Discussion: In-App Purchasing - will greed kill it?

by darylteo on 7/26/2011, 1:50 AM with 4 comments

In-App Purchasing is the big topic nowadays, with LodSys suing many people (most recently, Rovio i.e. Angry Birds). However another thing that has been under the radar but still a big issue is Apple claiming 30% cut from all In-App purchases through the App Store.

Not only that, but Apple is now starting to enforce a new TOS, which mandates that any item that can be purchased within the App itself must be available for purchase through the App Store at least. This is an artificial monopoly reminiscent of the dominant IE days: a platform with a majority influence imposing an artificial lockdown on developers.

Now the major book publishers are pulling their their apps down, and converting to external app purchasing only (buy through web) as the 30% cut is simply too high for them to deal with. EDIT: apparently the TOS are even worse than I thought... you can't even link to an external url within your app anymore, if it contains a way for you to buy things externally. Amazon has updated their Kindle App to remove the link to the Kindle Store. WTF Apple.

What does HN think? Does In-App purchasing still have a place as it is now? Or will Apple relent and try more competitive pricing to entice people to use it? Or will developers simply shun it forever.

  • by wturner on 7/26/2011, 2:32 AM

    I figure some of these app companies buy there own in app purchases so they can work themselves up into the top grossing (or other) list in the Apple Store and sell more. The feedback loop then becomes the "business model".

  • by zoowar on 7/26/2011, 2:23 AM

    We need to share more and stop trying to make a buck.