Apple Not Paying Developers, Lawsuit Coming?
According to this post from the iphonedevsdk.com forum, Apple apparently has not been paying a number of developers within the contract-mandated 45 days, and some are starting to discuss a possible class-action lawsuit. One developer, trying to get paid, was even accused by an Apple employee of “borderline harassment”.
A number of developers are hopping mad, and who can blame them? Apple owes some of them over ten thousand dollars by some accounts. One developer as of this month hasn’t been paid a dime since he started selling in December. Most are reporting that Apple has either been ignoring their emails (unless they threaten legal action), telling them to stop emailing them, or giving them apparently bogus information on the status of their account. Some want to sue. Some might stop developing for the iPhone.
Interestingly enough, what I did NOT see anyone threatening was to abandon the App Store and develop for jailbroken iPhones – especially now that Cydia supports paid apps. It will be interesting to see if any defect to the Apple-free App world.
Personally, I’m a bit conflicted over this as a consumer: Do I continue to buy apps through the App Store, or do I withhold purchases in protest over Apple’s across-the-board shoddy treatment of developers? It might make little difference since apparently the developers won’t get paid on time either way. I have to say that between not paying them, delaying and/or rejecting their apps with little or no reason, and lack of OS support for promised features such as background notification, I think a class-action lawsuit and major defections might be what’s required to get Apple to start treating these developers fairly. What do you think?
Well this does irritate me to hear, as a potential iPhone App developer. Do I invest time/money to develop and app and risk not getting paid?? And as an iPhone App consumer, now I'm feeling bad for the developers for the apps I'm using. Hmm…makes me think twice about using the App Store.
While Apple definitely has some extraordinary skills in managing product design and engineering, it seems they really need some help with overall project management skills. Rather than trying to do everything under the sun that is most certainly outside of their core competencies, they should think about contracting some of the payment processing work out to someone more capable. And better PR & Communications Management skills are desperately needed as well given their rapidly growing environment.
Sue 'em!
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Add another scar to the iPhone development gauntlet from hell. I agree with Josh Gard. The entire iPhone application development and sales process is the most difficult that I've encountered as a programmer of twenty years. You have to sign up to the iPhone Dev Center, then you have to shovel out $99 to get into the iPhone Developer Program, then you have to meet almost Draconian standards which are meeted out at random during the AppStore approval phase it seems, test using AdHoc keys on specific phones (a not so bad process), and prepare for acceptance into the AppStore using more keys and more complex preparations. And, for every non-Mac-fanboy developer, you have to learn some obscure language (Objective-C) which noone but Apple uses (being their own idea of object-oriented programming) whereas C++ is the standard world-wide otherwise (Apple, they're different – special). Getting your application approved can be a nightmare in itself. Little things can take weeks to garner a rejection and then the process begins anew. My (FREE and very SIMPLE) application is still in review nearly a month after being submitted. My superiors are already contemplating a lawsuit for obstruction. A GPhone app of similar functionality has been available to the public for SIX MONTHS!
(Breathe, breathe): Now they have the audacity not to pay developers their sales revenues in a timely manner. Apple needs punishment – and lots of it.
Apple is definitely abusing iPhone developers. They reject applications that conflict with their own potential applications and disallow any functionality of practical use (worthwhile camera interface, video recording, GPS tracking, among others). As you can probably surmise, I've been boiling a hatred of this travesty called 'iPhone Development' since I entered it seven or eight months ago. Should have programmed a 'Fart app' or a stupid, brainless game since that is what gets approved the fastest to inflate their already bloated 'useless app' inventory.
I feel better now and hope they get their wallets kicked…
Robert – very sorry to hear it's been such rough going for you with the whole App Store non-process. Hope the situation improves soon.
Josh Gard – I feel bad for devs as well.
aflorence – good points – lots of areas where big improvements are needed …
I'm one among those developers not getting paid. Its been 6 months now. Wasting my time and energy just to sit and wait desperately for my money. I just can't believe a big company doing this to the developers. They don't have a phone number to ask about the payment. They only have an email address which probably goes straight to their junk box. They don't respond to the emails. Its pathetic. And now they have a feature called In-App purchase to rob more money from developers.
^^^^ Really sorry to hear that. Hope Apple gets this figured out very soon.