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EU Finds Apple Lacking in Efforts to Address In-App Payment Issues
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How is it a monopoly? There are plenty of other smartphones and Operating systems to use.
Or you saying that Xbox is a monopoly or Playstation?
Lets not forget this detestable virus (IAP) was first bread within the android ecosystem because people are cheap. What's detestable is Angry Birds making you pay for the game then blasting you with ads then creeping IAP in.. for a paid app! (At least it was about a year).
I say, why not go to the source of this disease (google) and hold their feet over the fire? Screw it, they either disable IAP by default or ban them and when people complain about having to pay for apps, then it can be explained that their idiot neighbors let their kid run up $1k in IAP so we had to get rid of them or be (apple) taken to court for millions of dollars by regulators.
1. I hate IAP, I pay for apps
2. "Adults" need to be just that. Take responsibility for the technology you purchase and the people who use it.
I say, why not go to the source of this disease (google) and hold their feet over the fire? Screw it, they either disable IAP by default or ban them and when people complain about having to pay for apps, then it can be explained that their idiot neighbors let their kid run up $1k in IAP so we had to get rid of them or be (apple) taken to court for millions of dollars by regulators.
1. I hate IAP, I pay for apps
2. "Adults" need to be just that. Take responsibility for the technology you purchase and the people who use it.
It kind of sounds like the EU wants to fine Apple before IOS8 arrives so they can get the cash.
Where do these fines end up, anyways. Do they give it back to the users?
Where do these fines end up, anyways. Do they give it back to the users?
first think i did on my son"s iPad was jailbreak and install iapfree. not to get stuff for free but it blocks the apple servers making it fine for downloading apps but impossible to buy in-app payments
Just get rid of IAPs all together and everyone's happy.
Except maybe developers, but I don't mind ads or paying to upgrade to the premium version of an app.
Except maybe developers, but I don't mind ads or paying to upgrade to the premium version of an app.
Of course you'd say this. You criticize everything Tim Cook's Apple does these days.
The apps are free. Did you pay any money when you downloaded the free app ? Nobody is forcing you to do in app purchases if you don't want to. If you don't like the in app purchases that are available, just delete your free app.
People are very cheap. They will not pay more than $.99 for even a quality app and most will not get any apps that are not free. In app advertising generates very little income for the general app designer so in app purchases are needed in free apps.
You are an exception. Most people I know will never get an app unless it's free to download.
It's not misleading. Have you ever downloaded any free app and have it ask you for money before it downloaded ?
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Two things apple could do:
1. Instead of having a misleading 'free' category on the App store, split it into "free" and "variable price".
2. Require all software with IAP to have a paid version with all IAP benefits unlocked.
1. Instead of having a misleading 'free' category on the App store, split it into "free" and "variable price".
2. Require all software with IAP to have a paid version with all IAP benefits unlocked.
Apple should just buy the EU.
Mebbe they could make it profitable instead of trillions in debt with no growth and 11% unemployment.
Magic.
NO! This is BLACK or WHITE! ALL or NOTHING! DEATH TO IAP!!!
/sarcasm
But seriously, I think IAP are great. How else are we going to have demos? How else should devs monetize? Ads or a hard paywall? People/Governments just aren't being reasonable about this whole thing.
If governments ruin IAP because parents keep complaining about what a terrible job they're doing with their kids, everyone is going to be pissed all over again that there are no demos or that their apps are littered with lousy ads. The sad result will be two versions of each app (how we used to see "Lite" versions) and devs will just have less time to work on cool new stuff.
Seriously. This IAP debacle drives me up a wall. I can't believe that such a simple, wonderfully useful mechanism continues to be a problem.
I've been saying it since it was first introduced.
There is no place for in-app purchases.
It is becoming a ridiculous money-making scheme that is going to ruin the mobile app market.
Apple needs to introduce an option for their customers to choose to 'opt out' of in app purchases, which simply disable the ability for your device to even make in-app purchases.
Apple also needs to add an extra feature to choose to disable or hide all apps that contain in-app purchases.
Apple is moving away from being customer focused and moving towards being profit focused.
As a look towards the future, I am actually considering to purchase something other than an Apple product. I no longer believe that Apple has my best interest in designing their products.
There is no place for in-app purchases.
It is becoming a ridiculous money-making scheme that is going to ruin the mobile app market.
Apple needs to introduce an option for their customers to choose to 'opt out' of in app purchases, which simply disable the ability for your device to even make in-app purchases.
Apple also needs to add an extra feature to choose to disable or hide all apps that contain in-app purchases.
Apple is moving away from being customer focused and moving towards being profit focused.
As a look towards the future, I am actually considering to purchase something other than an Apple product. I no longer believe that Apple has my best interest in designing their products.
Bad parenting in the same way as killing your child is? Of course not.
But give a kid a piece of tech, and you can sure expect they will use it fully. If you can't understand the technology enough to control your kids, and can't talk to them to make sure they understand the consequences of buying little gems or whatever in the games they're playing... you're failing on multiple levels.
