This is really going over the line. People are content in the walled garden, but if it starts getting too stuffy in there people will want to leave. Unfortunately it makes "business sense" (read: nonsense) for Apple to raise the walls of their walled garden as high as they can make them. Hopefully at some point there will be enough discontent to remove things like this.
Apple rejecting applications which use Dropbox
21–30 of 361 posts
Re: Apple rejecting applications which use Dropbox
#22this is an antitrust issue even if it isn't by law.
sometimes i think developers should unite and pull all apps from appstore to protest.
Re: Apple rejecting applications which use Dropbox
#23I can not be the only one thinking there is an antitrust issue here? I would guess the book thing means Apple is under quite a bit of scrutiny. While I'm not involved in mobile, I've had similar experiences for over half a decade dealing with the banal, highly questionable, and non-uniformly enforced rules Google imposes on its own advertisers. Some of the stuff is bad enough it makes you think it would fall under RI…
1) Research antitrust. It doesn't mean what you think it means. 2) Apple has done nothing different than has been done before. It is an existing in app purchasing rule.
"Competition law, known in the United States as antitrust law, is law that promotes or maintains market competition by regulating anti-competitive conduct by companies."[1]
One could argue that rejecting apps that make use of (or in this case encourage signup to) Dropbox is anti-competitive conduct since Dropbox is a competitor of iCloud (isn't it?)
Re: Apple rejecting applications which use Dropbox
#24This has gone way too far. The other day I downloaded the Google Play Books app. I started it up, signed in.. and nothing. No prompt to go buy books online, no hint at what the app does... just a blank screen. It's completely scummy. You can buy Apple's iCloud storage upgrade from within the OS, and now you can't even LINK to a place where you could link to a place where if you click the right link you could buy Drop…
It's awful, and it's painful for everyone -- not just those using the DropBox APIs. The origins of these clauses are with iBooks and the Kindle app for iOS.
I wrote about it in a recent blog post:
Re: Apple rejecting applications which use Dropbox
#25I can not be the only one thinking there is an antitrust issue here? I would guess the book thing means Apple is under quite a bit of scrutiny. While I'm not involved in mobile, I've had similar experiences for over half a decade dealing with the banal, highly questionable, and non-uniformly enforced rules Google imposes on its own advertisers. Some of the stuff is bad enough it makes you think it would fall under RI…
1) Research antitrust. It doesn't mean what you think it means. 2) Apple has done nothing different than has been done before. It is an existing in app purchasing rule.
I thought Apple was all about giving consumers the best UX and that revenue would automatically follow... how does a move like this help UX?
How come Apple's reviewers are so freaking vigilant about in-app purchases while letting a fart app or a tethering app (or even, until one point, those uploading address books without any alert) slip through so often?
Re: Apple rejecting applications which use Dropbox
#26I can not be the only one thinking there is an antitrust issue here? I would guess the book thing means Apple is under quite a bit of scrutiny. While I'm not involved in mobile, I've had similar experiences for over half a decade dealing with the banal, highly questionable, and non-uniformly enforced rules Google imposes on its own advertisers. Some of the stuff is bad enough it makes you think it would fall under RI…
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Significant market share is enough for antitrust to be a concern. You don't need a monopoly, and indeed most companies engaging in anti-competitive behavior don't.
Re: Apple rejecting applications which use Dropbox
#27After reading through the thread it seems they are rejecting apps because a piece of the Dropbox SDK breaks the App Store guidelines. They are not simply rejecting Dropbox integrated apps.
It's well known that you cannot link the user to make a purchase outside of the iOS ecosystem. It was a huge issue with the eBook apps last years.
I'm not saying I agree with Apple's stance on that but they are not rejecting apps which use Dropbox because they don't like Dropbox. Dropbox is breaking the rules and as soon as they fix that (it seems they already have) there will be no more problems.
Re: Apple rejecting applications which use Dropbox
#28This has gone way too far. The other day I downloaded the Google Play Books app. I started it up, signed in.. and nothing. No prompt to go buy books online, no hint at what the app does... just a blank screen. It's completely scummy. You can buy Apple's iCloud storage upgrade from within the OS, and now you can't even LINK to a place where you could link to a place where if you click the right link you could buy Drop…
[I have a zillion snarky type replies that itch to be free, but we'll keep that monster in the box today.]
"Way to far" is an interesting characterization. Apple has rules about their playground, they like their rules, they make Apple very profitable.
So the question becomes can Google leverage this liability to increase the penetration or market share of Android tablets? Once these tactics hurt Apple in the market they will change. Until then, well its their town and you either have to play by their rules or not play at all.
Re: Apple rejecting applications which use Dropbox
#29I can not be the only one thinking there is an antitrust issue here? I would guess the book thing means Apple is under quite a bit of scrutiny. While I'm not involved in mobile, I've had similar experiences for over half a decade dealing with the banal, highly questionable, and non-uniformly enforced rules Google imposes on its own advertisers. Some of the stuff is bad enough it makes you think it would fall under RI…
1) Research antitrust. It doesn't mean what you think it means. 2) Apple has done nothing different than has been done before. It is an existing in app purchasing rule.
How many number of links is the limit? If the mobile site had a link to Google, and Google had an ad for Google Apps, because it's within the webview, does that still mean it's in app purchasing?
Re: Apple rejecting applications which use Dropbox
#30Since I see a lot of people using the term "antitrust" incorrectly in this article, here is a Wikipedia link on United States antitrust law.