I am currently working a on a product that my customers will be paying me monthly for. Their product is just a web application but their clients will all be able to download a free IOS or Android app. For their clients to login they will be issued a login from my customers web application. The free app is completely optional for my customers clients. My customers will be able to use the web application even without any of their clients using the app.
My question is... will I have to pay Apple a percentage of the website subscription costs to my customers?? The app experience to the clients of my customers is completely free. If I do have to pay Apple how would I even go about this? It would be very silly for my customers to have to pay in-app when they dont even use the app.
Just wondering if any IOS developers have run into a similar situation and how you handled it?
You would not have to pay apple, but you would have to make sure that the app itself does not link to (or possibly mention) the external payment system. It would be fine if the app allows logging into a paid account, just not purchasing from the app, while circumventing apple's payment system. You could also consider allowing payments with in app purchases being optional, for app users, with others paying through other means.
See point 11.13 at the app store review guidelines page.
An example of a system like this is visible in the Amazon Kindle app for iOS, where you can log into your amazon account and read books you have purchased with the account, but cannot buy books through the app.
EDIT: however see point 11.12 in the link above, you may need to use in app purchases for users who use the app as it says "Apps offering subscriptions must do so using IAP, Apple will share the same 70/30 revenue split with developers for these purchases". You should still be able to offer a seperate subscription for non-app users.
EDIT 2: As in point 11.14 If your app is providing approved content ("magazines, newspapers, books, audio, music, video and cloud storage") you can "read or play approved content...that is subscribed to or purchased outside of the App, as long as there is no button or external link in the App to purchase the approved content. Apple will only receive a portion of revenues for content purchased inside the App."
Relevant guidelines:
11.12:
Apps offering subscriptions must do so using IAP, Apple will share the same 70/30 revenue split with developers for these purchases, as set forth in the Program License Agreement
11.13:
Apps that link to external mechanisms for purchases or subscriptions to be used in the App, such as a "buy" button that goes to a web site to purchase a digital book, will be rejected
11.14:
Apps can read or play approved content (specifically magazines, newspapers, books, audio, music, video and cloud storage) that is subscribed to or purchased outside of the App, as long as there is no button or external link in the App to purchase the approved content. Apple will only receive a portion of revenues for content purchased inside the App
11.15:
Apps may only use auto-renewing subscriptions for periodicals (newspapers, magazines), business Apps (enterprise, productivity, professional creative, cloud storage), and media Apps (video, audio, voice), or the App will be rejected
Related
I am developing an application for iOS and Android and this app will be free on the store, but to use all features of the app, the user will need to pay a licence every month/year and if he doesn't pay it, he will have only a limited access to the app, with just few features. Moreover, the first month after he registers, he will have full access.
To pay the licence, it'll can be done in the app or on the website.
For that, do I need to develop a function to check on each connection my database to see if the user has paid, or is there already something done. I have look for "in app purchasing" but it seems that it works only for app where we pay once to have full features, and not every month.
Thank you :)
Regards,
There is a system in in-app-purchase for this, just check the url: https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT202023 and "Auto-renewing subscriptions" tab
you can go for in app purchase / in app billing
iOS,
In-App Purchase lets you sell a variety of items directly within your free or paid app, including premium content, virtual goods, and subscriptions. And just like apps you sell on the App Store, you receive 70% of the purchase price.
https://developer.apple.com/in-app-purchase/
Android
Use In-app Billing to sell digital goods, including one-time items and recurring subscriptions.
Supported for any app published on Google Play. You only need a Google Play Developer Console account and a Google payments merchant account.
Checkout processing is automatically handled by Google Play, with the same look-and-feel as for app purchases.
http://developer.android.com/google/play/billing/billing_overview.html
I have a website that provides a service that customers pay a monthly subscription fee. I have created apps for Android and iOS to connect to the subscribed account. With this subscription they can connect an unlimited number of users with android/iOS applications to the account.
If I release the App into the Market as free but customers need to register for a paid subscription for the main account on the website then will be seen as a breach of the Market T&Cs for the Play Store and the App Store?
Thanks for any help.
You should be fine - some large companies do this, examples off the top of my head are: Rdio, Economist.
You can only purchase via their website, but by linking accounts you get full functionality.
The company gets to save on 30% fees, but the app is not allowed to provide any links to your purchase workflow on your website - otherwise that will violate the terms.
This is the same for both Android and iOS.
I haven't found a solid answer to this on either the documentation of android/google play, SO, or on google searches.
In iOS is it not allowed to handle money transactions within the app, making you only do in-app purchases. I want to know if in Android this is the same case.
I know Android does not have a review process like iOS so this will be harder to "catch" even if its not allowed, but I wanted to do it correctly from the start.
The documentation suggests to do in-app purchases, but they take a 30% of the sale. Also, this seems to only be a suggestion.
So, here's the direct question. Can I sell images inside my app, handle the credit card transaction, handle the billing and charge the amount of money within my app in Android, without having to give 30% of the sale to google, and without having to use in-app purchases? I have seen apps like the Amazon Kindle app do this, but I don't know if they have to report/share 30% of the sale in the background.
