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If it felt like Apple as lightening up on their App Store approval guidelines, think again. According to The New York Times, a recent scuffle with Sony has spurred Apple to clarify that their App Store rules on in0app purchases are going to be more strictly followed. The whole issue came up when Sony's Reader app was rejected from the App Store a few days ago. Apple objected to the Reader having its own eBook store, and no option for Apple's own in-app purchases. This, says Apple, is a violation of their terms of service.
This brings up an uncomfortable dilemma for other apps, like Amazon's Kindle for instance. Both the Kindle app and the Sony app bring up an imbedded web browser to make content purchases, but Apple is now saying that developers must provide that same content for in-app purchases using Apple's system. Not coincidentally, that means Apple would get their 30% cut. "It’s the opposite of what we wanted to bring to the market,” Sony's Steve Haber said. “We always wanted to bring the content to as many devices as possible, not one device to one store."
This does not mean that any content purchased the old way won't be available. Indeed, you can keep doing that. Apple is just asserting their authority to require that users are presented with in-app purchases too. A cunning way to get people more invested in the Apple ecosystem. How does this sit with you?
Comments are closed on this article
Cache
February 02, 2011 at 7:20am
The problem is that so many idiots will fawn over Apple because it's Apple, that they will gleefully do whatever Jobs wants. They will sacrifice their profit for the chance to nibble at the iPhone userbase because no major company out there has the stones to tell Apple and Apple users to go to hell.
So yeah, Sony will cave. Amazon will cave. They may charge more, but they want to suckle the Apple teat as much as every other tech company, even if it means they won't be able to use their own interfaces.
TechLarry
February 02, 2011 at 12:42pm
Oh, stop it. Jesus this wah wah wah Apple wah crap is just getting far too old.
Try for an original thought, please.
Cache Wrote:
"The problem is that so many idiots will fawn over Apple because it's Apple, that they will gleefully do whatever Jobs wants. They will sacrifice their profit for the chance to nibble at the iPhone userbase because no major company out there has the stones to tell Apple and Apple users to go to hell.
"
So yeah, Sony will cave. Amazon will cave. They may charge more, but they want to suckle the Apple teat as much as every other tech company, even if it means they won't be able to use their own interfaces."
mesiah
February 01, 2011 at 10:06pm
Has this company ever made an honest gesture? Have they ever done anything that wasn't absolutely for the maximum amount of profit that they could possibly milk out of people? It never ceases to amaze me how the mindless apple sheep don't recognize this. Apple doesn't want their customers to be able to scratch their own ass without them making some sort of profit off of it. I wouldn't be surprised if apple insisted on getting paid every time you placed a call from an iphone.
knighttoday
February 01, 2011 at 4:19pm
No surprise here. This is 'the marketplace' at work. Apple, Sony, Google, doesn't matter whose name I use, they are all in this for one reason - profit. Anything else you hear from them is marketing spin with the end result again being profit. From a consumer stand-point, trust no company. Be smart about how you use your purchasing power as it is all you have to keep these corporations at bay. Given the opportunity, they would all love to 'own' you and your current and future dollars. Sad but true.
warlok180
February 01, 2011 at 4:03pm
When you buy an Apple product you already know what you're getting into. This policy has always been in place and it's how they make their money. So, if you want to play in their market place, you have to play by their rules.
It's funny that Sony is having issue with this when you look at their Playstation system or even the PSP they take a pretty big cut on the profits too both in their PSN network and off the console games sold.
If you want a more open market eco-system, go with Android or the PC market. Or you could go where things have rules and profit-sharing like Apple or a game console.
BTW, is Google making any money off of the Android marketplace too?
schneider1492
February 01, 2011 at 5:38pm
The reason Sony makes such a cut on console games is because it costs them more to make the console than what they sell it for. When the PS3 slim came out they where loosing $50 per console, while the original PS3 lost over $400 per console sold. the console market has always worked more like the printer market than the computer market.
BTW android doesn't block side-loading apps, or prevent you from buying apps from other places.
i just don't see this going well for IOS end-users. Companies like Amazon or Sony will ether have to up prices just for people on IOS to make a profit, or just stop doing business with apple. Adobe was the first to jump on that bandwagon.
