

New Apple Developer Guideline Bans Apps That Promote Other Apps - natesm
http://techcrunch.com/2012/10/01/how-a-new-apple-developer-guideline-could-be-curtains-for-apps-that-promote-other-apps/

======
saurik
"Apps that display Apps other than your own for purchase or promotion _in a
manner similar to or confusing with the App Store_ will be rejected." <\- So,
sounds like the rather benign goal of keeping developers from impersonating
Apple's own payment channel and thereby confusing users into believing they
are transacting with Apple and then to send Apple support issues.

~~~
eps
I actually wish they banned _all_ cross-app promotion, which is the second
most annoying thing after the in-app purchase promotions.

~~~
mmanfrin
So you'd ban all the free demo versions of paid apps?

~~~
Karunamon
No need for having two apps clogging up the store - have just the app, and
have the paid version unlocked via IAP.

~~~
potatolicious
This is actually really painful for both devs and users - the main thing being
that recovery of the paid upgrade will be finicky and unreliable. The UI for
recovering an in-app purchase is the same as the buying UI, which leads many
users to mistakenly believe they are being double-charged.

Who can blame them, the UI blows.

Since devs themselves also do not get any user-specific information when an
in-app purchase is sold, it becomes pretty much impossible for your support
channels to verify someone actually owns what they say they own.

Until the API improves (not holding my breath, it's been like this for, what,
3 years now?) IAP-driven upgrades will hurt both users and developers.

~~~
chucknelson
> _"The UI for recovering an in-app purchase is the same as the buying UI,
> which leads many users to mistakenly believe they are being double-
> charged."_

This makes sense for low-price + IAP apps, but not the free + IAP model
mentioned in the thread you're replying to.

Free + IAP seems fine, and it's probably been the most popular PC/Mac software
sales method since the 90s.

~~~
potatolicious
This impacts free + IAP models also. Here's the classic use case:

1\. User gets a shiny new iPhone. 2\. User installs my (free) AwesomeApp on
new device. 3\. User is missing premium AwesomeApp features, is now confused
about why. 4\. User goes to IAP part of app and tries to recover the
IAP/premium features, except Apple's UI here would lead user to believe they
are being charged for the IAP again.

This is often followed by:

5\. User contacts support and is very confused. Support _cannot verify_
whether or not user owns the IAP, because the App Store is a black box and we
get _no_ information about purchasers.

~~~
idunno246
Isn't that what the restoreCompletedTransactions api is for? It's the fault of
the app developer for not using it, and forcing the user to go through the
purchase flow again.

------
benguild
We ran into this when I was working on App Map. <http://appmap.mobi> It's just
one of the roadblocks against cloning the App Store or just putting a spin on
what Apple is doing. It's not a big deal as long as you're doing something
different.

------
rgbrgb
Ironically, their new Maps app points you to a bunch of apps on the app store
when you ask for transit directions.

~~~
whazzmaster
Why is that ironic?

------
raldi
Ah, so Zynga will have to remove one of the rows of crap they added to Words
With Friends?

~~~
drpgq
Wouldn't that be considered their own apps?

------
twodayslate
Hopefully this does not effect AppShopper[1]. It is a great resource and has
saved me money.

[1] <http://appshopper.com/>

------
drivingmenuts
> “The whole point of the review guidelines is that Apple wants consumers to
> get the very best apps from the App Store, and they recognize that if it
> gets filled with garbage, discovery gets even worse, and that just hurts the
> platform,” Satok said in an interview.

Both Apple and Google are way too late on that - they're getting proactive now
that the cows have escaped and burned down the barn on the way out.

------
dirkdk
Apple should rank apps based on actual usage not downloads.

On the web we call unique users vanity metrics, and monthly active users the
real deal. Why not the same for mobile?

~~~
SoftwareMaven
Because I really don't want Apple tracking every time I open any app.

~~~
matwood
You seem to think they don't already track this. I don't know what Apple does,
but it's trivial to hook up Google Analytics to any app you create.

------
MatthewPhillips
Sounds like all app recommendation apps will be going away.

------
flocial
If the paranoid reading of this article is valid then this could only mean
more entrenchment for big name players.

