I was listening to the latest episode of The Talk Show, where John Gruber and Stephen Hackett were discussing the way Apple treats developers on its platforms. In the final segment of the podcast, they were talking about Fortnite’s return to the App Store, and segued to a larger dicussion of developers’ increasingly fraught relationship with Apple.

It was particularly amusing to hear this chat because they appeared to talk themselves into the idea that Apple might use WWDC — or the week leading up to it — to launch a rapprochement with developers, to show somehow that they are valued and not treated as feedstock for their services revenue.

This is a particularly momentous time for Apple and its developer community, I think. Vision Pro launched to very little fanfare: a brand-new developer platform that caused a collective yawn among the indies and corporations alike who have realized they exist only to enrich Apple. The Epic court case appears to have reached a sort of resolution, with some profoundly disturbing findings out of the discovery process that prove how brazenly, nakedly corrupt Apple is about advantaging themselves over developers. And the very public stance Apple has taken in the way it’s implemented the Digital Markets Act in Europe, a clear case of “malicious compliance”.

Do developers think less of Apple in 2025? I can’t speak for anyone else, of course, but to say it myself: hell yeah I do. Back in 1986 when I gazed upon my first Mac, I was a raving fanatic for Apple, so much so that I tied my career to them.

Nowadays, I grimace when I use Xcode, and in my spare time, I dream of building a new operating system to replace my reliance on the Mac and iOS. Seriously. I have thoughts on this.

What would Apple have to do to swing me back? I doubt there’s much, but if I were looking for positive signs, here’s a list:

• Lower the App Store commision, if only for non-games. This actually isn’t that big a deal for me, because there’s so little revenue to be had that another 5-10% isn’t going to move the needle. But it would send a clear signal that Apple is respecting developers more than their goddamn services revenue.
• Free the platforms. Stop locking shit down, stop all this bullshit about controlling every dollar spent, every link tapped, every API used. Before iPhone, a Mac developer could create any app they wanted using any API. Today, you can’t distribute your app without their tightly-controlled rule-passing, totally arbitrary gatekeeping gestapo saying it’s okay. They control what you can say, what features you can offer, and how you can get paid. In 2025, developers don’t have customers: they are service providers and wholesalers while Apple has the customer relationship. The paid one, anyway: we still get the support email!
• Make developers part of the process. Many devs have complained about the Feedback system, an opaque, one-sided black box where our bugs get filed, never to be heard from again. Others have written volumes on this topic, so I’ll let you read that, but Apple should open that system up for greater transparency.
• Change the App Store, somehow. Either open it right up (see above) or really smash down hard on quality, letting only the best shit through. I would actually be really excited to see an App Store as curated as what Apple talks about, where the approved titles are of the finest quality, no scams, respected developers, etc. It might be the only thing that might turn the economics of the indie developer around, because you wouldn’t be competing with thieves and scammers, and users might actually be willing to spend money on the good stuff.

I’m fully anticipating a WWDC where Craig Federighi does some sick performance art video, and watch Tim Cook talk about how much Apple loves developers, and here’s a heart-warming video about how software changes lives (it does). And then here’s a new OS — now with a third dimension! — and a pile of new AI features that may or may not ever appear, and a bunch of other APIs, and people might get a bit excited about that shit...

But I won’t. I’ll be the one watching it stone-faced.