> Don’t get me wrong, I have no problem with this idea when it comes to apps that I plan to distribute. I’m using their servers, and their infrastructure to handle updates, reviews, payments, etc.
Even when you do plan to distribute it it's hard to justify that it's for a good purpose. The review process is so broken and infuriating that I often find myself thinking that _they_ are the ones who should be paying us to go through the stress of trying to publish an update to an app.
The review process is completely random. One day they accept your app completely, the other day your "iPad screenshot is a strechted iPhone image" or something. Its just frustrating.
It does seem random - I have submitted apps multiple times, and provided demo credentials for them to use (the app is gated, so you can't do anything without an account and logging in first).
In 80% of the cases they never even logged into the app before giving us the OK (all logins and actions are logged, so it is easy to tell)
I have a pet theory that the reviewers have some quota of rejection that they must meet, so they're encouraged to reject apps for bullshit reasons.
About 20% of the updates to my app get rejected for no reason other than that the reviewer clearly didn't bother reading the attached review instructions. I have a hard time thinking that _all_ of them are this stupid, so nowadays I started thinking they do this on purpose.
They should be paying developers, yes, but not for the pain of going through review but instead for the simple fact that an iphone without any app developers is almost completely worthless. Apps make their platform more valuable.
> an iphone without any app developers is almost completely worthless
The iphone has plenty of app developers even if there isn't a single third party app anywhere. Those app developers just work for Apple instead of a third party. I don't think Apple cares about having a thriving third party app ecosystem.
I'm not so sure. Apple's selling point is tight control over the entire stack so that the experience is consistent everywhere on all of their devices. It seems like there is a substantial market segment that wants that and doesn't care what Apple has to do to get it.
Even when you do plan to distribute it it's hard to justify that it's for a good purpose. The review process is so broken and infuriating that I often find myself thinking that _they_ are the ones who should be paying us to go through the stress of trying to publish an update to an app.