Apple fanboy David Heinemeier Hansson, the co-founder of Basecamp said that Apple has rejected HEY's ability to provide bug fixes and new features, unless it submited to “an outrageous demand” of 15-30 percent of its revenue.
Apple has threatened that unless Basecamp pays up, Apple will remove the app.
“We're told that unless we comply, they'll remove the app. On the day the EU announced their investigation into Apple's abusive App Store practices, HEY is subject to those very same capricious, exploitive, and inconsistent policies of shakedown. It's clear they feel embolden to tighten the screws with no fear of regulatory consequences.”
The Tame Apple Press has left Apple alone over its App Store policies. Most of its abuses were suffered by smaller developers without a platform and without recourse so Apple saw that being an arse worked, and that it paid.
But Basecamp is higher profile. And Hansson was already worried that Apple was going to do what it did when he testified in front of Congress earlier this year.
“I said it worried me, what Apple might do, if you're in direct competition with them. And now we know what they would do. Attempt to crush us. But while I'm sure Apple's attempt to cut off the air supply to the likes of Spotify is board-room stuff, I think what we're facing is simply the banality of bureaucracy.”
However there is “no chance in bloody hell that we're going to pay Apple's ransom. I will burn this house down myself before I let gangsters like that spin it for spoils. This is profoundly, perversely abusive and unfair”, Hansson said.
He said the company did everything we were supposed to with the iOS app. “You can't sign up, because Apple says no. We don't mention subscriptions. You can't upgrade. You can't access billing. We did all of it! Wasn't enough.”
Hansson said that his company had been with Apple for years. “We know the game. It was always rigged. It was always customer-hostile, deeply confusing, but the unstated lines were clear. Now Apple has altered the deal, and all we can do is pray they don't alter it further.”
