A call for unity against the biggest tech company

To our fellow developers,

Two months ago, my brother wrote a letter to Tim Cook. With it, we sought to find common ground with Apple on a dispute that has kept us out of the Mac App Store and crippled our ability to grow these last eight months since WWDC 2019.

We were overjoyed when we heard back from Apple within the day – within just a few hours in fact. It seemed to share our desire for a mutual solution and we worked quickly to meet its requests, but these too were just tactics meant to delay us.

Rerouted to teams that didn’t respond for weeks, told outright that our app doesn’t run on macOS Catalina when we can prove it does, and given contradictory guidance from different teams within Apple, we found ourselves back at square one. Perhaps even worse than square one, because Apple’s legal team saw our willingness to work together as weakness and strengthened its stance against us.

If any of that sounds familiar to you, if Apple has kicked you out of its App Store, used its developer guidelines to control your innovation, hijacked your store ranking, or (let’s be honest with each other) lied to you while it steals your technology, it’s time to talk. Even if you’re not sure you want to go through with it (because we know how scary it can be), tell us your story. We won’t share anything about you without your consent.

A lot of attention was placed on the congressional hearings in Colorado on January 17, but there are many who don’t have the standing of Sonos or Tile. Together, we will have a voice.

We want to be back on the App Store, but we also want fairness. For us. For you. For all developers. Take a stand with us and email [email protected] with your experience.

Sincerely,
Dan Volach
Blix Inc.

We’re issuing a call for unity against the biggest tech company. If Apple has kicked you out of its App Store, used guidelines to control you, hijacked your ranking or stolen your tech, reach out to us at [email protected] #fairness2020 #apple #developer@BlueMail on X, February 4, 2020

Today, you can tell us your story here on the site.

A week later

On February 11, 2020, Apple restored BlueMail to the Mac App Store.

Seven months later

The call didn’t end there. In September 2020, Blix joined Epic Games, Spotify, Tile, Basecamp and others as a founding member of the Coalition for App Fairness. Read more about Blix’s partners and allies.