“Apple is further tightening its control of the App Store,” Claire Cain Miller and Miguel Helft report for The New York Times. “The company has told some applications developers, including Sony, that they can no longer sell content, like e-books, within their apps, or let customers have access to purchases they have made outside the App Store.”
MacDailyNews Take: Where’s the “tightening?” The App Store never allowed in-app purchases that didn’t go through the proper API. Nor did it prevent stores from selling items outside the app via mobile browser. As John Paczkowski reports for AllThingsD, “Apple’s made no change to its App Store Guidlines, it’s simply enforcing a rule that’s been in them all along: apps that offer purchases elsewhere must support in-app purchases as well. ‘We have not changed our developer terms or guidelines,’ company spokesperson Trudy Miller told me. ‘We are now requiring that if an app offers customers the ability to purchase books outside of the app, that the same option is also available to customers from within the app with in-app purchase.'”
Miller and Helft report, “Apple rejected Sony’s iPhone application, which would have let people buy and read e-books bought from the Sony Reader Store. Apple told Sony that from now on, all in-app purchases would have to go through Apple, said Steve Haber, president of Sony’s digital reading division. The move could affect companies like Amazon.com and others that sell e-book readers that compete with Apple’s iPad tablet and offer free mobile apps so customers can read their e-book purchases on other devices. An iPad owner, for instance, has not needed to own a Kindle to read Kindle books bought from Amazon.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Bad reporting. There is no “move.” There is nothing new. Apple’s App Store Guidelines clearly state, “Apps utilizing a system other than the In App Purchase API (IAP) to purchase content, functionality, or services in an app will be rejected. Apps using IAP to purchase physical goods or goods and services used outside of the application will be rejected.” What part of “will be rejected” did Sony not understand? Sony’s developers ought to learn how to read and The New York Times ought to do a better job reporting the facts. Apple is simply enforcing existing rules and making sellers offer iOS users the option of making more convenient In-App purchases.
It’s sad that Sony has been so diminished as to have to resort to trying to use Apple in a wholly transparent play for free publicity, but there you have it.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]
By those guidelines though, does the Kindle app not violate the policy? Within the app, you are directed to amazons website to purchase books.
Whenever I buy a book, I check iBooks to see if it is available. Surprisingly, many are not and I end up getting them from Amazon. I hope that the kindle app is not going to be pulled as well.
This is where the anti-trust dogs are going to be let loose. I’m still unsure of how I feel about this. I understand Apple’s reasoning, but at the same time I feel it’s wrong if Apple were to get a 30% cut of Kindle sales.
You should only have to buy content once, and it should be usable across the spectrum of devices.
This is where Apple gets a bad name, and where the closed vs open antagonists live. Apple needs to take care of it’s customers, and not force all things through Apple orifices.
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No MDN your wrong.
You can buy content directly from amazon and send to your device. Apple is just a bunch of greedy filth pigs with no regard for their customers.
This is why android tabs and (eventually) Microsoft tabs will overcome. Crap like this and flash and all…
Hell if Microsoft tried to pull this crap they would have gotten sued for antitrust by the govt
Apple = the modern Microsoft
Shifty, it is simple – Sony wrote their own API for this function. Amazon uses the approved API.
much ado about NOTHING…
Again MDN you’re being an ass. The way those guideline read it will negative affect a bunch of apps that I use such as Kindle, Zinio, and The Economist. And as much of an Apple fan that I am that does not make me happy.
I believe that Amazon’s Kindle app gets around this rule by not actually purchasing the books thru the Kindle App itself. You have to buy the book thru the web and then the Kindle app simply accesses your account at Amazon in order to download it into it’s library on the iPad.
Kindle, zinio, b&n, etc do not use an in-app purchase model. You buy the book outside of the app, through a web browser and it simply syncs to you device. I a assuming this is OK, and different to sony’s model.
@Shifty
“By those guidelines though, does the Kindle app not violate the policy? Within the app, you are directed to amazons website to purchase books.”
Did you read your own post. Apple says you cannot be in CA and buy from FL. But if you GO to FL and buy that is OK.
Buying from WITHIN THE APP vs leaving the app and going on the web and buying….. these are different.
Apple can filter spam and virus containing material somewhat if it has control.
Just a thought,
en
The part about not allowing access to purchases made outside the app store concerns me. I am forced to purchase books for Kindle when the same book is not available in iBooks. I reject the notion that I should not be able to read these books on my iPad.
Careful here Apple
From ETR: “I believe that Amazon’s Kindle app gets around this rule by not actually purchasing the books thru the Kindle App itself. You have to buy the book thru the web and then the Kindle app simply accesses your account at Amazon in order to download it into it’s library on the iPad.”
This.
I guess the AMAZON app should be pulled/rejected because I can buy actual goods using their app.
Wow MDN explained it clearly and people still don’t get it.
