You already can't buy books for the Kindle or Nook app via in-app purchase, nor can you pay Dropbox for space. Why is this news when SkyDrive has the same rule?
And why doesn't SkyDrive just go "oh", and like everyone else, remove the in-app purchase option?
From the (much better) Next Web article which I wish had been linked instead:
Microsoft has persisted in trying to work out a compromise with Apple, but has thus far failed to come to an agreement. The company offered to remove all subscription options from its application, leaving it a non-revenue generating experience on iOS. The offer was rebuffed.
If a service has a subscription option, it seems, and it is not listed in the iOS store, the application cannot, and will not be allowed. That is, unless you are small enough that Apple doesn’t bothers to check. I assume that smaller companies could slip under the radar.
(note for transparency: I worked on the SkyDrive team until a few months ago, but don't know the latest details of this situation.)
Something that needs a bit of clarification, what do they mean by "offered to remove all subscription options", and "the offer was rebuffed"? Do they mean that they created a new build with the subscription options removed, resubmitted, and had that build rejected? Or do they mean they sent an email to someone at apple and didn't get a response in a timely fashion?
I'm pretty sure that if you have an iOS application with signups and you have a subscription on your website, you have to have subscriptions available in the iOS app. Microsoft could just do what Dropbox did and allow subscriptions from their app and also allow the same from their website. Dropbox has more flexible options on their website than on their iOS app.
I did not know that. (My only experience here is that the Dropbox SDK's login screen used to link to the website, which linked to the subscription page, and our app was rejected until the Dropbox SDK removed that link.) Thanks!
Dropbox on my iPhone 5 has a place for purchasing 100GB for $99 in settings. I think they had to decide to give in or not allow signups in their app. They chose to give in to Apple and allow subscriptions in their app.
The Dropbox app only has a single subscription in comparison to several options on their website including paying monthly. I guess Apple is OK with that.
And why doesn't SkyDrive just go "oh", and like everyone else, remove the in-app purchase option?