Pages

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Marco Arment on Apple in-app purchase requirements

Marco Arment has some well-expressed objections to Apple's new rules regarding subscriptions in iOS. Unlike most critics I've seen, Arment points to specific, substantive problems with Apple's scheme that seem to have no other basis but the company's greed.

If Arment, generally supportive of Apple, is so critical, Apple would do well to revisit its still-new policies to address his concerns. This is not like Antennagate, which affected a limited number of customers using one product. Subscriptiongate has the potential to alienate the developer and content-provider communities. Their defection to other platforms like Android could translate to the loss of a large number of customers for Apple in the long run.

My guess is that Apple's legal team is already huddling, rewording the terms of in-app subscription payments. If they're not, they should be. This is rapidly turning into the company's second big fiasco, after Antennagate, in less than a year.

No comments:

Post a Comment