Apple has backed down from its beef with WordPress, in which it tried to force the free iOS app to offer in-app purchases of which it gets a 30% cut. As reported by The Verge, Apple decided it will allow the WordPress app to continue to be available on the App Store without making in-app purchases obligatory.
“We believe the issue with the WordPress app has been resolved,” Apple said in a statement to Digital Trends. “Since the developer removed the display of their service payment options from the app, it is now a free stand-alone app and does not have to offer in-app purchases. We have informed the developer and apologize for any confusion that we have caused.”
Whatever the motivations, the incident further intensifies scrutiny of Apple’s App Store policies. Epic Games has already been pushing Apple to rethink its requirements in hopes of collecting more revenue from Fortnite, while Microsoft drew attention to policies that effectively ban cloud gaming services. That’s on top of antitrust investigations and a growing coalition of non-gaming companies demanding changes. Simply put, this dust-up happened at the worst possible time for Apple a resolution helps WordPress and its users, but won’t put the broader dispute to rest.
