing an app

2. Apple rejects it

-or-

2. Apple approves it

3. I ship a new update

4. Apple rejects the update and now decides my app should have been rejected retroactively.

I'm especially concerned about what happened to Hey and others but my customers are demanding smartphone apps and there are still limits to what can be done with a mobile web browser.

This isn’t a problem exclusive to Apple anymore. Google has implemented some draconian nonsense this year to the point where I ended up distributing my Android app as a PWA. I had no problems with Apple.

Apple gets all the headlines, and certainly gets more chatter on HN, but they aren’t alone in this bullshit. As an example... Fortnite was also banned by Google.

> Fortnite was also banned by Google.

I think the main reason this wasn't as newsworthy is that sideloading it was trivial for Android users. Untick a warning and install it yourself.

Trivial for you, a reader on HN. Not trivial, and potentially unsafe, for my grandmother.

Considering we're talking about Fortnite I would suggest that it's trivial for anyone who can figure out how to play Fortnite.

If it was trivial they would not bring Fortnite to Play Store at all, but they did.

Being trivial in difficulty doesn't ensure that people want to do it, especially for a free app.

If you want a better experiment, have a play version with normal fees, and a sideload version where v-bucks are cheaper.