Apple's demands

I've been thinking about all the hubbub around Apple's give-us-all-your-money policy changes. Or enforcement changes. The gist of the situation, as I understand it, is this:

There are apps on the App Store that relate to services and goods that users have to pay for. Netflix is an example: a user subscribes to Netflix, pays them a monthly fee, and can stream a bunch of movies to their iPhone. Amazon's Kindle app lets you buy e-books from Amazon and read them on your iPhone. These experiences existed before in-app purchasing came along, and before the new-fangled in-app subscription stuff came along.

Now that Apple has all these ways of selling to users (in-app purchases for things like Kindle, and subscriptions for things like Netflix), they're going to require these app developers provide an in-app means of subscribing or buying additional content. Not just existing ones, but new apps as well. Any app that is associated with a service where you can buy additional content, or you have to be subscribed to in order to use, should have a means of spending this money with in-app transactions. They also stipulate that things sold in the App Store this way must cost the same or less than things sold directly by these companies

My first response was shock. Are you serious? This looks like a money-grab move by Apple. "Great, you've built something that tons of people use. Now if you want to keep updating it (or worse, continue to let users use it) then you have to give us 30% of all your revenue. Oh, and don't try to inflate your prices to pass this bullshit tax onto your users, because then they won't buy from us because we'll be more expensive". Way to be a dick, Apple.

Now I've thought about it some more. It seems less evil if I think about it from the customer's perspective, rather than the developers. What's the current book-buying experience with the Kindle app? I decide I want to buy a book, click a button, and the app exists, I'm dropped off into Safari where I have to find the book I want, sign in (or sign up), possibly enter credit card information, gahhhhhhh. There are tons of steps. And then when I'm done, the website tells me to go back to the app. Why did I have to leave the app, anyway?

I don't care which payment system is used; Amazon or Apple just take it out of the same credit card anyway. I don't care how I buy the ebook if prices are the same. And in-app is a much better experience. And Apple, to a fault, is all about forcing a better experience on its users.

Additional content purchases make sense, even with Apple's mandate. As long as they only charge the 30% for additional content purchased on the phone (not retroactively applied to my entire Kindle library) then it's not evil. It's a win for users, Apple, everyone except App developers.

But what about subscriptions? This gets a bit murky. I already have a Netflix account. I had it before there was an iPhone App. There is absolutely no reason any of my money should go to Apple for Netflix building an excellent service that I was willing to pay for, that I continue to be willing to pay for. Apple shouldn't charge Netflix 30% for my susbscription, or even just to let me use Netflix on my iPhone.

Where the 30% Apple tax makes sense is in new customer acquisition. If I've never used Netflix, but then decide I want movies streamed to my iPhone, then it'd be a seamless experience if I could sign up for Netflix on my phone. Then, in the same app in a matter of seconds, start streaming my favorite movie. That would be awesome.

But what about recurring subscriptions? Just because I started on my iPhone, should 30% of my money go to Apple for the entirety of my Netflix subscription? What if I'm a current Netflix user, who didn't start on the iPhone, who needs to update his subscription level? If I do that on my iPhone, should that give Apple the right to charge an Apple Tax?

It's murky. It's complicated. But only for businesses and developers. I genuinely think that, once these new regulations are enforced, you'll see a good number of better in-app purchasing experiences on the iPhone.

Or, better yet, the mobile app developers will just say "screw it", build an HTML5 app on web standards that works on any modern device, keep their own payment models, and make fat bank while gaining tech cred for being such a forward-thinking company.

Just kidding. That will never happen. But I can dream, right?