Today’s June 30th. That’s an important day for app developers. It’s the day Apple expects app makers to comply with new guidelines saying you can no longer link directly to a way to buy in-app content out of app. Hulu Plus has already jumped through that hoop, but you know who hasn’t? Amazon with its Kindle app.
Although Apple has recently softened its revised in-app purchasing rules, allowing app makers to sell content without forcing them to offer that same content through iTunes’ at the same price (and giving Apple a 30% cut), Amazon has yet to comply with the revised rules that require them to remove their prominent “Kindle Store” link from within the app, which takes shoppers to Amazon’s website. Neither has Barnes & Noble or Borders.
This frankly isn’t a big surprise. Amazon and Barnes & Noble have hundreds of thousands of ebooks they’d need to make available in-app to comply with Apple’s new rules, regardless of whether they link their external, web-based stores.
This is bigger than just a link to an external app store. Apple’s new in-app purchase rules were specifically designed to kill Amazon’s Kindle platform under iOS, and to comply with Apple’s rules, Amazon must submit all of its ebook content to the App Store team. That’s a huge amount of work, and effectively puts control over the Kindle e-bookstore on the iOS platform directly into Apple’s hands.
What we’ve got here is a good old game of chicken. Amazon and Apple are both staring each other down and seeing who blinks first. Let’s hope it is Apple: otherwise, this could be the last day any of us can buy books through Amazon’s native Kindle app.
[via MacRumors]
John Brownlee is a writer for Fast Company, and a contributing writer here at CoM. He has also written for Wired, Playboy, Boing Boing, Popular Mechanics, VentureBeat, and Gizmodo. He lives in Boston with his wife and two parakeets. You can follow him here on Twitter.
26 responses to “Today Could Be The Last Day Amazon’s Kindle App Is Available Through The App Store”
Well… I have a Kindle.
It never hurts to download the app before it gets pulled “just in case”…
-Chris
http://friendsofmac.net
If you want free retail quality Kindle eBooks go to http://mobibookz.co.cc
It is THE best site for free Kindle eBooks on the web.
If you want free retail quality Kindle eBooks go to http://mobibookz.co.cc
It is THE best site for free Kindle eBooks on the web.
Do you go there for spam free comments too? Guess not…
When I can’t find a book in the iBook store, most often the Kindle app has it. I suppose I could still just order the book on my laptop — you know, the real computer.
“Apple’s new in-app purchase rules were specifically designed to kill Amazon’s Kindle platform under iOS”
What utter BS. There is a far more reasonable and logical explanation. The rules were put in place to stop the gaping loophole that would allow people to offer free apps and sell content through in-app purchases to avoid paying Apple its 30% cut.
If I knew then what I knew now … I’d own a cheap Kindle and a MBA instead of my iPad. I love my iPad, but would appreciate that gadget configuration better.
I own a cheap kindle and a MBA. Those two can´t get ant better :)
Free?
Has anyone at Apple ever explained how we are supposed to be able to browse Amazons entire Kindle inventory on our iDevice, if we can’t go to the Amazon Store?
yep. the argument is that if Apple brought the customer to the company then they deserve something for that. Same as a bookstore gets for selling a publisher’s books etc
It’s the day Apple expects app makers to comply with new guidelines
saying you can no longer link directly to a way to buy in-app content
out of app.
Free eBooks
Kindle app is still in the app store. Also, nook and kobo apps are in the app store too. Nook includes a link to the BN storefront in Safari, which is more prominent than the Kindle’s button. Kobo has a store-front built into its app to make direct “in-app” purchases without going through Apple. The kobo and nook apps are actually pretty nice. Kobo even sports direct facebook integration with some cute twists, such as posting about “meeting a character for the first time” which is embedded in the ebook. I’ve been a first gen Kindle user since the beginning, and haven’t seriously looked at the competition’s offerings before.