Hopefully this isn't off topic since its a developing-related question, even though its not about specific code.
Edit: Just to clarify. The "goods" to be purchased in the app would be images, which can then be edited within the app and printed from within the app to a printer. The images will be downloaded from the app as an encrypted file so they can only be used with this app.
Yes! If the images that are being sold, once purchased, are available outside the app. According to Google Play Developer Program Policies :
Developers offering virtual goods or currencies within a game downloaded from Google Play must use Google Play's in-app billing service as the method of payment.
Developers offering additional content, services or functionality within another category of app downloaded from Google Play must use Google Play's in-app billing service as the method of payment, except:
where payment is primarily for physical goods or services (e.g., buying movie tickets, or buying a publication where the price also includes a hard copy subscription); or
where payment is for digital content or goods that may be consumed outside of the app itself (e.g., buying songs that can be played on other music players).
I'm developing a music app where people can download and play music to their smart phones. Seeing that many users in my country have no credit cards and paypal is not allowed, I have come up with the following solution to allow in-app purchases:
1) For local members(Uganda), I have a voucher system where people will buy vouchers from vendors around the country. They can then enter the purchased voucher within the app, then it will update the 'credit'. People will be able to download the music/albums using credit.
2) For international members, for the reason of cross-platformness....i want people to be able to purchase using Paypal (buy button) loaded in a child-browser/in-app browser. if successful, this should update the user's credit.
Will this violate the terms and conditions? Can someone shed some light on this, as I don't want to finish the application just to have it rejected.
My app is developed using HTML5, PhoneGap build.
iOS
Unfortunately, as I understand your design, it would not be allowed on Apple's App Store.
Disclaimer: I don't work for Apple, so I'm only providing links to their stated terms of service for In-App Purchases, and app approval guidelines.
As I understand it, In-App purchases for iOS can use 3rd-party payment solutions (e.g. Paypal) if the user is buying real goods (a shirt, or a toy). However, if the user is buying digital goods, like music, then the app must use Apple's In-App payment technology.
https://developer.apple.com/in-app-purchase/In-App-Purchase-Guidelines.pdf:
What To Sell
There are four supported categories of In-App Purchase items that you
may sell: • Content • Functionality • Services •
Subscriptions
Music would be "Content".
And, from the Approval Guidelines for the iTunes App Store:
11.2 Apps utilizing a system other than the In-App Purchase API (IAP) to purchase content, functionality, or services in an App will
be rejected
So, I think you'd need to have your PhoneGap app use Apple's StoreKit framework (you could try a wrapper like this one for PhoneGap apps).
Android
It looks to me like your original design is ok for the Google Play Store:
Paid and Free Applications
App purchases: Developers charging for applications and downloads from Google Play must do so by using Google Play's payment
system.
In-app purchases: Developers offering additional content, services or functionality within an application downloaded from Google
Play must use Google Play's payment system as the method of payment,
except:
- where payment is primarily for physical goods or services (e.g. buying movie tickets; e.g. buying a publication where the price
also includes a hard copy subscription); or
- where payment is for digital content or goods that may be consumed outside of the application itself (e.g. buying songs that can
be played on other music players)
If you're letting them buy music that can be played outside the application, then I think it meets the second exception listed above.
I'm looking for some advice on an app that I am hiring a developer to work on for me - its my first app and his first solo app, so I at least am still getting a feel for the ropes a bit.
My question lies in the area of in-app purchases. My app will use an in-app purchase system that will be used to purchase "credits" for lack of a better word. Each time a credit is purchased it will enable data stored in the app to be emailed to a particular email address.
I had originally thought it would be good to have an external web-based shopping cart to deal with it, but I understand there are APIs available to embed these shopping cart systems into the app. Additionally I also understand that any "digital consumables" that unlock features of the app are subject to the commission that iTunes/Android charge, does anyone have any initial thoughts on whether the ability to email would be included in this?
Many thanks in advance.
Savvas, that's not true at all ... AFAIK , in Android there's some exceptions you can read here: http://play.google.com/intl/en/about/developer-content-policy.html
Paid and Free Applications
App purchases: Developers charging for applications and downloads from Google Play must do so by using Google Play's payment system.
In-app purchases: Developers offering additional content, services or functionality within an application downloaded from Google Play must use Google Play's payment system as the method of payment, except:
where payment is primarily for physical goods or services (e.g. buying movie tickets; e.g. buying a publication where the price also includes a hard copy subscription);
or where payment is for digital content or goods that may be consumed outside of the application itself (e.g. buying songs that can be played on other music players)
So for example, for buying a coffee, you can use your own payment gateway.
I am pretty sure that both iPhone and Android agreements require you to use their own payment services for all in app purchases.
That means you can't roll your own paypal/visa/any other payment system and have your users use that if you plan on distributing the app via the Google Play Store or the App Store.
That being said, you can still roll out your own payment system if you distribute your app via other channels (for android you can have a look at the Amazon app store and other solutions. For the iPhone there is no official third party app store since Apple prohibits it. Cydia is an alternative app store that many people have though in their jailbroken phones)
Personally I am a big fan of Urban Airship. Works great on iOS and Android.