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Apple rejecting applications which use Dropbox

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Re: Apple rejecting applications which use Dropbox

#111

Post by stickfigure »

alexhaefner wrote: post #108
thought_alarm wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are rejecting apps that use the v1.0 or greater of the Dropbox SDK, or apps that use the Dropbox OAUTH API. Or, perhaps they're rejects apps that allow you to create a Dropbox account. That would cover all versions of the Dropbox SDK. The specific reasons they gave are: - "This app contains a link that takes the user to Dropbox via Safari". - "The concern with this app is that the user is taken to Dropbox's webs…

I agree with your assertions, and I'd like to bring a bit of rationale to this discussion rather than the "How can Apple be allowed to do this?" and other flamboyant language. This is on Dropbox to fix, not Apple. Imagine you provide a marketplace, and you curate that marketplace. And you say to customers who come to that marketplace "Don't worry, we're going to do everything we can to protect you from bad purchases"…

This is on us to fix - we, the consumers. The way to tell Apple that this behavior is unacceptable is to stop giving them money.

Re: Apple rejecting applications which use Dropbox

#112

Post by bilbo0s »

nkassis wrote: post #86
fufulabs wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But in this case, the town is not 90% of the geography. Last i heard Google's town is bigger and there is also RIM Town (mass exodus happening there), a new WP7 town (lots of airport signs) and a few others around.

I don't think you need a certain percentage of a market for this to start becoming a antitrust issue. And it could be argued that they have a strong monopoly on Tablets at this time. If this doesn't feel like anticompetitive behaviour, I don't know what does. They are using their rather large position in the smartphone/tablet market to enter another market (in this case storage) and snuff out the competition. And the…

Hmm...

Be careful what you wish for. If antitrust laws can be applied even when there is no monopoly, indeed, not even a majority market share, you are basically giving the government a green light to do a WHOLE lot of bad things.

Re: Apple rejecting applications which use Dropbox

#113

Post by pooriaazimi »

recoiledsnake wrote: post #89
taligent wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. They are blocking applications which allow you to make purchases without using Apples in app purchasing system. See the difference ?

The difference is that the title will go over 80 characters and won't make it to HN, this is not Reddit. I don't get the complaints about the HN title, it's reasonably accurate given the space limitations and the forum further clarifies things. Not everything can fit in the title. Also, I see a distinct lack of suggestions of a better title, just complaints that it's link bait.

A much more accurate title like

    Apple Rejects Some Apps Using (Old) Dropbox API
is only 47 characters.

Re: Apple rejecting applications which use Dropbox

#114

Post by mcantelon »

petercooper wrote: post #105

While here, let's remember who'll control the dev certificate validity for Gatekeeper on OS X 10.8. Will we end up with cases where people break arbitrary yet-to-be-defined terms and boom, their standalone app no longer works on a default OS X install?

Yeah, the Lion default, if I remember correctly, is signed apps only. Apple is really pushing to become an entity devs and publishers must pay tax to.

Re: Apple rejecting applications which use Dropbox

#115

Post by parlane »

cooldeal wrote: post #102
ChuckMcM wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately, Google is probably not capable of exploiting these mini-resentments and I don't think anybody else is either. I'd love to hear more about that. This is my reasoning on why I think there is an opportunity there: Lets say (patent issues not withstanding), you created an exact clone of the iPad and iOS and sold it at the same price but without the 30% 'apple tax' on purchases. It seems reasonable to assum…

>so it would get more apps, and the platform would outsell Apple's iPad with its constraints. Apple has that covered. You cannot make your services cheaper on other platforms. You have to charge atleast what you charge iOS users for the same service. This is to prevent the success of alternative app stores that will take only 20% or 5% cut. The new ecosystem won't take off because the existing developers cannot affor…

I think the comment was more about the developers making more money and selling at the same price.

Re: Apple rejecting applications which use Dropbox

#116

Post by Terretta »

rogerchucker wrote: post #88
ChuckMcM wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately, Google is probably not capable of exploiting these mini-resentments and I don't think anybody else is either. I'd love to hear more about that. This is my reasoning on why I think there is an opportunity there: Lets say (patent issues not withstanding), you created an exact clone of the iPad and iOS and sold it at the same price but without the 30% 'apple tax' on purchases. It seems reasonable to assum…

Are there a lot of examples, where an open and developer-friendly platform came from behind and usurped the incumbent that was also dominant in the market? I'm not sure the Mac-PC analogy flies here since Mac wasn't dominant - it was simply an incumbent. The only remotely-related example I can think of, given my limited knowledge and wisdom, is MySpace vs Facebook. But then again, I am not aware if MySpace was a wall…

People don't like to talk about this, but MySpace to Facebook was less about developer APIs and more about urbs to suburbs.