At some point it's the parent's ultimate responsibility. Apple has given you the tools to lock it down.
In-app purchases have a place, especially without demos (and frankly, even with it.)
Case in point: Marco Arment's Overcast is a free download, but to use its unique features for podcasting you have to unlock it for $4 or $5 (forget the precise amount.) In a post, Marco explained exactly why he did it—because humans are on the whole averse to ever spending money upfront for a product, and so making it free with the IAP for the people who can use that features make a lot more sense; you grow the userbase and also grow the committed users who are willing to pay for quality.
Sure, Candy Crush and IAP for games like these are an issue—but they’re frankly an ever-present issue that would exist no matter what. There are people who are willing to be duped into spending money on nonsense, and those people subsidize people like me who never buy those things.
They do. Since day one if you reported to them an accidental purchase of an IAP cause you weren't educated about restrictions etc they would, despite terms you agreed to that all sales are final, refund the money. And educate you about how to use restrictions etc.
Now I will give you that perhaps they need to include restrictions in the initial set up etc, to insure education. And yes I get the point about calling an app free if there is no content in the app without paying like say with the Netflix viewer app. But short of barring the approval of games with IAP in Europe what can they do that hasn't been done. Perhaps include a restriction that prohibits kids from seeing games that include IAP in the store so they can't even download them. Maybe tie it to the age listed during registration. Only the head parent on a family share can turn on seeing those items. That might work, outside of the accounts where the kids know dad's password or just lie about their age.
Have you ever tried to get the old Mac Pro towards the end? You can read it quite everywhere, also here on MR. In my book when something was made available for years but then gets removed by the gov't, it's pretty much a ban, at least in my sucky English dictionary.
About In-App Purchases: http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4009
I have absolutely no problems with Non-consumable and subscription IAPs as they have pretty clear legitimate uses:
I can even see in principle where consumable IAPs might have a valid role in life but they are also massively massively abused in a "death by a thousand cuts" approach by greedy developers who make games where progress all but impossible without them.
I have absolutely no problems with Non-consumable and subscription IAPs as they have pretty clear legitimate uses:
- Non Consumable IAPs allow for developeres to release a demo of first X levels free, IAP to unlock the full game without the hassle of a seperate app with just the first 3 levels, and then having to download a different app for the full game potentially losing any progress from the demo along the way. This is essentially how the shareware / demoware software model has worked for decades with the purchase of unlock codes, additional level packs, etc
- Subscription IAPs are brilliant for magazine content subscriptions / premium content subscriptions such as MVP in MapMyFitness, and the like.
I can even see in principle where consumable IAPs might have a valid role in life but they are also massively massively abused in a "death by a thousand cuts" approach by greedy developers who make games where progress all but impossible without them.
IAPs are not the issue. If anything they need to be used more not less. They are great for a lot of things. Including those demos that folks keep insisting Apple must put into the system. Full use for 30 days then unlock it via an IAP would give folks what they want. So would free with ads or unlock a no ads mode via an IAP.
It's game makers that hobble a game unless you use IAP that is the issue. A lot of games can be played just fine without ever using an IAP. Even games like Candy Crush and Real Racing. Sure they are a lot harder and slower but it can be done. Which is the right way to set up that system. Or do like the temple run games and you can buy with cash or (outside of super special things like celebrity avatars) earn enough points to cash in for your power ups.
I suppose Apple could nix the games that abuse IAP but then they would get dumped on for playing nanny. Or not playing nanny enough. All cause folks have different opinions about what is and isn't abuse
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You mean something like this
That is not the point.
It's a manipulation of the meaning of free.
I'm happy those apps that try and tempt you to buy things remain there, or the ones that make the free? game very hard unless you buy the extras.
But let's not pretend they are genuinely free.
We all know what FREE means, they are pushing the boundaries of this term.
There should be three categories of Apps.
I totally agree with you on this. I'm a serious gamer and when I have a game that I really like, I enjoy purchasing a new DLC to extend the game play, add new missions, get new weapons, etc. But I started playing Clumsy Ninja and while it is a great game, it was clearly designed to frustrate you into making purchases. Maybe I'm just too impatient to wait 30 minutes to re-use an item, but I just deleted it because it felt abusive and coercive in the way it implemented IAP.
Indeed. The FTC basically told Apple that they needed to label which apps include IAP even on search pages and do it ASAP. And they did. And then told them that they needed to proactively contact everyone that made an IAP purchase in a game before the date the whole suit started and offer them a change to ask for a refund if a kid made the purchase. Which Apple did. And since Apple can't prove it wasn't a kid the rules were basically if you asked, it was during that time period, it was labeled as a kid appropriate app, it was made within 15 minutes of an app or IAP purchase (the idea being that a parent might have approved that one but the rest where from 'the window') and you had had no prior refunds, then you got your money back for the item in question. Even if you had like 20 that fit the bill you could still end up getting them all refunded if you had never called Apple before since they were making all phone support folks educate peeps about restrictions when they got their 'one time' refund. No call and they couldn't prove you know about restrictions.
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That and require password immediately being the default I can agree with