
Ask HN: Apple Developer Account Blocked without reason – can somebody help? - matwiemann
Does anybody else have the same problem? 
I have been working on an App for months now but now I wanted to submit it to the App store, but I cannot create Apple Developer Account (Enrollment) because my Account is somehow blocked. My Issue at Apple (Case Number: 101043480563) has been open since March 11th, but no progress has been made. I was inquiring almost weekly, but the very friendly senior Advisor is also waiting for an internal team to give her feedback. No progress for almost 2 months.<p>Been working hard to get this App online. All the infrastructure (backend etc.) is in place, but now it is all falling apart because of this.<p>My App will greatly improve knowledge sharing in an entertaining way and will be really helpful in the current times.<p>If anybody with contacts to Apple can help, it would be really appreciated.
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otachack
Perhaps start a small business, get a DUNNs number and separate AppleID, and
enroll that way. If the app is going to be making money this may be what you
want in the long run.

Also, I'm a bit skeptical how you aren't enrolled already. Apple doesn't make
it easy to develop and run apps on hardware until you're enrolled. They
require certs + provisions tied to the registered AppID to run any apps on
hardware. But it's also been awhile since I've developed without a developer
enrolled AppleID.

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really3452
The app store is a worse monopoly than IE ever was on Windows and should be
treated with in the same fashion.

~~~
darklion
How do you figure? Apple has a minority market share in celluar phones in
literally every country in the world, and other than the US, doesn't even hit
25% market share.

Microsoft, at its peak, held a worldwide monopoly of over 90% of all desktop
computers (I believe it was in the mid 90s).

How is Apple's (not a) monopoly worse than Microsoft?

~~~
wayneftw
iPhone market share is very close to 50% in the US. You can't have a
successful app launch in the US without making your app available on the
iPhone. Apples policies affect the entire market, especially in the US.

If they're not already a monopoly in the US, then they might as well be since
they have the same market control as a monopoly player. Also, a strict
majority market share is not required for a company to be considered a
monopoly. It's up to the courts to decide. [1] [2] [3]

[1] [https://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/competition-
guidance/guide-a...](https://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/competition-
guidance/guide-antitrust-laws/single-firm-conduct/monopolization-defined)

> Courts do not require a literal monopoly before applying rules for single
> firm conduct; that term is used as shorthand for a firm with significant and
> durable market power — that is, the long term ability to raise price or
> exclude competitors.

[2] [https://www.justice.gov/atr/competition-and-monopoly-
single-...](https://www.justice.gov/atr/competition-and-monopoly-single-firm-
conduct-under-section-2-sherman-act-chapter-2)

> In determining whether a competitor possesses monopoly power in a relevant
> market, courts typically begin by looking at the firm's market share.(18)
> Although the courts "have not yet identified a precise level at which
> monopoly power will be inferred," they have demanded a dominant market
> share.

[3] [https://www.theverge.com/2019/5/14/18618127/apple-pepper-
sup...](https://www.theverge.com/2019/5/14/18618127/apple-pepper-supreme-
court-loss-kavanaugh-opinion-app-store-antitrust-explainer-vergecast)

> The plaintiffs, meanwhile, will argue that these alternatives don’t matter.
> “The fact that they have a [less than] 50 percent market share of
> smartphones doesn’t mean they don’t have a 100 percent share of the
> distribution of iPhone apps — which they absolutely do,” says Rifkin.

~~~
darklion
> “The fact that they have a [less than] 50 percent market share of
> smartphones doesn’t mean they don’t have a 100 percent share of the
> distribution of iPhone apps — which they absolutely do,”

Yes, that's true, but it's not a particularly meaningful or insightful
statement. That's defining the market in terms of the answer you want. Any
company has a 100% market share if you define the market as "things that only
that company can do".

"The fact that they have a [less than] 50 percent market share of operating
systems doesn't mean [Microsoft doesn't] have a 100 percent share of Windows
-- which they absolutely do", says Captain Obvious.

The question is, has there been a detrimental effect for customers?

Practically, I don't think the answer is as clear-cut as Rifkin wants it to
be, because (at least to me), the drawbacks of a single-vendor app store (of
which there are a significant quantity) have to be weighed against the
benefits of a single-vendor app store (of which there are a significant
quantity).

~~~
wayneftw
> the benefits of a single-vendor app store (of which there are a significant
> quantity).

I'd say the great majority of those benefits are going to Apple.

There's nothing that Apple does in their app store that a third party app
store owner couldn't do. Anyone can curate apps.

As a customer of the Apple app store, I've absolutely experienced the
detrimental effects of Apple's behavior. For one thing, I can't build software
for my own device because Apple is too concerned about losing control. There
are also whole categories of software that I simply cannot have because Apple
won't let them be sold in their store.

They already lost the anti-trust case to decide if they can be sued again by
customers. I hope they lose the next one too.

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i_don_t_know
I haven’t tried this in ages. Some ideas:

Have you had a developer account before that you might have forgotten about
and that might use the same Apple ID? Can you create a new ID? (I don’t
remember if you need an Apple ID.)

Have you moved to another country? For example, is the Apple ID registered in
country A and you’re trying to enroll in country B? Can you create a new ID in
country B?

Does your payment method work? Last September, I noticed that the online Apple
Store in Germany follows the new process in the EU when paying with credit
cards online. That is, you have to enable your card to allow online payments.
Other businesses still use the old method where you only need the three-digit
number on the back of the card. Check with your bank or credit card company
and enable online payments. It is not enabled by default. Call the phone
number printed on the card and they walk you through the process.

Do you have to supply tax information so that proceeds from the sale of your
app can be reported correctly? Are you missing documents, tax IDs, W8-BEN (tax
treaty benefits, needed for US tax purposes when you’re a citizen of another
country), or similar documents? I haven’t done this myself. I don’t know if
you need all this. Just throwing it out there.

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erikrothoff
How is it built? React Native, Cordova, SwiftUI? Maybe the technology chosen
might provide a hint? Also, where are you based?

~~~
matwiemann
Enrolling, much rather than submitting an app in the developer program is the
issue at hand. I’m in the EU.

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thedevindevops
Have you considered an Android version?

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pc86
This is the most HN answer ever.

"I'm having trouble creating an Apple Developer account, has anyone had
similar experiences?"

"Have you considered an Android version?"

When someone asks how to do X, telling them to do Y is almost never the right
answer.

~~~
thedevindevops
It gives us context and a lot more information to help answer the question - I
think it's perfectly reasonable to ask if he's considered it.

~~~
pc86
How does his consideration of an unrelated platform give insight to his
trouble creating an account somewhere else?

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aurizon
Probably someone in Apple feels your idea would be a good thing for Apple to
do itself,(as has happened many time before) so get what copyright protection
you can get and persist, then sue if they infringe on you.

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smoyer
I don't doubt that this has occurred but it's strange that (s)he is blocked
from creating a developer account. Clearly this would stop all "ideas" from
turning into apps for this person. Sounds more like they can't verify an
identity, had problems with a credit card or are geo-blocking.