Re: Apple rejecting applications which use Dropbox

#117

Post by thought_alarm »

alexhaefner wrote: post #108
thought_alarm wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are rejecting apps that use the v1.0 or greater of the Dropbox SDK, or apps that use the Dropbox OAUTH API. Or, perhaps they're rejects apps that allow you to create a Dropbox account. That would cover all versions of the Dropbox SDK. The specific reasons they gave are: - "This app contains a link that takes the user to Dropbox via Safari". - "The concern with this app is that the user is taken to Dropbox's webs…

I agree with your assertions, and I'd like to bring a bit of rationale to this discussion rather than the "How can Apple be allowed to do this?" and other flamboyant language. This is on Dropbox to fix, not Apple. Imagine you provide a marketplace, and you curate that marketplace. And you say to customers who come to that marketplace "Don't worry, we're going to do everything we can to protect you from bad purchases"…

I fully appreciate and support Apple's efforts to protect the App Store from all potential abuses, but I'm not selling anything outside of the App Store, nor am I directing anyone to purchase something outside of the App Store.

Users who are directed to Dropbox via my app are not asked to purchase anything. They are not made aware that there is anything to purchase. They are only told that "Dropbox is a free service that lets you transfer files". They create an account and it just works, and they never have to think about Dropbox or their Dropbox account again.

Re: Apple rejecting applications which use Dropbox

#118

Post by saurik »

rogerchucker wrote: post #53
starnix17 wrote: post #42

I had a simliar rejection because of my app's Rdio integration. If the user had Rdio installed, my app would open the song in the Rdio native app. If the user didn't have the app installed, my app would open the song on the Rdio web site in MobileSafari. Apple didn't like this since you could purchase an Rdio subscription on that webpage bypassing the IAP and Apple's 30% cut.

I am waiting for that research paper titled "What came first for Apple - the money or the user experience?". I can imagine Apple's thinking here - if we can squeeze every 3rd party service to adopt our 30% cut, then (1) we'll add more to our bottomline and (2) people will have a better UX (or more precisely can go back to their old smoother and better UX). Question is - did I get the order right?

The 30% "apple tax" on their App Store is not a major way that Apple makes money (more on this in paragraph 2). This leads to the conclusion that Apple is not attempting to hobble stores that undercut them: they simply like using their control of the store ecosystem to maintain the quality, simplicity, and consistency of the experience that allows them to provide to their customers, with the nice side effect of giving them massive leverage over their largest competitors and power over many external markets. I'd thereby reverse the order you have.

Checking the numbers, the profit margin on an iPhone is a little over $170, while the profit margin on an app is However, for content resources, such as books or music, the story is much different: I know people who have purchased many thousands of dollars of music, movies, and television shows from iTunes over the years. This is enough that the iPod and AppleTV can be effectively subsidized by iTunes (something you don't see Apple doing with the iPhone: they make certain to get their profit on that at the point of sale, possibly plus a carrier subsidy).

This is why this issue starts coming to the forefront for services like Rdio and Kindle: those actually hit Apple where it hurts, so Apple would prefer to use their control to hobble their opponents. But, Apple doesn't really want 30% of the revenue from these sales... it would be much better for Apple if they just went away, and people used iTunes instead. (I make this clear, as that is why I then don't feel it accurate to use this as an argument for the 30% being a primary concern.)

Re: Apple rejecting applications which use Dropbox

#119

Post by beedogs »

taligent wrote: post #59
snarkinatree wrote: post #57

What's remarkable is that Apple is suppopsedly desintined to be the most profitable company in US history and they still feel the need to do this kind of thing. It says a lot about the character of the company. Pretty sad spectacle, no matter how much money they make.:wq

It also says a lot about you that you posted this whilst having a fundamental lack of knowledge about the situation. Did you even read what you linked to ?

u mad?

Re: Apple rejecting applications which use Dropbox

#120

Post by Dylan16807 »

ihodes wrote: post #2

Flagged for the linkbait title (which is in fact the title of the forum post), but I'd love it if the title we just edited to actually reflect what was going on. Edit: To answer some comments; it's misleading because Apple is rejecting some applications which use Dropbox. Or, rather, a single one that we know of. For a reason other than "Dropbox is used by the application", to boot. A better title would explain what…

Apple is never consistent about rejecting apps. The reason is what matters here, not the number rejected (as long as it wasn't a fluke, and since it was multiple devs I don't think it was).

They very much are being rejected for using dropbox. You can be more specific and say it's for letting the user log in to dropbox but that's it. Apple is blocking it because if you spend long enough wandering around the site from the login point you might find a place where you might be able to purchase something.

Logging in to dropbox is a core part of using dropbox and to suggest otherwise to call the title into question is very strange.

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