Apple has considerable strict guidelines regarding the App Store. Just last month, she dropped a popular app because it was named after a drug, a move she had to reverse following adverse reactions from the public. Now the company is cracking down on applications with “irrationally high prices”.
There have been numerous posts in Apple developer forums in recent months, with developers claiming that their apps have been removed to set high prices. Such a developer had subscription offers valued at $ 39.99 / month, up to $ 99.99 / year, with a reported retention rate of 60%, but was still reprimanded by Apple.
A new report from 9to5Mac cites a similar case in which a developer’s submission was rejected for the same reason. Apple sent the following email to the developer:
Customers expect the App Store to be a safe and reliable marketplace for the purchase of digital goods. Applications should never betray this trust by trying to deceive or deceive users in any way.
Unfortunately, the prices you have selected for your app or in-app purchase products do not reflect the value of features and content offered to the user. Uploading irrationally high prices for content or services with limited value is a customer error and is not suitable for the App Store.
[…] To resolve this issue, we recommend that you take the following steps:
- Review your app or in-app purchases to give the user more value at the time of purchase
- Choose a price for the app or in-app purchase products that accurately reflects the value offered to the user
- Once you’ve made the appropriate changes, resubmit the application for review
The next submission of this application may take longer to review and will not be eligible for expedited review until this issue is resolved.
While the developer has managed to release its app, explaining to Apple that it uses expensive APIs, which account for most of the costs, this move certainly highlights a growing trend on the part of the company to remove the apps it uses. he thinks he is “cheating” his customers.
Indeed, the App Store review guidelines state that:
There are many ways to generate money from the app in the App Store. If your business model is not obvious, be sure to explain in the metadata and application review notes. If we can’t understand how your app works or in-app purchases aren’t immediately obvious, it will delay the review and may trigger a rejection. And, although it is up to you, we will not distribute applications and in-app purchases that are clearly misleading. We will reject expensive applications that try to deceive users with irrationally high prices.
The above wording is undoubtedly unclear, as it does not define any threshold for what Apple considers “irrationally high prices”. This seems to be a time of growing pain for honest developers who charge justified prices for their services. Other older forum posts have also highlighted cases where Apple needs a long time to respond to developer justifications and restore applications.