Apple promotes a number of rogue apps that charge high subscription fees on the App Store. The action was immediately greeted by protests from developers as they assumed that Apple was not seriously blocking the entry of rogue apps into the App Store.
On the Australian App Store site, Apple recently published an article titled ‘Slime relaxations’ highlighting specific app categories. But according to some developers, some of the applications promoted in the article have exorbitant subscription fees despite not having full functionality.
For example an application called 'Jelly: Slime Simulator, ASMR'. The app continues to display ads and will only disappear after users pay a subscription fee of 13 Australian dollars a week or 676 dollars a year, as quoted from Ars Technica, Friday (6/8/2021).
Even after paying the subscription fee, the app still lacks clear functionality. Apple has now removed the article from the App Store after developers like Beau Novelle and Simeon Saëns reported it on Twitter.
In fact, the App Store Review Guidelines have made it clear that Apple will be releasing expensive apps that try to deceive users at ridiculous prices.
"Why is this so annoying? Because as a developer you don't want to cheat people (I don't want your money by accident! I also don't want to charge unreasonably for trivial things). It makes it hard for anyone to trust us & the App Store," he wrote. Simeon in his tweet.
This is not a new problem for Apple. In February, developer Kosta Eleftheriou discovered a rogue app for the Apple Watch that posted a lot of fake reviews for being a top app.
Apple then removed the app after Eleftheriou's discovery was widely reported on Twitter and the media. But Eleftheriou and other developers are still looking for fake apps in the App Store.
This of course makes developers and users upset as Apple prohibits iPhone users from downloading apps outside the App Store for security reasons, but instead promotes messy apps. It is this ‘walled garden’ ecosystem that puts Apple at odds with many parties, including Epic Games, which is currently embroiled in a legal case with Apple.
Tags
APPS & GAMES