It’s simple. If you want to sell digital goods within the App you MUST use the IAP API. If you wish to sell digital goods outside of Apple’s In App Purchase system you MUST do that outside the app. Kindle does this, it’s simply loading a Safari window to their online store complete the purchase.
Get it yet?
Looks like the developers at Sony are just morons who don’t read the rules before they program their shit.
Jim, do not get so angry until the details are in. If you start to search and follow the trail, this is entirely Sony’s fault. Start here:
http://mashable.com/2011/02/01/sony-apple-ebook-dispute/
@Jim
It’s “you’re” not “your”.
MDN, you are so blantantly biased toward Apple, it’s digesting! I’m an Apple fanboy too, but really MDN, did you not even RTFA? How can Amazon’s Kindle App not be violating the same rules as Sony? The Kindle app doesnt have In-App-Purchasing, Amazon does not share 30% of Kindle ebooks sales with Apple. How is this any different to what Sony was trying to do with their app? They way I see it, Amazon already set a precedent when they didn’t have to do IAP. Sony was just following the same rules as other ebooksellers. Why does Amazon not have to abide by the same rules? Perhaps this is a preemptive move before we see the Kindle app removed?
In-App purchases must use Apple’s API. This prevents malicious spyware, viruses, malware and the like from entering your phone. What else does it do? It also prevents the malicious access and use of personal data.
Kindle users will still be able to purchase their books through the web and sync and read on the iPad. People are worried about nothing.
As for being able to share the media on multiple devices from different manufacturers – that is a requirement from the media companies and not from Apple. Apple would prefer all content to be DRM-free.
“The part about not allowing access to purchases made outside the app store concerns me”
Where did you read that part?
Games aimed at children started exploiting the in-app purchasing by asking the kids to touch a button to get a better weapon, or vehicle, or whatever. If the password had been entered in the preceding 15 minutes a child could quickly run up over $100 in “purchases.” There is even some way around the 15 minute cut off. Apple has started policing the practice, as well as other predatory use of loop holes, and Sony’s app may includes some vulnerability.
I’m sure all of this is fair game for muggers in the “open” world.
@Jim
It’s “you’re” not “your”.
(I stand corrected, thank you)
The thing that makes me think it will affect kindle ebooks is this:
“or let customers have access to purchases they have made outside the App Store.”
Apple STOP worrying about what’s on my iPad and just let me enjoy it for god’s sake !!!!!!!!!!
Sony is still in business?
@Jim:
If Apple stopped “worrying about what’s on your iPad”, you’d have as many viruses, spyware and malware as a Windows PC.
Apple isn’t preventing anyone from buying outside the App Store or from buying within an app. You simply have to follow Apple’s rules and regulations for apps: Either 1) have users leave the app and purchase through a website, then sync (e.g., Kindle app); or 2) use Apple’s API to make in-app purchases (e.g., NOT what Sony’s app is doing).
It’s pretty simple, folks. Lots of developers have had no trouble following the policy, Amazon included. What Sony is doing is trying to write its own rules, which is why Sony is having all the problems it is.
I wonder how much money Sony wasted developing its own API, programming, etc., when it could have just used Apple’s API?
Can anybody besides the fools at MDN translate for me?
” Apps utilizing a system other than the In App Purchase API (IAP) to purchase content, functionality, or services in an app will be rejected. Apps using IAP to purchase physical goods or goods and services used outside of the application will be rejected.”
The way I read it
1) Purchases must use the Apple IAP. not a problem. Using the IAP the app can access web-site and “buy” a book.
2)What ever is purchased must be useable in the app. That does not preclude being used somewhere else.
That means I can buy a Kindle book using the IAP, and as long as it is useable in the iPHone/iPad app, there are no restrictions on where else it can be used.
Can someone please verify this interpretation?
You’ve all got it wrong, including MDN.
Amazon, the Economist, and others are in fact against the current policies. These new policies were implemented after these Apps were already on the App Store. With Amazon, for example, you can buy books on their Website, and it’s synced over to your Kindle App for viewing on the iPad. These companies have been given notice until June of this year to stop this practice: they have to resubmit their Apps. No more content purchased outside the App will be allowed.
Sony tried to submit an App that did essentially the same thing as Amazon but got rejected. That’s because any NEW Apps that do this will be rejected because it’s against Apple’s new terms. Companies like Amazon were given a grace period and have until this June to comply.
Yes, it’s very shitty. It hurts content providers and stymies competition. But Apple is backed in a corner because if they give guys like Amazon or the Economist a break, like less than a 30% cut… or allow them to continue this, they’d have to do it for everyone. And that’s the problem Apple is facing.
In short, the App Store model is good, but broken in some respects, too.
Ed Malloy:
As for your comment, the problem is not coding the App to use Apple’s IAP, it’s that Amazon, et. al will have to give up 30% of each sale to Apple. That’s what all the fuss is about.