Discussion: In-App Purchasing - will greed kill it?
2 comments
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".
That is interesting... I've never heard of this before.
I do wonder, now, if this is a common practice of trying to game the system.
I do wonder, now, if this is a common practice of trying to game the system.
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.