From: Ben Volach
To: Tim Cook
Subject: RE: Our Company’s Future is in Jeopardy
Date: November 22, 2019
Mr. Cook,
Years ago, my brother and I started BlueMail with a big vision for next generation messaging. Earlier this year, we were shocked to see Apple copy our patented technology and just days later, drop us from the Mac App Store.
We never believed that this could happen to a mainstream service like BlueMail. We never believed it could happen to us.
It has now been over five months since Apple removed BlueMail from the Mac App Store. In these five months, our company’s future has been put in jeopardy. Our users do not understand why BlueMail stopped being available on the store, nor can we give them a date when it will be restored.
We know that this public plea can work, because it has reached you in the past. This isn’t our first time facing unfair practices as a developer for Apple devices. Our iPhone app was unfairly ranked until The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and others exposed how the App Store manipulated search results. Overnight, its ranking went from #143 to #13. Today, we hope we can reach you once again.
We are writing to you because your legal team asked us for an extension in order to prepare its defense. Without a presence on the Mac App Store, we cannot continue forever. No small developer has your resources and these extensions are more than preparation; these delays leverage your resources and control over our ability to generate revenue. And so, when you delisted our app, we lost our voice.
Apple may have long forgotten what it is like to be a small company, but we are living it. A lawsuit was our last option. We don’t want to be in a courtroom. Mr. Cook, we are asking you personally, please bring BlueMail back to the Mac App Store. Please treat small developers with fairness and empathy. Please recognize your own roots as a small business, struggling to compete against the establishment, in our struggle for fairness.
Sincerely,
Ben Volach
Blix Inc.